This volume discusses the aesthetic and cognitive challenges of modern picturebooks from different countries, such as Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and USA. The overarching issue concerns the mutual relationship between representation and narration by means of the picturebooks' multimodal character. Moreover, this volume includes the main lines of debate and approaches to picturebooks by international leading researchers in the field. Topics covered are the impact of paratexts and interpictorial allusions, the relationship between artists' books, crossover picturebooks, and picturebooks for adults, the narrative defiance of wordless picturebooks, the representation of emotions in images and text, and the depiction of hybrid characters in picturebooks. The enlargement of the picturebook corpus beyond an Anglo-American picturebook canon opens up new horizons and highlights the diverging styles and genre shifts in modern picturebooks. This tendency also demonstrates the influence of specific authors and illustrators on the appreciation of the picturebook genre, as in the case of Astrid Lindgren's picturebooks and the picturebooks created by renowned illustrators, such as Anthony Browne, Wolf Erlbruch, Stian Hole, and Bruno Munari. This book will be the definite contribution to contemporary picturebook research for many years to come.

About the Author

Bettina Kummerling-Meibauer is Professor in the German Department at the University of Tubingen, Germany. She held the position of guest professor for children's literature at the University of Vaxjoe, Sweden, and the University of Vienna, Austria. She is editor of Emergent Literacy. Children's books from 0 to 3 (2011), and co-editor of New Directions in Picturebook Research (2010), and Beyond Pippi Longstocking. Intermedial and International Aspects of Astrid Lindgren's Works (2011).

Book Information
ISBN 9781138547476
Author Bettina Kummerling-Meibauer
Format Paperback
Page Count 260
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 480g