Professor at University of Castilla- La Mancha

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6591-6680

ABSTRACT

This presentation aims to identify the verbal and visual strategies utilized by authors and illustrators in a sample of picture books that challenge gender stereotypes and the concept of the traditional family. We also aim to establish whether visual metonymies contribute to the construction of gender roles in visual narratives intended for young children. The picture books are original stories which stand out for their literary quality and popularity among young children. The theoretical frameworks adopted for the multimodal analysis are Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday 2004), Visual Social Semiotics (Kress and van Leeeuwen 2006, Painter, Martin and Unsworth 2013, Moya-Guijarro 2014), and Cognitive Linguistics (Forceville 2009, Moya-Guijarro 2022).

After identifying the verbal and visual transitivity/transactional options that are actualised in the sample texts, we determine whether the semantic load that each mode contributes to the construction of gender is convergent or divergent. In addition, part/whole representations of characters are analysed in the contexts where they are produced. The findings show that the meaning load carried by embedded images (action plus reaction), together with verbal and mental processes of perception, provides essential cues for fostering progressive gender discourses. The analysis also demonstrates that visual metonymies are essentially used to highlight important aspects of the plot that challenge gender stereotypes and foster the acceptance of non-traditional families.

Key words: SFL; Social Semiotics, Metonymy, Representational Meaning, Picture books, Gender Stereotypes, Same-sex Parent Families

Main References

Elorza, Izaskun. 2022. Idealitional Construal of Male Challenging Gender Identities in Children’s Picture Books. En

Moya-Guijarro, A. Jesús and Eija Ventola, eds. 2022. Challenging gender stereotypes and the traditional family unit. Analysing children’s picture books multimodally. London: Routledge, 69-86.

Forceville, Charles. 2009. Metonymy in visual and audiovisual discourse. In Eija Ventola and A. Jesús. Moya-Guijarro (eds.), The world told and the world shown: multisemiotic issues, pp. 57-74. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Halliday, M.A.K. 2004. Introduction to Functional Grammar. 3^rd ed. London: Edward Arnold.

Kress, Gunther and Theo van Leeuwen. 2006. Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.

Moya-Guijarro, A. Jesús. 2014. A Multimodal Analysis of Picture Books for Children. A Systemic Functional Approach. London: Equinox.

Moya-Guijarro, A. Jesús and R. Martínez. 2022. Challenging Masculine Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Picture Books: A Social Semiotic and Multimodal Analysis. Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies 44.1: 164-185

Moya-Guijarro, A. Jesús and Eija Ventola, Eds. 2022. Challenging gender stereotypes and the traditional family unit. Analysing children’s picture books multimodally. London: Routledge.

Painter, Clare, Jim Martin & Len Unsworth. 2013. Reading Visual Narratives. Image

Analysis of Children’s Picture Books. Sheffield: Equinox.