On Interaction of Image and Verbal Text in a Picture Book. A Multimodal and Systemic Functional Study

Abstract

There is a wide range of approaches to picture books among the existing studies on children’s literature (Schwarcz, 1982; Nikolajeva and Scott, 2001). These narratives have been analysed in connection with developmental psychology, in relation to their therapeutic effects on children (Spitz, 1999) and their thematic and stylistic diversity (Feaver, 1977). In most of these studies, the visual aspects have been considered as secondary, and their relationship to the verbal text has been practically ignored. In the past 25 years, however, a number of critics have analysed how these two forms of communication, the verbal and the visual, work together to create meaning in picture books (Moebius, 1986; Nodelman, 1988; Nikolajeva and Scott, 2000; Lewis, 2006 [2001]). They all seem to agree that the possible relationships between verbal and visual components range from those in which images simply illustrate or translate what is related in the words, to more complex and sophisticated forms of interaction. The more intricate interplay occurs when verbal and non-verbal elements are not mutually reproductive or when they tell different or contradicting stories. Thus, the understanding of meaning not only requires the analysis of language in text, but also the study of other semiotic resources, such as images, gestures or sounds.