Childhood and folklore in illustrated books: the collections “Cuentos de mi país” (1986-1993) and “Cuentamérica” (1997-2005)

Abstract

Historically, illustrations have played a fundamental role in children’s books and, in various ways, have influenced the way we read those texts. In the particular case of books that compile stories from oral tradition, illustrations have contributed to the visual transmission of archetypal characters and the spaces they inhabit. In Argentina, the compilation of these stories was marked from the early 20th century by the intention to recover a “national essence” in the face of the waves of European immigration during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that radically transformed its society. This article proposes a comparative analysis of the illustrated children’s book “Cuentos del zorro” (Tales of the Fox), written by Gustavo Roldán and illustrated, in the “Cuentos de mi país” (Tales of My Country) collection, by Myriam Holgado and, in a later version, in the “Cuentamérica” (Tales of America) collection, by Carlos Nine. The focus of the comparison will be the graphic representation of the spaces described or alluded to in the stories. The article considers that the formal aspects of the publications, and in particular the accompanying illustrations, modify the meanings of the written texts. In order to interpret these transformations, the analysis will focus on the various visual modalities of the images and the links they establish with verbal language of both of the stories and the paratextual elements of each collection.