Book covers and their illustrations can be regarded as a form of intersemiotic translation (Pereira 2008), producing multi-leveled interpretation of the text and establishing multi-leveled correspondence, either from the textual or from the cultural perspective (Jiang 2021). Indeed, an illustrator, like a translator, operates stylistic choices and gives an interpretation of the text through techniques and tools such as adaptation, expansion, reduction and so on. In fact, unlike interlingual translation which has established grammatical rules, intersemiotic translation relies heavily on their own subjective selection and interpretation or on the target reader and their social and cultural constraints. This is particularly important in picturebooks and illustrated books, in which two audiences must be considered: the children and the adults. Pictures are of the utmost importance, being the unique tools to provide the young readers, whose reading skills still might be uncertain, with setting and added meanings. This study focuses on the analysis of Italian covers of picturebooks and illustration books for children, where the LGBTQ+ topics are explicitly tackled. The main aim is to map how homosexuality, still a sensitive matter in the conservative Italian society, is graphically represented when addressed to children. More in detail, this study intends to show the way in which covers of picturebooks about queer identities and families use stereotyped visuals of femininity and masculinity to depict queer characters and stories to young audience. To reach this goal, a sample of Italian covers of picturebooks and illustration books targeted for children between 4 and 5 years old and published between 2007 and 2018 have been selected and analysed following the Visual Grammar framework provided by Kress and Van Leuween (2021) and thus observing the graphic perspective, the colours used and all the props and scenarios that highlight how LGBTQ+ topics are represented.
Book cover illustrations as intersemiotic translation of queer identities
Lucia La Causa
2024-01-01
Abstract
Book covers and their illustrations can be regarded as a form of intersemiotic translation (Pereira 2008), producing multi-leveled interpretation of the text and establishing multi-leveled correspondence, either from the textual or from the cultural perspective (Jiang 2021). Indeed, an illustrator, like a translator, operates stylistic choices and gives an interpretation of the text through techniques and tools such as adaptation, expansion, reduction and so on. In fact, unlike interlingual translation which has established grammatical rules, intersemiotic translation relies heavily on their own subjective selection and interpretation or on the target reader and their social and cultural constraints. This is particularly important in picturebooks and illustrated books, in which two audiences must be considered: the children and the adults. Pictures are of the utmost importance, being the unique tools to provide the young readers, whose reading skills still might be uncertain, with setting and added meanings. This study focuses on the analysis of Italian covers of picturebooks and illustration books for children, where the LGBTQ+ topics are explicitly tackled. The main aim is to map how homosexuality, still a sensitive matter in the conservative Italian society, is graphically represented when addressed to children. More in detail, this study intends to show the way in which covers of picturebooks about queer identities and families use stereotyped visuals of femininity and masculinity to depict queer characters and stories to young audience. To reach this goal, a sample of Italian covers of picturebooks and illustration books targeted for children between 4 and 5 years old and published between 2007 and 2018 have been selected and analysed following the Visual Grammar framework provided by Kress and Van Leuween (2021) and thus observing the graphic perspective, the colours used and all the props and scenarios that highlight how LGBTQ+ topics are represented.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
