Abstract
Kress and van Leeuwen showed that the visual could be considered as a semiotic mode, and developed a systemic-functional model of visual meaning. Drawing on Painter’s, Martin’s and Unsworth’s adaptation of their model to picture books, and on Panofsky’ approach to iconology, this paper contends that recycled images conceal different levels of meaning and function as palimpsests. The first part presents different approaches to visual meaning, and the shift in the function of the work of art, as pointed out by Benjamin. The following parts analyze the type of visual meaning developed by recycled images in two picture books written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean, and one by Shaun Tan. The article suggests that the processes identified by Panofsky in his analysis of meaning in works of art can be successfully associated to a systemic-functional model of visual meaning to reveal the function of recycled images in contemporary picture books.
Highlights
Picture books—whose unique nature rests on the relationship between text and image—provide many examples of the recycling of themes or motifs, through multiple versions of tales or myths, for instance
Collage, adopted by many artists—such as Dave McKean or Shaun Tan, whose images will be examined in this paper—has made it possible to recycle textual and pictorial elements from a previous work in a new image
Processes operating in the recycling of images, according to the type of meaning developed, to determine the function of recycled images in The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish and The Wolves in the Walls, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean and The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan
Summary
Picture books—whose unique nature rests on the relationship between text and image—provide many examples of the recycling of themes or motifs, through multiple versions of tales or myths, for instance. Linked to the notion of authenticity, the concept of the aura highlights the shift in the function of the work of art as multiplication enables everyone to get access to it This calls into question the function of the reproduced or recycled image in picture books. The first part examines the transformation of meaning operated by the reproduction and recycling of images, and it identifies the type of meaning involved, drawing on Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s systemic functional model of visual meaning This will lead to a re-interpretation of Benjamin’s concept of “aura” in that specific context. In order to account for the specific features of the visual mode, scholars have adapted and developed the concept of intertextuality into intericonicity (Arrivé; Beylot; Chéroux; Hariman and Lucaites; Latour) In her introduction to intericonic meaning, Mathilde Arrivé considers Erwin Panofsky’s approach to iconology as a potential basis for an intericonic interpretation (Arrivé). The transformation of a material involved in the concept of recycling is reminiscent of Gérard Genette’s notion of palimpsest, which he describes as “toutes les œuvres dérivées d’une œuvre antérieure, par transformation ou par imitation” (Genette)
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