Fill In the Blanks: White Space in Children's Picture Books on Grief and Loss

1 online resource (81 pages) : PDF

2020

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

White space in picture books about grief and loss is space that becomes participatory by asking the reader or listener to make sense of what they are seeing while simultaneously joining it with their own real life experiences. This thesis examines the functions of white space in three representative children’s picture books about grief and loss—Saying Goodbye to Grandma (Thomas); Ida, Always (Levis and Santoso); The Rabbit Listened (Doerrfeld)—in order to allow us to see white space represented as boundary space, as participatory space, and as safe space. Over the course of this thesis, I will examine the role of white space in order to demonstrate that it is not simply a space where illustration is lacking, but is a functional space filled with our own conceptions of boundaries, emotions, and experiences.

masters theses

English literature

M.A.

Children's Literature
Grief
Illustration
Picture Books
Trauma
White Space

English

Connolly, Paula

West, Mark
Socolovsky, Maya

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2020.

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