Visual Literature: Rhetorical Devices and Tropes

Abstract

Maria Skaf's article explores the phenomenon of children’s visual literature — works in which visual and textual elements are used as equal and interdependent elements of the narrative. Contemporary European and American children’s literature works by such authors as Peter Sis, Wolf Erlbruch, and Laurel Long are employed as examples of the creation of special visual tropes (metaphors, tautologies, metonymies, impersonations, and irony) that are created at the intersection of visual and verbal means of expression. Such rhetorical devices as anaphora, epiphora, and gradation and their visual expression are also analyzed in this article.    Keywords: visual literature, visual trope, picture book, Maria Nikolaeva, Peter Sis, Wolf Erlbruch, Anthony Brown, figures of speech