The shadow line between reality and fantasy : the development of fantasy illustration in Australian children's literature

The purpose of this study is to show that accompanying a development of book production and printing techniques in Australia, there has been a development in fantasy illustration in Australian children's literature. This study has identified the period of Australian Children's Book Awards between 1945 - 1983 as its focus, because it encompassed the most prolific growth of fantasy-inspired, illustrated literature in Australia and ‚Äö world-wide. The work of each illustrator selected for study either in storybook or picture book, is examined in the light of theatrical and artistic codes, illustrative traditions such as illusion and decoration, in terms of the relationships between text and illustration and the view of childhood and child readership. This study. has also used overseas literature as \benchmarks\" for the criteria in examining these Australian works. This study shows that there has been a development in the way illustrators have dealt with the landscape flora and fauna people Aboriginal mythology and the evocation and portrayal of Secondary Worlds. After examination of the illustrators identified this study arrives at the tentative conclusion that Australian illustrators and writers have not created full-blown Secondary Worlds of the kind one typically associates with Tolkien or Le Guin but they have generally chosen to ride the boundaries between realism and fantasy. The aboriginal writer/illustrator may be excluded from this view because the non-aboriginal audience may perceive the Dreamtime as a Secondary World whereas for the author/illustrator the Dreamtime has reality."