Week #6 Reading

1. Explain why Voices in The Park is an example of a postmodern picturebook.

Anthony Browne’s Voices in the Park is a wonderful example of a postmodern picturebook as described by Serafini in our class text.  This book demonstrates the effect of a story written from four different perspectives. Serafini refers to this characteristic as “polyphonic” narratives.  The first narrator is seems to be an affluent woman who takes her son to the park to walk their pedigree dog Victoria.  The second narrator is a jobless man who seems hopeless as he looks for a job in the newspaper.  The third narrator is the young boy of the affluent mother who longs for a friend and an outing to the park.  The fourth narrator Smudge is the daughter of the jobless man who wants to get her father out of his “funk” and take their dog to the park. Each of these narrators gives a different perspective of the time spent in the park and symbolizes how cultural and social influences have on one’s perspective of the adventure in the park.

This book also gives a feeling that there is a disruption of traditional time and space relationships in the narrative that is also a component of a postmodern picturebook.

2. Give examples of how at least three of the picturebook codes listed on pg 78 are used in Voices In The Park.

Codes of Perspective

This was evident in this picturebook by Anthony Browne in that each narrator was able to convey a personal perspective of the day in the park.  When the young boy Charles and girl Smudge were sitting on the park bench with the third narrative part, it was noticeable that the boy who longed for a friend while he sat watching the playful dogs was sitting with a darkness or gloomy aura around him.  On the other hand, Smudge was sitting on the same park bench with rays of sunshine surrounding her.  Each of these narrators had a different perspective of the situation and it was demonstrated in the point of view or setting to change how we interpret the scene.

Codes of Frame

The majority of images in the picturebook were framed images. However, it was noticeable that the borders in the narrations by the affluent mother and her young son Charles were crisp and clean borders and the images were captured in magnificent light and brightness of light.  In contrast the images surrounding the narrations of the jobless man were worn and encompassed dull and gloomy colored images representing the downtrodden demeanor and sense of hopelessness that the man felt.

Codes of Color

With each narrative the changes in image color speaks boldly to each narrator’s perspective.  The images surrounding the affluent woman and her young boy are bright and cheery with substantial variation of color used in each image. This relates to the social element where this woman is able to be home with her young son and enjoy a walk in the park because she has the resources to do so.   In contrast, the images surrounding the jobless man are dull and gloomy without the myriad of color to demonstrate the feeling of hopelessness the man feels.  Even his clothing is worn and dirty.  The young girl brings an element of color to the father with her cheery attitude and sense of hopefulness.  She is child-like despite her situation and finds hope in the world in which she lives.  She sees beauty and finds joy in the simplest of things (going down the slide, or being on the teeter totter).

3. Identify and explain the type of "interplay" between the written word and visual images on one of the pages in Voices In The Park.

This book shows interplay between the written word and visual images from narrator to narrator.  The font choices by author Anthony Browne show a distinction between each of the narrators.  A formal more sophisticated font was used for the affluent woman.  A bolder plain font was used for the jobless man.  The font used for the children were childlike and for the boy more sophisticated than the young girl.

4. Identify the art movement or technique that is being used in Voices In The Park.

The art movement used by Anthony Browne in Voices in the park was typical for this author’s work.  Anthony Browne has been known to use images and even characters that are uncommon and this is witnessed in the ape-faced images of the individual narrators in this picturebook.  Browne used this motif in his this and other works of his to demonstrate surrealism.  This concept shows images that are illogical, imaginative and out of the ordinary.  In this book he uses the ape faced character narrators to tell the story of a day in the park.

5. Conduct an Ideological Analysis and Structural Analysis of Voices In The Park. What is the message? Provide evidence from the images to support your opinion. Use the examples on pg 86, 87,89. I do not expect your analysis to be as in-depth but I would like for you to make two or three insightful observations about the perspectives and social context conveyed through the books words and images.

Ideological Analysis:

Voices in the Park demonstrates the lives of two people from different social classes.  The first narrator, a woman living a pristine life of affluence and rank in the society’s social structure has the means to be at home with her son and the family dog.  Her clothing and home surroundings as illustrated in the book show affluence and wealth. She and her young boy are dressed in better clothes and formal coats.  In contrast the man who is jobless and hopeless to find one is from a lower social class.  Whether he and his daughter live alone in an apartment or meager home environment, their clothing and surrounding give evidence to the hopelessness and lack of monetary wealth. These ideals represent differences in perspectives as well as social classes.  The jobless father and daughter interaction in this book introduces a unique situation where the father is home being urged to go to the park with his daughter and the family dog. The time period in which this book was written shows the distinction of the social class and interplay between the two families.

Structural Analysis:

When analyzing the metafunction of this picturebook the interpersonal component reveals the position of the characters to the reader.  In this book the adult narrators, both the affluent snobbish woman and the hopeless father without a job, are fairly close to the reader and also larger images.  In contrast the young narrators both Charles and Smudge are at midrange to the reader.  Their positions reveal their perspectives.  The children are further away from the reader than the adults and this reveals how many children are less focused than adults in many situations.  The children in the book look more at their surroundings with great expectation.  The reader is able to see a wider perspective when images of the children are shown.

Compositional metafunction is evaluating the frames around the characters in the image.  In this book, the characters are within the frame of the image, typically centered to the viewer.  There are a few images where you can see where the characters have been and where they are going.  The

Ideational metafunction represents the characters and their interaction with each other. In this book it is evident that the mother and father do not interact because of their difference in social class status.  The children on the other hand are not influenced by their extreme difference in social class.  They play and interact well despite their different upbringing.  This shows how young children do not recognize the social differences and look more at the person and not where they come from in society.

6. Embed a picture of the cover of Voices In The Park in your blog.

References

Serafini, F. (2014). Reading the visual: an introduction to teaching multimodal literacy. New York: Teachers Collage Press.

"Voices in the Park". (n.d.). . Retrieved June 24, 2014, from http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIEZY6lTmEwAxg77w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTB2YW1mMWVvBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDVjE2MQRncG9zAzU-?p=voices+in+the+park&vid=cec1d6583bdec8775283a8b0234f1421&l=5%3A49&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608037326292058305%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dohs-7ue_wdM&tit=Voices+in+the+Park+by+Anthony+Browne&c=4&sigr=11a9qkkc4&sigt=114304s3q&age=0&fr=mcafee&tt=b