Appunti di Lingua inglese II

FRAMING

Framing is a powerful way to communicate something, a powerful visual element of setting. Here in the example from "The Wolves in the Walls" by Dave McKean, there is framing only on the left. Frames do provide a sort of action and tell the reader the order in which to read the story. The eyes are forced to go from left to right and from up to down. It is just like cartoons or comics. When it comes to the relationship with the reader, the technique of framing brings the reader more far away from the scene. The one on the right, a full page, is much more intimate because there are no frames. On the left, the setting is created through framing. There are four different frames, that distance the reader from the story. Frames normally create a sense of detachment between the picture and the reader, while the absence of frames invites the reader into the picture. The double spread shows the buildup shock, everything is sudden and intimate. The setting is telling the reader that it is a

scary story.

Minimal or reduced setting

This is a minimal or reduced setting, that began being popular after the Second World War, because at that time something that was called hyperrealism became in vogue and worked a lot with children. They are minimal in the type of information that is provided through the visual, and focus on the immediate surrounding of the child because those are the things that the child knows really well.

“The King and the Sea”: a one-page long story. There is a very sketched man that the reader knows is a king because he is wearing a crown on his head, and there is water that is believed to be the sea.

“The new Jumper” talks about an egg that feels like any other egg in form and shape. One day he decides that he is going to be different from anyone else by wearing a jumper. There is a sketch of an egg that is wearing something that resembles a jumper.

The setting is familiar and ordinary and reflects the child’s limited experience of the world.

The objects are isolated, with no background, with no other objects that suggest extra information. There is no historical or geographical information. The story is lifted from time and place. There are no boundaries of time and culture: everyone can understand the story without limitation. It never becomes old or outdated, and that is why they stay popular for decades without getting old.

The Flat Rabbit

There is a minimal kind of setting; it is a story that can take place anywhere anytime. This is a Scandinavian book, and it deals with a very hard topic, death, and the passing of someone. There are some themes that tend to be avoided in what is proposed to children, but death is a topic that can be proposed to children in a certain way.

It is a story that begins with a carefree dog that is walking down the street. Suddenly, he comes upon a rabbit flattened on the road. The dog wonders what to do and his friend, a rat, comes by.

The rabbit is dead, but the words "dead" or

“death” do not appear in the story. The child understands what is going on and lives the experience of death through the characters that want to make the situation better. It is a very introspective type of story, that tells how the reader we can deal with death.

Symmetrical and duplicative settings

For example, books that are set in the past, those books are Scandinavian and are written by the same author. They are historical picture books and indicate three types of generations in Sweden. “Ida Maria far Arfliden” is set in the 1890s, the second book “Tyrai 10:an Odengaton” is set in Stockholm in the 1910s while “Vi boode i Helenelund” is set in the 1930s.

The first book is set in the 1890s has a setting that is described in many details.

The books show pictures that show the work and leisure time of a woodcutter family. The interior scenes in which people are sleeping are seen. The child that is not aware of how Sweden was at that time will notice

that it is a house full of people sleeping (grandparents, parents, children): there are different families sharing the same house, so not a lot of space was available.

People used to also sleep in the living room: children did not have their own room, but people used to sleep in the same place where they also used to eat, live, cook and wash up. Children also had to share the same bed.

Everything is cluttered: there's a lot of furniture, but it is nothing expensive, it is a mediocre kind of setting (there are different types of chairs). It is a family that is not rich, but that was everyday life a century ago.

There are a lot of carpets, and that is probably because the floor was not even, or there were some holes, and because it is very cold, and the carpet keeps warmth. There is also a fireplace, probably where the family used to cook.

A historical book with a very detailed kind of setting, and these details are necessary to make children understand the story.

In the second book, the

Tend to make lists; they like them and they like reading them. It is redundant but in a positive and creative way. It is a poetic description that creates a special atmosphere in the book. It conveys the subjective experience of a child that must confront the big and frightening world just by listing the things that characterize it, also using incorrect English.

The picture also has a fun purpose: if you see things that are listed in the text, what are you going to do as a child? You are going to start looking for all those things that are described in the text. It is fun, but it is also educational (connection words-image).

Enhanced and extended setting

The setting creates a dark and scary mood. The child is no longer scared of the dark at the end of the book. It is an extended kind of setting because there are no frames, all the visual elements are in the page. The only things that the reader sees are what Laszlo points at with the use of his flashlight, with which he directs the light.

That is an example of an enhanced type of setting. Children love this book, also because it helps them with their fear. The fact that the dark is personified makes the children not afraid of it.

Complex setting

It is a visual setting in which textual elements become important and are embedded in the story. The setting is complex because there are a lot of textual details that are important to the story.

"Mickey" is a child that in the middle of the night is awakened and comes into another dimension. He dreams of a gigantic kitchen that is a city, and is supposed to represent Manhattan. There are many elements in the story that give the reader messages from the author that are embedded in the story. Maurice Sendak, the author of the book, was in love with Mickey Mouse and everything that had to do with him.

• Mickey Oven
• TAKAKAKE ("take a cake"), that was the name of a brand that was very famous in the XIX century.
• Sadie and Philip were his parents that die shortly

• th“June 10 1928”, that is, his birthdate.
• Birnkrant was a toy designer who was famous in that period and collected everything that was related to Mickey Mouse.
• Fandango, which was another shop that the author really loved, and that contained antique things. He was friends with the owner of the shop.
• Eugene was his husband (homosexual).

NARRATING WAR THROUGH PICTUREBOOKS

I am invading Ukraine because it has always been Russian - Putin

This is true. Ukraine is quite a recently independent country. Kyiv is historically considered the birthplace of the Russian empire and its population. Ukraine used to be a city-state until it was destroyed in the early XIV century by the Mongolian invasions, and then Ukraine was invaded by different countries.

Ukraine is in the middle of the line between Europe and European Russia. Even the name “Ukraine” means “border territory”.

that were not always granted and easy to have). Ukraine as an original territory was small, and only in the centuries that followed parts of different countries were given to Ukraine. The Russian tsars in 1654-1917 let territories be acquired by Ukraine (for example Lenin in 1922, with which Putin is not happy, and indeed has been saying that a lot of political figures over the centuries have made mistakes; or Stalin in 1939, as well in 1945). The First World War saw the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which was dismembered, and a lot of those territories were annexed to Ukraine. After WWII, it was all USSR, until 1991 when the USSR dismantled itself. There is the Baltic Republic. In 2014 there is the start of a clear conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and that's because the majority of Ukrainians wanted to become even more European by entering NATO, a