BEYOND BOUNDARIES: THE WALL METAPHOR IN CONTEMPORARY PICTURE BOOKS AS A MULTIMODAL REPRESENTATION OF EMOTION, POWER, AND TRANSFORMATION

Ioanna Kaliakatsou

Abstract


This paper examines the wall metaphor as a multimodal meaning-making resource in contemporary picture books, drawing on cognitive linguistics, multimodal metaphor theory, picture book studies, and literacy theory. It explores how walls are constructed through the interaction of verbal, visual, and material modes to represent emotional experiences, social boundaries, and processes of transformation. Through the analysis of selected picture books, the paper argues that walls function not merely as symbols of separation but as complex metaphorical structures whose meanings shift across psychological, social, and ideological contexts. At the individual level, walls represent trauma, fear, and self-protection; at the social level, they reveal mechanisms of exclusion, oppression, and division; and at the transformative level, they become spaces of creativity, dialogue, and connection. The findings demonstrate how contemporary picture books reconfigure walls as dynamic symbolic spaces through which young readers engage with questions of identity, belonging, resilience, and social justice.

Keywords


picture books; multimodal metaphor; conceptual metaphor theory

Full Text:

PDF

References


Agee, J. (2018). The wall in the middle of the book. Dial Books. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Wall_in_the_Middle_of_the_Book.html?id=iLtFDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

Arizpe, E., Colomer, T., & Martínez-Roldán, C. (2014). Visual journeys through wordless narratives: An international inquiry with immigrant children. Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved from https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/visual-journeys-through-wordless-narratives-9781780937588/

Atwood, M. (1985). The handmaid's tale. McClelland & Stewart. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/4239936

Blake, M. (2008). Comfortably numb: The inside story of Pink Floyd. Da Capo Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Comfortably_Numb.html?id=jmJbSIn1LacC&redir_esc=y

Bradford, C. (2011). Reading children's literature: A critical introduction (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.

Caracciolo, M., & Kukkonen, K. (Eds.). (2014). With bodies: Narrative theory and embodied cognition. Ohio State University Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/With_Bodies.html?id=EY5gzgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230000612

Dendy, C. (2020). The wall and the wild. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Forceville, C. (1996). Pictorial metaphor in advertising. Routledge. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327868ms0901_1

Forceville, C. (2009). Non-verbal and multimodal metaphor in a cognitivist framework: Agendas for research. In C. Forceville & E. Urios-Aparisi (Eds.), Multimodal metaphor (pp. 19–42). Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197761.5.379

Forceville, C. (2017). Visual and Multimodal Metaphor in Advertising: Cultural Perspectives. Styles of Communication, 9(2), 26-41. Retrieved from http://stylesofcomm.fjsc.unibuc.ro/archives/vol-9-no-2

Frost, R. (1914). North of Boston. David Nutt. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/North_of_Boston.html?id=l76jzAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Goatly, A. (1997). The language of metaphors. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203210000

Goatly, A. (2007). Washing the brain: Metaphor and hidden ideology. John Benjamins. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Washing_the_Brain_Metaphor_and_Hidden_Id.html?id=uIV_yPV2acMC&redir_esc=y

Golden, C. (Ed.). (1992). The captive imagination: A casebook on "The Yellow Wallpaper". Feminist Press.

Howells, C. A. (Ed.). (2006). The Cambridge companion to Margaret Atwood. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521839661

Isol. (2018). Loose threads. Groundwood Books. Retrieved from https://www.abebooks.com/Loose-Threads-Isol-Enchanted-Lion-Books/32380082072/bd

Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Body_in_the_Mind.html?id=GweMAwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

Kafka, F. (1931). The great wall of China. In The great wall of China: Stories and other writings (W. & E. Muir, Trans.). Schocken Books. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Great_Wall_of_China.html?id=5v9bAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

Kachorsky, D., Moses, L., Serafini, F., & Hoelting, M. (2017). Meaning making with graphic novels: Exploring multimodal literacy practices. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.653

Kress, G. (1985). Linguistic processes in sociocultural practice. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=spEbAQAAIAAJ&lr=&num=20

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Metaphors_We_Live_By.html?id=r6nOYYtxzUoC&redir_esc=y

Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/More_than_Cool_Reason.html?id=AR_heEqnmXkC&redir_esc=y

Nikolajeva, M. (2010). Power, voice and subjectivity in literature for young readers. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203866924

Nikolajeva, M., & Scott, C. (2006). How picturebooks work. Routledge. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/How_Picturebooks_Work.html?id=EbCfCLUOZD0C&redir_esc=y

Nodelman, P. (2008). The hidden adult: Defining children's literature. Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/The_Hidden_Adult.html?id=wKosfJZhUwQC&redir_esc=y

Painter, C., Martin, J. R., & Unsworth, L. (2013). Reading visual narratives: Image analysis of children's picture books. Equinox. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259559030_Reading_Visual_Narratives_Image_Analysis_of_Children's_Picture_Books

Pink Floyd. (1979). The Wall [Album]. Harvest Records.

Purcell, J. M. (2018). Seeing the light: A cognitive approach to metaphor in picturebooks. Children's Literature in Education, 49(2), 150–165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9309-z

Redford, A. (2021). The boy who built a wall around himself. Graffeg.

Santat, D. (2017). After the fall: How Humpty Dumpty got back up again. Roaring Brook Press.

Semino, E. (2008). Metaphor in discourse. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Metaphor_in_Discourse.html?id=QT1uilVRDTYC&redir_esc=y

Sipe, L. R. (2011). The art of the picturebook. Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203843543-23/art-picturebook-lawrence-sipe

Sís, P. (2007). The wall: Growing up behind the Iron Curtain. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Sokel, W. H. (2002). The tragedy of modern man: The German Kafka. Wayne State University Press.

Stephens, J. (1992). Language and ideology in children's fiction. Longman. https://doi.org/10.2307/416784

van Dijk, T. A. (2008). Discourse and power. Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from https://books.google.ro/books/about/Discourse_and_Power.html?id=NhILAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

van Dijk, T. A. (Ed.). (2011). Discourse and ideology. In Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction (2nd ed., pp. 379–407). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446289068.n18

Winter, J. (2009). The secret school: The story of Malala. Beach Lane Books.

Wray, B. (2022). Maia and the very tall wall. Albert Whitman & Company. Retrieved from https://schifferbooks.com/products/maia-and-the-very-tall-wall?srsltid=AfmBOoqZh9Bqj56DFv2v1gGbyIIRALEDdTBWFkxrT3Ai8mzOgXypGOB_




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejls.v7i1.726

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2018-2026. European Journal of Literary Studies (ISSN 2601-971X / ISSN-L 2601-971X). All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.