Exploring the ecosystem of meaning: representation of gesture and its contribution to the visual communication of attitude in South African picture books

As children age and learn to read words, so the pictures in storybooks decrease in frequency and readers rely less on their meaning. However, South African children are more likely to rely on pictures as a result of low verbal literacy levels, but how much meaning is construed by the pictures? In a multimodal investigation of local picture books, the authors used Painter et al.’s ( Reading Visual Narratives, 2013) visual analysis framework to code interpersonal meaning in the images of picture books produced for the Nal’ibali national reading initiative. During this research, the body language of the stories’ characters could not be coded using this framework. Gestures are important indicators of emotions and intentions (see Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance, Kendon, 2004), and the visual analysis framework proposed by Painter et al. (2013) should include resources to capture this interpersonal meaning conveyed to the young reader. In the picture books studied, gestures construe affect and intensify the feelings displayed on characters’ faces. This article gives evidence from the data where gestures intensify the affectual meaning in the image by various means. By also considering the surrounding characters and the logogenetic progression of meaning radiated across the pages of the story, the authors argue that meaning in images is multistranded and thus due attention should be given to the intramodal synergies that contribute to the emotions conveyed to the reader. A more fluid view of semiosis that incorporates pragmatic and cultural considerations must be adopted when investigating those gestures that are meaningful and those that are not. The gestures and vectors they create direct the readers’ gaze to the visually represented feelings of the character that drive the narrative. They also resonate with the meaning of these feelings so that young readers receive their maximal interpersonal impact.