Martina Paatela-Nieminen
Stilling: Forsker
Uddannelse: Ph.D
Institution: Konstindustriella högskola
Adresse: Koivuniementie 4, 00930 Helsinki, Finland
Tlf: +35 893 231 831
Mobil: +35 840 512 26 50
Email: mpaatela@uiah.fi
Faglig præsentation
On the threshold of intercultural Alices
Intertextual research on the illustrations of the English Alice in Wonderland and the German Alice im Wunderland in intermedia research in the field of art education I have designed an intertextual method for use in art education research with which one can study texts in relation to other texts.
I take the term texts to mean both visual and verbal signs. The model has been taken from linguistics, in particular the ideas about intertextuality of Gérard Genette and Julia Kristeva. Some of their terms have been applied for my own purposes. The method is applied, in this thesis, to English and German children's literature.
First, based on Gérard Genette's paratexts, there is an analysis of the archetypes of my research: Lewis Carroll's and John Tenniel's Alice in Wonderland illustrations. I introduce source materials that explain the texts, starting from the illustrations (texts). Genette's theory of paratexts provides a means of studying history and culture in a way that brings historical facts in relation to a subjective and open-ended intertextual reading.
Second, I read the source materials, the English Alice in Wonderland and the German Alice im Wunderland illustrations from 1984-1997, palimpsestically, in accordance with Genette, as a visual continuum. The starting point is the newest illustration. Genette has developed a linguistic system which defines subtle differences and relations between texts. A hypertext is derived from a previous hypotext either through transformation or imitation. Genette also defines tones for the texts. The field of study is still connected to the context of children's literature.
Third, I study the cultural and poetic meaning of texts for the researcher-subject. Texts relate to other texts in the intertextual space in which they intersect. Texts have a variety of meanings in this textual space depending on what the subject wants to interpret in the signification process. Kristeva's terms chora, semiotic, symbolic and especially genotext and phenotext are used. Traces left behind in the writing may be discovered when texts are read palimpsestically. According to Kristeva, texts have an unconscious where these traces remain. The text's unconscious becomes visible when the cracks in the surface mobilise the meanings that are stored in the text's memory.
Fourth, I have produced a researcher's tool in the form of Intercultural Alices intermedia. It visualises the
intertextual method and presents the research material which may be studied intertextually. The intermedia is also closely linked to the written thesis.
The conclusion of the thesis is that intertextuality represents an open-ended and subjective pedagogical model for art education research. The cultural and intercultural relationships between texts can be investigated subjectively.
Formidling
Hunt, Peter (Ed.). (1995). Children's literature. The development of criticism. London and New York: Routledge.
Hunt, Peter (Ed.). (1996). International companion encyclopedia of children's literature. London and New York: Routledge.
Nikolajeva, Maria (1996). Children's literature comes of age. Toward a new aesthetic. New York and London: Garland.
Nikolajeva, Maria (1998). Barnbokens byggklossar. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Nodelman, Perry (1988). Words about pictures. The narrative art of children's picture books. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press.
Nodelman, Perry (1996). The pleasures of children's literature (2nd ed.). White Plains N.Y. Longman.
Nodelman, Perry (1996). Illustration in picture books. In Peter Hunt (Ed.), International companion encyclopedia of children's literature (pp. 113-124). London, USA, Canada: Routledge.
Nodelman, Perry (1999). Decoding the images. Illustration and picture books. In Peter Hunt (Ed.), Understanding children's literature (pp. 69-80). London, New York: Routledge.
Schwarcz, Joseph H. (1982). Ways of the illustrator. Visual communication in children's literature. Chicago: American Library Association.
Schwarcz, Joseph H. & Schwarcz, Chava (1991). The picture book comes of age: looking at childhood through the
art of illustration. Chicago, London: American Library Association.
Tidligere projekter
Intertextual reading is challenging because in the interpretative process one moves broadly in the text's culture and interculturally at all its different levels. One explores texts through a plurality of readings.
