Death Shall Have No Dominion: Representations of Grandfathers’ Death in Contemporary Picturebooks*

Konstantinos D. Malafantis

Faculty of Primary Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.

DOI: 10.4236/als.2013.14009                

Abstract

The topic of death usually advocates the resistance of language, therefore creators search for linguistic or visual codes suitable for expressing the unutterable loss of beloved people in contemporary picture or illustrated books for children. For that reason, the meaning of death is portrayed in picturebooks with an immediate and symbolic way in both text and picture. Adopting a visual and textual approach, we examine the ways in which authors and illustrators portray the relationship between grandparent and grandchildren in picturebooks. Many stories in children’s literature deal with the archetypal pattern of death and present it in a way which enables young readers to come to terms with it. In such stories, young protagonists, and thus young readers, are introduced into questions of ageing and decay, and inevitably of death, through an imaginative “travel” in time and space which is engendered by the grandparent’s enchanting storytelling. Death comes to be viewed as simply a stage toward reunion with eternal nature in the hereafter. The grandparent’s death is pictured as a “justifiable” event, integrated in the life cycle. Bereavement and grief seem to rely on the principal motifs of nature-as-space and nature-as-knowledge, which eventually manage to negate the dominion of death upon life.

Keywords

Grandfathers’ Death; Picturebooks; Children’s Literature

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Aristotle (1940). De Anima III, vii. 15. Athens: Papyros.
[2]	Ansello, E. F. (1977). Age and ageism in children’s first literature. Educational Gerontology, 2, 255-274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0360127770020305
[3]	Ariès, P. (1991). The hour of our death. The classic history of Western attitudes toward death over the last one thousand years. (Trans. H. Weaver). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Originally published as L’ homme devant la mort. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1977).
[4]	Bachelard, G. (1981). L’ eau et les rêves. Essai sur l’ imagination de la matière. Paris: Corti J. (Original work published 1942).
[5]	Beland, R. M., & Mills, T. L. (2001). Positive portrayal of grandparents in current children’s literature. Journal of Family Issues, 22, 639-651. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019251301022005006
[6]	Bettelheim, B. (1995). Η Bettelheim, B. (1995). Ηγοητεiα τwv πaρauυθιwv. Mιa ψUXavaλuτlKη πPOσεγγlση. (Trans. H. Asteriou). Athens: Glaros. (Originally published as The uses of enchantment. The meaning and importance of fairy tales. New York: Knopf, 1976).
[7]	Chukovsky, K. I. (1963). From two to five. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[8]	Cole, B. (1997). Drop dead. (Illustrations by the author). New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers.
[9]	Corr, C. A. (2003-2004). Bereavement, grief, and mourning in death- related literature for children. Omega, 48, 337-363.
[10]	Dellmann-Jenkins, M., & Yang, L. (1997). The portrayal of older people in award-winning literature for children. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 12, 96-100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02568549709594720
[11]	Dennis, M. R. (2012). Do grief self-help books convey contemporary perspectives on grieving? Death Studies, 36, 393-418. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2011.553326
[12]	Egoff, S. A. (1988). Worlds within. Children’s fantasy from the Middle Ages to today. Chicago and London: American Library Association.
[13]	Fragouli, F. (2000). Το μισo πιθaρι [The half jar]. (Illustrations by Evi Tsaknia). Athens: Ellinika Grammata.
[14]	Gilbert, C. N., & Ricketts, K. G. (2008). Children’s attitudes toward older adults and ageing: A synthesis of research. Educational Gerontology, 34, 570-586. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03601270801900420
[15]	Hardie, P. (2012). Rumour and renown. Representations of Fama in Western literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[16]	Hume, K. (1984). Fantasy and mimesis. Responses to reality in Western literature. London and New York: Methuen.
[17]	Janelli, L. M. (1988). Depictions of grandparents in children’s literature. Educational Gerontology, 14, 193-202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0380127880140303
[18]	Laube, S. (2000). Ο πaππoνζ πετaει. (Illustrations by Maria Blazejovsky. Trans. Chara Stroni). Athens: Castor. (Originally published as Grossvater hebt ab, Wien: Jungbrunnen-Verlag, 1998).
[19]	McElhoe, J. S. (1999). Images of grandparents in children’s literature. New Advocate, 12, 249-258.
[20]	McGeorge, C. (1998). Death and violence in some Victorian school reading books. Children’s Literature in Education, 29, 109-117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1022411126021
[21]	Meraklis, M. G. (1986). ΕλληVικη ΛaOΥραΦiα. Ηθη και Εθιμα (Greek folklore. Customs and traditions) (3rd ed.). Athens: Odysseus.
[22]	Mitchell, W. J. T. (1995). Picture theory. Essays on verbal and visual representation. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.
[23]	Nodelman, P. (1988). Words about pictures. The narrative art of children’s picture books. Athens & London: The University of Georgia Press.
[24]	Paterson, K. (1977). Bridge to Terabithia. (Illustrations by Donna Diamond). New York: HarperCollins.
[25]	Sciplino, C., Smith, P. K., Hurme, H., Rusek, M., & Backvik, P. (2010). Representations of grandparents in children’s books in Britain, Italy, Greece, Finland, and Poland. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 8, 298-316. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15350770.2010.498760
[26]	Scott, W. R. (1970). Social processes and social structures. An introduction to sociology. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
[27]	Shakespeare, W. (2005). A Midsummer’s Night Dream. In S. Wells, & G. Taylor (Eds.), The Oxford Shakespeare. The complete works (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1595).
[28]	Shakespeare, W. (2005). The Winter’s Tale. In S. Wells, & G. Taylor (Eds.), The Oxford Shakespeare. The complete works (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1609-1610).
[29]	Spitz, E. H. (1999). Inside picture books. New Haven: Yale University Press.
[30]	Swinfen, A. (1984). In defence of fantasy. A study of the genre in English and American literature since 1945. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
[31]	Warner, M. (2007). Fantastic metamorphoses, other worlds. Ways of telling the self (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
[32]	Weitzman, L. J., Eifler, D., Hokada, E., & Ross, C. (1972). Sex-role socialization in picture books for preschool children. American Journal of Sociology, 77, 1125-1150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/225261
[33]	Yolen, J. (1985). Review of The Language of the Night, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Book World.
[34]	Zipes, J. (2009). Why fantasy matters too much. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 43, 75-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jae.0.0039