As this is quite a vast subject, I then chose to focus on children's books as I would then be able to not only explore the illustrative aspect but as type as image which is another interest of mine.
Children's Books
Although the origins of children's literature are difficult to trace, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have become known as the "Golden Age of Children's Literature" as this period included the publication of many books acknowledged today as classics.
Many of these classic "children's" tales were originally written for adults and were later adapted for the younger audience in which they are aimed at today.
In comparison to a book which is aimed at an adult target market, children's books tend to use very few words and more illustration based.
Children's books also need to entertain, engage and enthral a younger audience whilst also teaching educating naturally through the dialogue of the story.
DIFFERENT GENRES
Picture Books: Could include concept books that teach the alphabet or counting for example, pattern books and wordless books.
Traditional Literature: Could include folktales which convey the legends, customs, superstitions and beliefs of people in people in previous civilisations.
Myths: The main character in myths are usually gods, supernatural hero's and humans. As sacred stories, myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and closely linked to religion or spirituality. In society in which it is told, a myth is usually regarded as a true account of the remote past.
Fable: A fable is a succinct, fictional, story, in prose or verse that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphised and that leads to an interpretation of a moral lesson.
Legend: A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by the teller and listeners to take place within human history. Legend for it's active and passive participants includes no happenings that are outside the realm of "possibility", defined by a highly flexible set of parameters which may include miracles that are perceived as actually having happened.
Fairytale: A fairytale is a type of short story that typically features folkloric fantasy characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, mermaids or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness as in "fairytale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairytale romance".
Fiction: Fiction is a form of any work that deals, in part or in whole with information or events that are not real but rather imaginary and theoretical - that is invented by the author.
Fantasy: Fantasy has been distinguished from other forms of literature by it's style and its freedom of expression wherein an author has the ability to use any story telling element to strengthen the narrative whether it be dragons, magic and castles or the lack thereof.
Literary Realism: Literary realism was the trend, beginning with mid-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth and early twentieth century authors towards depictions of contemporary life and society as it was, or is.
Historical Fiction: Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. The setting is usually real ad drawn from history and often contains actual historical persons, but the main characters tend to be fictional.
Non-Fiction: Non-fiction is one of the two main divisions in writing, the other form being fiction. Non-fiction is a narrative, account or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are believed by the author to factual.
Biography: A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life, presenting a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life.
Autobiography: An Autobiography is a self written account of the life of a person.
Poetry and Verse: Poetry is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic
BOOK COVERS - ANALYSED?
INSIDE OF BOOKS
Alice in Wonderland designed by Daniel Giuditta
Henri Walk To Paris designed by Saul Bass
Virginia Wolf designed by Kyo Maclear and Isabelle Arsenault
Hippopposites designed by Janik Coat
The Cats of Copenhagen designed by James Joyce
FAMOUS CHILDREN'S STORIES
In order to appeal to children, authors often use use a gimmick either within the design of the book or within the story itself which make the experience more engaging.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Eric Carle's classic has achieved worldwide sales that would humble a U2 album, seling over 22 million copies.
However, before writing the book, Carle was an Graphic Designer who was experimenting with a hole punch in his efforts to find a different kind of children's book. He suggestd the story to his publisher in which a worm eating through the pages. I believe the success of the book is due to Carle's idea which makes the book more interactive and engaging
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
For her story, The Gruffalo, Donaldson explains the success of the book was due to the use of 'really good adjectives that sounded good in the flow of the rhyme'. Donaldson's use of repeated narrative and smart rhymes has little readers chanting the story.
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Suess
Similarly to The Gruffalo, Dr Suess' Green Eggs and Ham is a fine example of the adventures into the joy of language, in which Dr Suess is famous for, along with his nonsense poetry and chugging rhythms. The story also has a lesson within it, to persuade young children that they may actually like new food.
FAIRYTALES
A fairytales are a distinct genre within the larger category of folktale. The stories are usually intended for a target audience of children and involve fanciful creatures such as fairies, wizards and goblins or an extraordinary adventure which almost always lead to a happy ending.
Fairytales usually have a lesson to be learnt from the story and in modern society they are used to warn the children of the dangers around.
Fairytales have had a profound influence on pop culture with many films and television programmes taking inspiration from the stories. Films such as Red Riding Hood, Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman are a modernised take on the fairytales however none of these adaptions are for children, they are the same story but for adults.
A possible explanation for the popularity in adapting fairytales for an adult target is that they are filled with the kind of nostalgic appeal and familiarity to the adults who encountered them as kids.
Edward Gorey
Edward Gorey is an American writer and artist. He is best known for his illustrated books which feature his pen and ink drawing often depicting vaguely unsetting narrative scenes in Victorian and Edwardian settings.
Little Red Riding Hood
Jack and the Beanstalk
Rumpelstiltskin
Christian Jackson
Christian Jackson is a graphic designer best known for his hyper-minimalist takes on the beloved children's classics such as Alice in Wonderland and Little Red Riding Hood.
Tomas Nilsson
Tomas Nilsson is a swedish animator. His interpretation of the popular children's story Little Red Riding Hood in the form of a music video for Slagsmlsklubben was created as school project.
Alice In Wonderland Exhibition, Tate Liverpool
Last year I visited an exhibition at the Tate Liverpool, the exhibition was the first of it's kind to explore Lewis Carroll's famous children's story Alice in Wonderland and how it has influenced the visual arts, inspiring generations of artists.
As well as showing the inspiration these stories for artists through the decades, the exhibition also provides an insight into the creation of the novels.
Carroll's stories were soon adopted by other artists, each taking inspiration from the different themes in the book.
Surrealist artists from the 1930s onwards were drawn towards the fantastical world of wonderland where natural laws were suspended.
From the 1960s through to the 1970s Carroll's Alice tales also prompted conceptual artists to explore language and it's relationship to perception and the stories inspired further responses in pop and psychedelic art.
The exhibition showed works by artists such as Anna Gaskell, Annelies Strba and Torsten Lauschmann which explore ideas such as the journey from childhood to adulthood: language, meaning and nonsense; scale and perspective and perception and reality, all themes also explored by Carroll in the book.
