engleski

A semiotic model of the non-narrative picturebook

This paper aims to establish a semiotic model of the non-narrative picturebook in analogy to the previously established semiotic model of the narrative picturebook (Narančić Kovač 2018). A large number of nonfiction picturebooks are non-narrative picturebooks as well. They include different kinds of concept books, alphabet books, fact books, thematic picture dictionaries, picturebooks aimed at developing skills, craft books, puzzle books, wimmelbooks, maths picturebooks, etc. While the semiotic structure of narrative picturebooks and their narrative strategies have been widely discussed (e.g. Nodelman 1988, Sipe 1998, Nikolajeva and Scott 2001, Kümmerling-Meibauer 2014), non-narrative picturebooks have rarely been considered from a similar viewpoint. The semiotic model of narrative picturebooks, based on the classical theory of the narrative, reveals that two discourses convey the same story, in cooperation, and that picturebooks largely rely on the reader to recreate narrative meanings and reproduce the narrative as a whole. The present study analyses examples of thematic picture dictionaries and similar picturebooks and explores the word-image relationship and discourse-related strategies of conveying information by two separate discourse-related voices, as well as the role of the reader in the communication process established while reading non-narrative picturebooks. Specific features of narrative picturebook discourses present the background for an exploration of the features of non-narrative picturebooks. It is concluded that the semiotic structure of non-narrative picturebooks is analogous to that of narrative picturebooks, but that non-narrative picturebooks also differ from narrative picturebooks in their orientation towards factual content, which results in their goal to evoke reality, and to offer readers reliable information about the world they live in. The picturebook and the reader thus share the same world.

non-narrative picturebook ; semiotic model ; reader ; discourse ; reality

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