Illustration in Children’s Literature: An Intermedial Analysis

Abstract

  This article by Veronica Charskaya-Bojko and Mariia Ivankiva is focused on the subject of an illustration in children’s literature as an active media-marker. The main argument of the authors pertains to the idea that illustration is an integral part of the text and needs to be analyzed with special attention given to its functional modifications. Thus, the illustration could be viewed as an artistic part of the text, as well as representations of entertaining, didactic, and educational functions. Illustrations tend to break the bounds of pure commentary, as they are masterpieces in their own right; they may contain and express the complexity and multi-dimensional aspects of the stories. Hence, analyzing text and pictures in their unity leads to a better understanding of the author’s original intentions and his/her aesthetic and ethical values.   Keywords: children’s literature, text, illustration, media, multimedia, paratext