Critical Content Analysis of Visual Images in Books for Young People: Reading Images

Description

Extending the discussion of critical content analysis to the visual realm of picturebooks and graphic novels, this book provides a clear research methodology for understanding and analyzing visual imagery. Offering strategies for "reading" illustrations in global and multicultural literature, chapter authors explore and bring together critical theory and social semiotics while demonstrating how visual analysis can be used to uncover and analyze power, ideologies, inequity, and resistance in picturebooks and graphic novels. This volume covers a diverse range of texts and types of books and offers tools and procedures for interpreting visual images to enhance the understandings of researchers, teachers, and students as they engage with the visual culture that fills our world. These methods are significant not only to becoming a critical reader of literature but to also becoming a critical reader of visual images in everyday life. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents PART I: Research Methodology and Analytical Tools 1. Critical Content Analysis of Visual Images Our Inquiry into Critical Content Analysis Connections between Content Analysis and Critical Content Analysis Analysis of Visual Images Critical Content Analysis of Visual Images as a Research Methodology Final Reflections Overview of the Book 2. Image Analysis Using Systemic-Functional Semiotics Key Principles of Systemic-Functional Semiotics (SFS) An Overview of Visual Meaning Systems Final Reflections PART II: Visual Images in Counter-Narratives 3. Drawing Humanity: How Picturebook Illustrations Counter Antiblackness Theoretical Frameworks Related Research Methodology Text Selection Positionality Data Analysis Coding Common Humanity—The Use of Social Distance, Proximity, Attitude, and Orientation Imagining the Unimaginable—The Use of Focalization, Pathos and Affect, and Ambience Implications Final Reflections 4. Examining the Visual in Latinx Immigrant Journey Picturebooks Sociohistorical and Cultural Aspects of Immigration Critical Race Theory and LatCrit as a Theoretical Framework and Tool of Analysis Literature Review Methodology Data Analysis Themes across the Immigrant Journey Books Discussion Final Reflections 5. A Visual Analysis through the Eyes of an Apache The Sociocultural Context of Oral Traditions Related Research Theoretical Frame of Decolonization Research Methodology Symbolism through Culture Cultural Visual Style Increases Understandings of the Characters Final Reflections 6. Developing Agency and Socialization through Interpretive Play Luche Libre Theoretical Frame Methodology Findings from Visual Analysis Final Reflections PART III: Visual Images and Positioning 7. The Power of a Gaze: Inviting Entrée into the World of a Picturebook while Positioning a Lived Reality Purpose of the Research Theoretical Frames Connecting to Relevant Literature Methodology Themes of the Gaze or Lack Thereof The Gaze Invites and Empowers Discussion of Power in a Character’s Gaze Final Reflections 8. De(MIST)ifying Depression: Dark Clouds and the Construction of Disability Theoretical Frame of Critical Disability Studies Related Research Methodology Text Selection Data Analysis Dark Clouds as Markers of Difference Dark Clouds as Signs of Inaccessibility Dark Clouds as Symbolic Journeys Final Reflections 9. Grandma and the Great Gourd: A Comparison of Images in an App and a Picturebook Theoretical Framework of Critical Multicultural Analysis Literature Review Text Selection Research Methodology Findings Discussion Final Reflections PART IV: Visual Images and Ideologies 10. Holy Molé! and the Reproduction of a Colonialist Perspective Socio-historical and Cultural Aspects of the Context Theoretical Framework Methodology Findings and Discussion Final Reflections 11. Postwar Images: Japanese Ideologies of National Identity in Picturebooks Japan’s Colonial History and Nationalism Theoretical Frameworks World War II in Children’s Books Postcolonial Studies on National Ideologies Methodology Japanese Nationalism as Victimhood Discussion and Implications Final Reflections 12. Immigrant Memoirs as Reflections of Time and Place: Middle Eastern Conflict in Graphic Novels Theoretical Frame Methodology Socio-Historical and Cultural Aspects of the Text Settings Portrayals of Lives in the Middle East Perceptions of Othering through Hybrid Identity Formation Discussion Final Reflections 13. The De-queering of Heather Has Two Mommies Sociohistorical Context of Heather Has Two Mommies Queer Theories Framework Methodology Findings Final Reflections 14. A Picturebook as a Cultural Artifact: The Influence of Embedded Ideologies Critical Discourse Analysis as a Theoretical Framework Critical Content Analysis as Methodology Social Context and Social Structure Social Discourses around the Conflicts in LA Ideological Complex Final Reflections PART V: Final Reflections 15. Extending a Critical Lens into Our Classrooms Critical Theory as a Frame for Our Teaching Sociohistorical and Cultural Explorations as Context Analytical Tools as Critical Reading Strategies Final Reflections Contributors Index