Eloquent (?) Silence in Text and Image

The Unspoken and Gaps in Contemporary, Diversity-Friendly, Italian and English Picture Books

Abstract

The paper examines the representation of (gender-) diversity in two contemporary picture books, Piccolo Uovo and Julián is a Mermaid. In the scientific and medial exploration of both texts predominates a reception attitude that ignores the silence respectively the ‘empty spaces’ in the texts and pictures. This reduces the books’ reception to one certain interpretation and robs them of their immanent polyphony. Through a close reading of these texts and pictures it is shown and discussed how this potentially promotes (gender-) stereotyping and -discrimination, which contradicts the initial didactic aim to encourage diversity-consciousness and tolerance.