engleski

Visual representation of language – from foreignness to communication

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival (2006), a wordless graphic novel, or a wordless picturebook, is a piece about migration, about coming to a strange and remote culture and about finding a place there. This narrative presents the story of an immigrant’s experience and, at the same time, the essence of any migrant situation. The inability to communicate is closely connected with feelings of fear and loneliness. On the other hand, the book reflects the power of human understanding and friendliness. In the discourse of this narrative, language is given a special place. The paper analyses the way in which language is visually presented in The Arrival to reflect the main themes. It is shown that the author employs the narrative potential of intraiconic text and modifies this convention of the visual discourse in picturebooks to convey specific narrative meanings. These include the role of language in developing the emotion of belonging and self-confidence which, in turn, empowers people to help others reach the same feeling. For Tan, the notion of belonging is a basic existential issue, which is visually presented through the metaphor of language and by showing words and utterances in an original way, so that these meanings are easily understood.

Shaun Tan ; The Arrival ; intraiconic text ; visual discourse ; wordless picturebook

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