I bevægelse

Abstract

On the Move. Picture Books and Picture Book Studies in Times of Change This article discusses three significant changes in picture books as a medium that have consequences for picture book studies: First the transformation of visual narratives from the codex format to digital platforms; second an increasing number of experiments with the analogue book as medium and material; and finally the publication of a number of books that blur the boundaries with regard to modes of expression such as the picture book, the graphic novel and comic. The discussion is based on an introduction to 30 years of Scandinavian research into picture books. Having discussed examples and consequences of these three main changes, the article suggests possible lines of future research: First, a focus on the picture book as a medium in dialogue with other media on the basis of impulses from media theory and intermediality studies, for instance using the work of Niels Brügger, Marie-Laure Ryan, Birgitte Stougaard Pedersen and Iben Have. Second, analyses of the characteristics of the analogue book as a medium that combines picture book studies and book history with particular focus on the material aspects and contexts of the picture book, inspired by Elina Druker, Katherine Hayles and others. And finally, an increasing interaction and cooperation between picture book and comic studies, aiming in particular at a more common vocabulary for the analysis of visual narratives. The article concludes that these approaches to the analysis of visual narratives may be fruitful not only for picture book studies, but also in relation to the analysis of contemporary fiction in general, since the use of new digital formats, increasing attention on the analogue book as an object, and the inclusion of visual modes of expression in verbal texts are not limited to picture books for children.

Keywords

• picture book
• medium
• genre
• intermediality
• comics
• book history