Multileveled Engagement:A Cognitive Empirical Approach to Crossover Picturebooks

• 作者: Xiaofei Shi
• 来源期刊: 语言与符号学研究
• 学科: 文学
• 关键词: crossover picturebook cognitive literary studies empirical research
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（4）
• 页码范围: 25-45
• 页数: 21页
• 分类号: H31

摘要

Crossover picturebooks attract readers of different ages.The trend of refocusing on the body in children’s literature criticism,especially under the influence of literary cognitive studies as Maria Nikolajeva points out(2016),provides a context to reconfigure our understanding of crossover picturebooks.Informed by literary cognitive studies,particularly the theory of brain laterality,the project selects the picturebook that may have crossover potential to start with,then investigates the actual readers’engagement with the potentially crossover picturebook,and finally feeds the insights gleaned from the empirical study back into the understanding of the selected text,and possibly crossover picturebooks generally.The project aims to learn about the crossover picturebook through exploring how it impacts readers.It was a small-scale case study,conducted in the east of England,UK.Colin Thompson’s How to Live Forever was used with two adults and two children.Observation and interviewing were used to collect data.Text-related creative activities served to support or clarify the oral response.The project reveals:the multileveled nature of crossover picturebooks that many scholars emphasize may correspond to the multileveled engagement that texts can elicit from readers,which is partially the outcome of cognitive-affective skills and mechanisms engaged differently across children and adults.This study also shows the crossover potential particular to picturebooks:picturebooks may use the visual to flesh out the embodied experience,which can springboard further thinking about abstract,complicated notions.This mode of representation corresponds to the way the human mind works,thus engaging children and adults alike.