engleski

Parental vs. Child Perspectives in Recent Picturebooks

One of the most significant aspects of a picturebook is that it has two discourses, the visual and the verbal, which, combined, convey a unique story. The thesis deals with narrative picturebooks created by established authors in recent decades. The analysis aims to identify and compare the perspectives of parents and children in selected picturebooks, as well as to establish how these two perspectives are used to convey a story in cooperation. In order to identify specific perspectives, this thesis draws on the theory of narratology, Genette’s categories of narrative perspectives and types of narrators, as well as theories of visual and verbal narration in picturebook discourses. The thesis adopts the theory of two picturebook narrators – the verbal and the visual – demonstrating how the narrator of each discourse chooses to present the story. The analysis shows that, in order to present a child’s or a parent’s perspective, authors of contemporary picturebooks combine different types of narrative perspectives and types of narrators in both discourses. The heterodiegetic narrator – whether visual or verbal – is often focalized through a specific character at some points in the narrative. In order to present a character’s state of mind, the authors are likely to use visual clues rather than verbally describe how that character feels. The topic of the relationship between parents and children is presented in each of the analysed picturebook: in some picturebooks, the focus is either on the child or the parent, while others establish a balance of both perspectives.

child ; narratology ; parent ; perspective ; picturebook

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