This article aims to explore how the use of visual metonymies in picture books contributes to children’s understanding of stories and, in turn, attracts their attention towards relevant aspects of the plot. The two picture books selected for analysis are Gorilla, by Browne and The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Potter, intended for children under 9 years of age.
A multimodal and cognitive perspective is adopted here to apply the non-verbal trope of visual metonymy to the two picture books that form the sample texts (Forceville, 2009, 2010; Forceville & Urios-Aparisi, 2009).
The results of the analysis show that visual metonymies are essentially used in children’s tales to create narrative tension in certain stages of the plot and, in turn, to establish a bond between the represented participants and the child-viewer.
2024. Multiliteracies and Picturebooks: A Gender-Based Critical and Aesthetic Engagement with Social Justice Through a Nonfictional Heroine. In Empowering Language Learners in a Changing World through Pedagogies of Multiliteracies, ► pp. 163 ff.
Birello, Marilisa & Joan-Tomàs Pujolà
2023. Visual metaphors and metonymies in pre-service teachers’ reflections: Beliefs and experiences in the learning and teaching of writing. Teaching and Teacher Education 122 ► pp. 103971 ff.
2019. Communicative functions of visual metonymies in picture books targeted at children in two different age groups. A multimodal analysis. <i>WORD</i> 65:4 ► pp. 193 ff.
Cárcamo Morales, Benjamín
2018. El análisis del discurso multimodal: una comparación de propuestas metodológicas. Forma y Función 31:2 ► pp. 145 ff.
Feng, William Dezheng
2017. Metonymy and visual representation: towards a social semiotic framework of visual metonymy. Visual Communication 16:4 ► pp. 441 ff.
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