Abstract
In this article, Vanessa Joosen explores Anthony Browne’s construction of motherhood in four of his picture books that focus on family. She focuses on the use of narratological perspective, visual point of view, and intertextual references to explain how an ideology of motherhood is evoked. While Browne makes use of child narrators and focalizers whose view of their mothers is limited, some of his picture books contain illustrations that further explore the mother’s psyche and move beyond the child’s point of view. His construction of motherhood over the years follows rather than sets trends. Piggybook offers a rather simplistic role reversal in the heyday of second-wave feminism and My Mum conforms to postfeminist new momism. Zoo and The Shape Game are more artistically complex and open-ended in their possible interpretations of the mother’s psyche. In all four books, Browne’s mothers, especially in comparison to his fathers, are depicted with more responsibilities: the families rely on the mother’s presence and care for their coherence and emotional well-being. The mothers invariably bring a sense of civilization and sophistication to Browne’s fictional families.
Highlights
In this article, Vanessa Joosen explores Anthony Browne’s construction of motherhood in four of his picture books that focus on family
Stories are numerous in picture books by the celebrated British illustrator, Anthony Browne
While his father figures have received ample attention,1 less systematically discussed are the mothers in his works, even though they are significant for the plot of many of his books and just as diverse as his father figures
Summary
Browne’s ideological construction of motherhood gains particular relevance when it is connected with the use of the dual and double addressee in his works. The child’s perspective is always constructed by an adult writer and/or illustrator, as are the characters—including the mother—in a children’s story As it turns out, some young focalizing characters are more broad-minded and observant when describing their mothers than others: Piggybook and The Shape Game, which will be discussed below, will provide two examples. The book confirms the conclusion that feminist thinkers of the 1970s found in so-called marriage agreements, where was the physical and emotional work divided among male and female family members, and the satisfaction was experienced by both sexes Such ‘‘role reversals strengthened marriages and a father’s ties to kids’’ One can add to this interpretation that the mother is still isolated from the family at the end of the book—she is fixing the car by herself while they are doing the homework—which reinforces the idea that the two sexes operate in different spheres
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