18 – 20 September 2009
The second European Network of Picturebook Research Conference took place at University of Glasgow and was organised by Evelyn Arizpe, Maureen Farrell and Julie McAdam.
- The title of the conference was: Beyond Borders: Art, Narrative and Culture in Picturebooks
- The conference programme can be found here.
- The conference speakers and their papers can be found here.
The post-conference publication
Picturebooks: Beyond the Borders of Art, Narrative and Culture
Edited by Evelyn Arizpe, Maureen Farrell and Julie McAdam (Routledge, 2013)
The picturebook is now recognized as a sophisticated art form that has provided a space for some of the most exciting innovations in the field of children’s literature. This book brings together the work of expert scholars from the UK, the USA and Europe to present original theoretical perspectives and new research on picturebooks and their readers.
The authors draw on a variety of disciplines such as art and cultural history, semiotics, philosophy, cultural geography, visual literacy, education and literary theory in order to revisit the question of what a picturebook is, and how the best authors and illustrators meet and exceed artistic, narrative and cultural expectations. The book looks at the socio-historical conditions of different times and countries in which a range of picturebooks have been created, pointing out variations but also highlighting commonalities. It also discusses what the stretching of borders may mean for new generations of readers, and what contemporary children themselves have to say about picturebooks.
For more information on Picturebooks: Beyond the Borders of Art, Narrative and Culture, please visit the publisher’s website .
This book was originally published as a special issue of the New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship