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Panoptic Narrative Art In Picture Books
Let’s say there are 7 main categories of Narrative art. Narrative art is art which tells a story. Monoscenic — represents a single scene with no repetition of characters and only one action taking place Sequential — very much like a continuous narrative with one major difference. The artist makes use of frames. Each frame is a particular scene during a particular moment. Think comic…
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Dragons In Children’s Literature
Dragons have always evoked a mixture of fear and attraction. They’re everywhere in The Bestiaries. Folkloric dragons always talk. They are semi-human and have wily intelligence. Sometimes they’re regal, sometimes cowardly.
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Thelma And Louise Story Structure
Thelma and Louise is an iconic 1991 film, hailed at the time as feminist. I don’t fall into the camp who consider this a feminist film, but it is still one of my all time favourites. I know Thelma and Louise so well it makes an excellent case study in storytelling technique. While I was writing Thelma and Louise, it…
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Little Miss Sunshine Film Study
Little Miss Sunshine is a good example of a ‘comic journey’ story structure. For fans of another well-known drama set in Albuquerque, fans of Breaking Bad may be interested to know that both Bryan Cranston and Dean Norris have small roles in Little Miss Sunshine. There’s a ticking clock in this film because the pageant has a set date and…
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The Wizard of Oz Novel Study
The Wizard of Oz is in some ways the inverse of Winnie the Pooh. Whereas L. Frank Baum’s Oz series is so highly metaphorical every member of a thinking audience weaves their own symbolism into it, Milne’s Pooh series is so devoid of symbolism that it’s famous among specialists of children’s literature for precisely the fact that you can’t do…
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The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter Short Story Analysis
“The Bloody Chamber” is a feminist-leftie re-visioning of Bluebeard, written in the gothic tradition, set in a French castle with clear-cut goodies and baddies. The title story of The Bloody Chamber, first published in 1979, was directly inspired by Charles Perrault’s fairy tales of 1697: his “Barbebleue” (Bluebeard) shapes Angela Carter’s retelling, as she lingers voluptuously on its sexual inferences,…
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What can flight symbolise in literature?
Flight is amazingly common in children’s stories. Several other motifs should be considered symbolically similar: FLOATING AS FLIGHT SYMBOLISM Characters might hold onto helium balloons, levitate by magic or by supernatural means. A picture book example of floating can be seen in “Outside Over There” by Maurice Sendak, in which Ida floats backwards out the nursery window, then floats through…
