Ivona Kotaršćak
Picturebooks and Narratology
Smiljana Narančić Kovač
Narratology
- concerned with the narrative picturebook
- explores how a narrative is structured
- foundations: formalist and structuralist
Starting points
- the term 'narratology' coined by Tzvetan Todorov in 1969
- the concept of narratives had been extensively discussed by classical narratologists such
as Genette, Chatman, and Barthes -> slightly different understandings of narrative
The semiotic model of narrative
- established by Seymour Chatman
- the what of narrative is called its 'story', and the way is called its 'discourse'
- Chatman adopted the model of the sign of Louis Hjelmslev -> signifier (form) and
signified (substance)
- four-part scheme of sign
- story: form of content (events and existents) and substance of content (specific entities)
- discourse: form of expression (structure of transmission) and substance of expression
(medium-dependent manifestation)
- model:
Breaking paths: picturebook research
- Barbara Bader emphasized the interdependence of pictures and words in picturebooks
- Kenneth Marantz distinguished picturebooks from illustrated books, defining them as
'visual-verbal entities'
- Margaret Meek urged the integration of literary criticism and the study of picturebook
narratives
- 1980s -> a shift in picturebook research toward recognizing the importance of
illustrations in conveying narrative
- 'picture narrative' -> narrative role of pictures
- Perry Nodelman delved into the codes and meanings communicated through
picturebook illustrations
- John Stephens combined narratology with linguistics to analyze the word-picture
relationship and its implications
- Maria Nikolajeva and Carol Scott -> picturebooks are a blend of visual and verbal
communication with semiotic significance
The semiotic model of the picturebook
- a unique narrative structure with two distinct voices in verbal and visual discourses
- clear separation between verbal and visual storytelling
- characters, settings, and events belong to the form of the story, while the narrator and
plot organization belong to the form of the discourse
- two narrators engage in a dynamic dialogue, offering different perspectives while
conveying the same story
- wordless picturebooks -> rely on visual discourse, and readers play an essential role by
adding their own 'voice' to the story
- the basic model:
Picturebook narrators
- Stephens and Nodelman -> words primarily serve the function of narration
- the 'duple' nature of picturebooks is widely accepted, with pictures often assigned the
role of narrating, but the presence of a separate narrator in pictures is not commonly
recognized
- Marantz and Marantz -> the concept of a 'visual narrator' distinct from the 'textual
narrator'
Narrative strategies
- pictures in picturebooks can tell stories like words do, using techniques like object
placement, repetition, and event sequencing
- everything in a picturebook, from where objects are placed to how events are shown,
contributes to the story's meaning
- pictures in picturebooks can be analyzed like words
- picturebook storytelling is a blend of words and pictures, and they can swap roles,
influencing each other
- the relationship between words and images in picturebooks is dynamic
Perspective
- research focusing on discourse-related narrative strategies and their combinations
- Genette's distinction among three types of focalization: zero, internal, and external
- the combination of Chatman's distinction of perceptual, conceptual, and interest points
of view with Genette's distinction of narrative voice and narrative perspective
- the narrator, as a theoretical construct -> an essential element in narrative discourse
- the polyphonic and dialogic nature of picturebooks
Narrative communication
- Chatman presents the process as a sequence -> Real author > [Implied author > Narrator
> Narratee > Implied reader] > Real reader
- two pairs: the real author and real reader, and the narrator and narratee
- the real author and real reader are considered external to the narrative, while the other
two pairs are within the narrative
- model:
Narrativity and storyworld
- transmedial narratology -> a field of interest in narratology that encompasses both
medium-free aspects of narratives and medium-specific features of various narrative
forms
- this approach adds a cultural dimension to the study of narratives
- concept of "storyworlds" -> comprising various elements, including existents (characters
and objects), the setting, physical laws, social rules and values, events within a time-span
frame, and mental events
- this concept allows for the migration of storyworlds from one medium to another
