postmodernism
‘Everything Comes from Seeing Things’: Narrative and Illustrative Play in Black and White.
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Pantaleo, Sylvia J. “‘Everything Comes from Seeing Things’: Narrative and Illustrative Play in Black and White.” Children’s Literature in Education 38.1 (Mar. 2007): 45–58.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picturebook, visual storytelling, art, illustration, text/image relationship, color codes, Black and White, postmodernism, deconstruction
Annotation:
Pantaleo acknowledges Macaulay’s use of play as a means to interact with readers. The use of this motif is a catalyst in drawing out the readers interest and ability to reason with an otherwise challengingly deconstructed narrative. The importance of reading with literary and artistic codes in mind is a key element of this article. The article goes into depth exploring student reactions and their suggestions for reading. Illustrations are given equal attention to text in Pantaleo’s study of play in Black and White. From specific imagery to the use of color, illustrations are particularly import in this type of metafiction, as Pantaleo points out.
‘Wait a Second . . .’: Negotiating Complex Narratives in Black and White.
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
McClay, Jill Kedersha. “‘Wait a Second . . .’: Negotiating Complex Narratives in Black and White.” Children’s Literature in Education 31.2 (June 2000): 91–106.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picturebook, visual storytelling, art, illustration, text/image relationship, color codes, Black and White, postmodernism, deconstruction
Annotation:
Exploring the impact of postmodern fiction on children’s literature and in effect their realities, McClay reads Macaulay’s Black and White. The postmodern picture book is a special case that seeks to break the boundaries set up by traditional examples. Visual and textual information is particularly important in this genre of literature. The words and pictures are assigned explicitly and equally important value on the title page which asserts a warning. McClay points out that both the textual narrative and the stylization of the art within the text work within a constantly intermingling quadruple parallel. The effect of this diversified deconstruction of picture book norms is a variety of positive and negative readings based on space and narration. The value of the visuals in juxtaposition to the textual narrative is clearly pinpointed in this article.
Visual Images in Children’s Picture Books.
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Uncategorized | By Chris Vitale
Kiefer, Barbara Z. “Visual Images in Children’s Picture Books.” Shattering the Looking Glass: Challenge, Risk, and Controversy in Children’s Literature. Ed. Susan S. Lehr. Norwood: Christopher-Gordon, 2008. Print.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: picturebook, visual storytelling, comics, digitization, mass production, printing process, postmodernism, audience
Annotation:
Kiefer begins by working to define children’s picture books as more than a 20th century creation, but rather an integrated aesthetic experience consisting of concepts and images that has been around for much longer. Kiefer assigns art the ability of creating meaning. The gut of Kiefer’s article explores the form and formats of the picture book as it evolved from sequential illustrated picture books, comic strips, graphic novels, to nonsequential fiction and nonfiction in the picture book. All of these formats have widened the audience for the form of the picture book. Technological developments, such as woodblock versus moveable type, computers, laser scanners, and color separation are given their due credit for creating the possibilities of mass-produced picture books. Media developments like black-and-white to full color, computer generated to mixed media, have also had a profound effect on the picture book. Most compelling is Kiefer’s discussion of the effect new topics has had on the form. Kiefer discusses the emergence of dark comedy, complex emotional issues, and postmodern conceptualizations of the form. In this review of visual images in children’s literature, Kiefer does a thorough job of providing work that exemplifies the points she is making.
Read All Over
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Kaplan, Deborah. “Read All Over: Postmodern Resolution in Macaulay’s Black and White.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 28.1 (Spring 2003): 37–41.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picturebook, visual storytelling, art, illustration, text/image relationship, color codes, Black and White, postmodernism
Annotation:
Kaplan explores the narrative techniques found in David Macaulay’s award winning picture book Black and White. Kaplan points out that “Layout, text, narrative, and color are all used in non-conventional ways.” Breaking the codified nature of color codes in picture books, Kaplan points out that Macaulay is able to add complexity to his narrative. The text is also juxtaposed to other texts that do similar work such as Nothing but the Truth and A Pale View of Hills. The deconstructive nature of Black and White, as well as these other texts, allows an insertion of meaning into the narrative that challenges what reader’s have come to expect and understand from the experience of a picture book.
