A play of signifiers : absence and presence in the picturebooks of Shaun Tan

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is an exploratory study into the signification potential of contemporary,postmodern picturebooks, specifically focusing on the way in which a seemingly'simplistic' medium has the potential to initiate a vastly complex play of meanings.Picturebooks are traditionally considered to be a medium which implies a child reader,and conveys a simple linear narrative for educational and entertainment purposes.Traditional picturebooks thus assume a clear division between an author and reader,whereby the author is a 'knowing' adult, who conveys a moral or message to a passivechild reader. These assumptions are arguably unsettled by the appearance of postmodernpicturebooks, broadly defined as a medium which, while retaining the traditionalpicturebook format, opens itself up to multiple interpretations, instead of presenting thereader with an encoded message or 'meaning'. A number of postmodern picturebookauthors, such as Shaun Tan, intentionally subvert the traditional dynamic between theauthor and reader of picturebooks by creating complex texts which display a generalabsence of clear accessible 'meaning', thereby allowing the reader to actively participatein the meaning-making process. With aid of the theories of signification set out bypoststructuralist Jacques Derrida, this study aims to illustrate how a purposeful absenceof apparent 'meaning' in picturebooks has the potential to allow for unlimitedinterpretations of a single text, thus by extension widening the 'implied' audience of suchpicturebooks. The objective is to set postmodern picturebooks apart from other texts (inparticular more traditional picturebooks), and to provide a new outlook on the wayspicturebooks are created, and the way they are read.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University