Meaning without words: analyzing the picture book Bárbaro through a social semiotic perspective

• Autor(a) principal: Heberle, Viviane Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Constanty, Verônica Pereira Coitinho
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Letras (Santa Maria. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsm.br/letras/article/view/25325
• topic: Multimodality; Children’s literature; Visual narratives; Multimodalidade; Literatura infantil; Narrativas visuais

Investigating multimodal meaning-making resources in children’s literature may contribute to develop readers’ critical interpretative possibilities. In the present study, we provide an analysis of the award-winning Brazilian wordless picture book Bárbaro (MORICONI, 2013) under a social semiotic perspective. Initially, based on Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), we present the three metafunctions that are co-present in any text, specifically related to the Grammar of Visual Design (KRESS; van LEEUWEN, 2006) and to visual narratives (PAINTER; MARTIN; UNSWORTH, 2013). Subsequently, we analyze these metafunctions (representational, interactive and compositional meanings) in Bárbaro. Results suggest that the analysis undertaken allows for the description of detailed information about the unfolding narrative, the sequence of events, characters’ actions, attributes and emotions, as well as distribution of visual elements, among other features. We hope our study may contribute to the development of critical multimodal literacies.