A beautiful and devilish thing: children’s picture books and the 1914 Christmas Truce
Article
Article Title | A beautiful and devilish thing: children’s picture books and the 1914 Christmas Truce |
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ERA Journal ID | 9253 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Baguley, Margaret (Author) and Kerby, Martin (Author) |
Journal Title | Visual Communication |
Journal Citation | 21 (4), pp. 518-541 |
Number of Pages | 24 |
Year | 2022 |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1470-3572 |
1741-3214 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357220981698 |
Web Address (URL) | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1470357220981698 |
Abstract | For over half a century, the ‘imagining’ of the Great War in the United Kingdom has been framed by the existence of two Western Fronts, one literary and the other historical. The authors and illustrators of children’s picture books, whose work has traditionally reflected a society’s values and pre-occupations, have remained remarkably faithful to the literary construct of the war as a futile and meaningless conflict that destroyed a generation. This article will analyse four children’s picture books dealing with the Christmas Truce of 1914, which has become an historical touchstone for adherents of the literary imagining. Using methods grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), visual grammar, and art theory the authors explore how text and image combine to create moving and insightful morality tales that use the particularities of an historical event to communicate a vision of humanity rather than a work of historical scholarship. |
Keywords | artists, authors, children’s picture books, Great War, Christmas truce, First World War, illustrators, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), visual art, visual grammar, War Art, Western Front |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 360602. Fine arts |
430304. British history | |
430308. European history (excl. British, classical Greek and Roman) | |
Public Notes | File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author. |
Byline Affiliations | School of Education |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q627z/a-beautiful-and-devilish-thing-children-s-picture-books-and-the-1914-christmas-truce
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