Text and image in the literary classic latin american literary books adapted and illustrated for children

The case of the Billiken collection

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the relationship between text and image in a specific textual typology: the classics of literature adapted and illustrated for children, published into the Billiken editorial collection since the 1930s and throughout the 20th century in Argentina. Based on the notion of adaptation (Hutcheon) and textual constellation (Gentzler), will be analyzed not so much the textual operations of paraphrase, synthesis or censorship of the original works, but rather the illustrations that accompany them, understood as iconic adaptations that create, together with the text, a complex semiotic system. The presence of images alters the order and rhythm of reading, favors subjective immersion in the story and sometimes makes it possible to read the text contrary to the pedagogical purposes for which it was adapted (Benjamin). The semiotic analysis of the images aims, on the one hand, to study the reception phenomena of the works and, on the other, to reflect on the social use of the literary canon. Finally, it is expected to reconstruct small fragments of a history of children's reading in Argentina.