A multimodal translation of folktales: text, illustration and cultural countersigns in El Hematocrítico

Abstract

Folktale versions can be understood as successive translations of archetypes underlying them. In the case of El Hematocrítico’s stories, this translation happens in a double sense: that of the text and that of the illustration. In the dialogue of both aspects emerges the whole sense of the story. In this paper, we will analyze the connection between both of them in a narrative sense, but in the descriptive one as well. On the other side, these stories have been published between 2014 and 2020, which makes the dialog go from a timeless view of the world to another one clearly marked by a postdigital (or hiperdigital) culture. Besides of this, but connected with it, we find in theses stories some cultural countersigns devoted mostly to adults intermediating in children’s reading. They show collective worldview transformation after years of interaction between reading and mass media.