“Born from the heart”: Social Uses of Pictorial and Multimodal Metaphors in Picture Books on Adoption”

Abstract

This paper explores the adoption narratives that run across a selection of children’s picture books and how they are built through the creative integration of linguistic and pictorial patterns, specifically as depicted in metaphors. The main aim is thus to uncover the way in which adoption is shaped and portrayed in these books, challenging constrictive and learnt discourses in society. The project draws on the four pictorial categories identified in Forceville (1996): contextual or MP1, hybrid or MP2, simile, and verbo-pictorial, as well as the concept of multimodal metaphor (Forceville and Urios-Aparisi, 2009) already suggested in the verbo-pictorial category. These narratives create an accessible space for children to delineate their understanding of families and construct their own identity.