Responding to Postmodern Picture Books

As the publication of picture books that contain meta-fictive or postmodern elements increases, research concerning how intermediate grade readers respond and construct meaning in transaction with these texts is important. This study explores readers' responses and discussions focusing on the picture book Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. Utilizing discussion transcripts and response journal entries, this article focuses on how readers deal with the non-linear aspects of the picture book, the interplay between written text and illustrations, and how these readers construct symbolic connections to their own world and experiences. Trying to understand how readers respond to the texts they read, in particular children's literature, has an extensive history in literacy education and research (Marshall, 2000). For several decades, reading researchers and literary theorists have used readers' written and oral responses to literature as a window into the reading process, the construction of meaning in transaction with texts, and the socio-cultural factors affecting interpretation and understanding (Beach, 1993; Tompkins, 1980). Because the processes of reading and comprehension are not directly accessible, researchers have relied on the oral, written and artistic responses to texts that are generated during and after the reading experience to understand how readers respond to, and comprehend, texts. Within the umbrella label of "reader response" there are numerous differences and nuances that become apparent when one reviews the literature on the subject. As a reaction to the New Criticism's focus on the text and the intentional disregard for the author and the reader, reader response theories and research focus on the role of the reader and the social context of the reading event in constructing meaning in transaction with a piece of literature (McKormick, 1994). Research on reader response has focused on variations among readers (Bleich, 1978; Holland, 1975), variations across time (Applebee, 1978; Galda, 1982) , variations across texts (Squire, 1964), and variations across reading contexts (Hickman, 1981; Kiefer, 1983). Each of these studies has 48 Reading Research and Instruction, Spring 2005, 44 (3) investigated both commonalities and idiosyncrasies in regards to the types of responses generated by readers. McKormick (1994) suggests that readers' responses fall on a continuum between autonomous, where readers construct meaning for themselves, and socially determined, where the socio-cultural and historical influences on the reader play a significant role in the meanings generated. Two of the primary methodologies used to generate and analyze readers' responses to literature and other texts are: a) verbal protocol analysis (Affierbach & Johnston, 1984; Ericsson, 1988; Pressley & Afflerbach, 2000), sometimes referred to as think alouds, and b) analysis of transcripts constructed from literature study group discussions (Dias, 1992; Eeds & Wells, 1989). These research approaches have been used to understand the ways readers generate, share and negotiate meaning in transaction with literature. There are inherent challenges with any mode of representing readers' understandings or responses to a text, because the reading process and construction of meanings are essentially invisible processes (Smagorinsky, 2001). Because of the inherent challenges accessing readers' thinking processes and the complexities of the reading process, most research on readers' responses to literature has focused on oral, written, artistic, and dramatic modalities as a window into readers' responses and thinking. Children's Literature in the Elementary Reading Curriculum Selecting children's literature to read to children and include in a literature-based reading framework is not a disinterested process, nor can it be accomplished by direct referral to universally objective criteria. Teachers select what they will read aloud to children based on their constructions of childhood and the versions of reality they want to present to their students (Nodelman & Reimer, 2003). Commercial reading programs also use selections of authentic children's literature in their anthologies as part of the instructional scope and sequence of skills and strategies to be taught (Shannon & Goodman, 1994). However, the inclusion of literature in the reading curriculum does not signify the theoretical perspectives nor the instructional approaches used in conjunction with children's literature (Serafini, 2003). As the resources used in reading instructional frameworks shift to include authentic children's literature, a parallel shift in theoretical understandings, from reliance on the text as container of meaning to a view of the reader as active participant in the construction of meaning, is necessary. As classroom teachers receive more and more pressure to "sanitize" the reading curriculum, the texts they choose to read and include in their reading instructional approaches tend to be linear, modernist examples of literature, that contains little overt controversial material (Taxel, 1999). Because of this trend, Voices in the park, Voices in the Classroom: Readers Responding to Postnodern Picture Books 49 educators should be concerned about the reduction of reading materials used for independent reading and reading instruction to examples of linear, modernist texts. This limiting of reading materials and instructional approaches does a disservice to the young readers being taught in today's elementary classrooms, and in effect, limits the meanings they are able to construct and negotiate with other readers and the comprehension strategies and processes they draw upon to make sense of what they are reading (Hammerberg, 2004). Postmodern Influences on Children's Picture Books Children's literature has undergone tremendous changes since the early part of the twentieth century. Evolving from texts that were designed to impart morals and traditional values to multicultural literature intended to expose readers to the variety of cultures and ideas throughout the world, the inclusion of children's literature in the elementary classroom has expanded exponentially (Harris, 1992). One documented trend in children's literature, in particular children's picture books, has been a shift from linear, modernist texts to non-linear, meta-fictive, postmodern texts (Goldstone, 1999; Paley, 1992; Seelinger Trites, 1994). Postmodern picture books contain various meta-fictive elements, including non-linear plots, self-referential writing and illustrations, narrators that directly address the reader, polyphonic narrators, numerous inter-textual references, blending of genres, and indeterminate plot, characters and settings (McCallum, 1996). Although Lewis (2001) makes a distinction between metafictive devices as an "a-historical notion" and postmodernism as an "historical phenomenon," for the purpose of this article I consider picture books that employ meta-fictive devices as being postmodern picture books. While content analysis of children's picture books with postmodem influences has been ongoing, research on readers' responses to these types of picture books has not been as readily available. Pantaleo (2004) suggests that the dearth in research focusing on readers' responses to postmodem literature, in particular postmodern picture books, is problematic due to the expanding amount of these books being published and included in elementary classrooms. Pantaleo (2004) writes, "although researchers and theorists have written about meta-fiction [postmodern texts], there is a lack of research that has actually explored students' literary understandings of and responses to books with metafictive characteristics" (p.2). There has been a call for understanding how readers make meaning while reading and the responses they construct in transaction with children's literature for many years (Meek, 1988). Rosenblatt (1978) suggests, "a better understanding of how children 'learn to mean' in specific contexts should yield signals for those involved in all aspects of reading, especially research on 50 Reading Research and Instruction, Spring 2005, 44 (3) response to literature and the teaching of literature" (p. 41). Some researchers and theorists (Beach, 1993; Lewis, 2000) would extend this concern to include the limited perspective of reader response theories that focus primarily on the reader as an autonomous constructor of meaning and minimizes the importance of the socio-cultural and historical aspects of the construction of meanings in response to literature.