Abstract
A picturebook is an artistic communication platform that provides children with an aesthetical reading experience (Kiefer, 1995). It involves a combination of both visual and textual signs and provides a satisfying aesthetical experience when all book components are carefully designed in sequence (Sipe and McGuire, 2006). Scholars (e.g., Beckett, 2012; Serafini, 2015; Hoster Cabo, Lobato Suero, and Ruiz Campos, 2018) have observed that picturebook illustrators often quote or re-create the fine arts in their works to enrich the aesthetics of the illustrations and attach multi-level meanings to the visual contexts. They believe that reading illustrations with interpictoriality helps children develop visual literacy and invites them to explore epistemic and aesthetical communities, such as the artworld and culture (Beckett, 2010; Serafini, 2015). Although the aforementioned scholars have focused on the same subject, their interpretations of how picturebooks reference artwork and the features and the aesthetical meanings of this practice are not unified. Additionally, most of their studies focus on picturebooks and their associations with young readers. As a counterpoint, this research also involves, as participants in the study, picturebook illustrators who create and design the books. This research strategy is aimed at providing insights into interpictoriality in picturebooks and children’s aesthetical development of visual understanding from the creator’s perspective. Underpinned by the interpretivist paradigm, this research explores the relationship between children’s picturebooks, the original works of art that the books incorporate, and the meanings interpictorial images could have for children at different levels of aesthetic and literacy development.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
INTERPICTORIALITY, CHILDREN'S PICTUREBOOK, ART AND ARTWORK, AESTHETICAL DEVELOPMENT
