The Uses of Irony and the Carnivalesque in Leigh Hobbs’ Picture Books
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2003vol13no2art1290Keywords:
Leigh Hobbs, grotesque, irony, picture books, carnivalesque, Old Tom, Horrible Harriet, social normsAbstract
Leigh Hobbs' popular Australian texts are reviewed to consider their carnivalesque and interrogative qualities. His series of 'Old Tom' books, and 'Horrible Harriet' deploy a number of features of carnivalesque textuality, notably the grotesque realism with which bodily functions are depicted, strategies of role-playing which disrupt social norms, and the interrogation of hierarchies and status.
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References
Bakhtin, Mikhail (1994) ‘Carnival ambivalence’, in Pam Morris (ed) The Bakhtin Reader: Selected Writings of Bakhtin, Medvedev, Volishinov, trans Helene Iswolsky, London, Arnold, pp.194-244.
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Hobbs, Leigh (1998) Old Tom’s Guide to Being Good, Camberwell, Vic, Puffin.
Hobbs, Leigh (2001) Horrible Harriet, Crows Nest, NSW, Allen and Unwin.
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Stephens, John (1992) ‘Ideology, carnival and interrogative texts’, in Language and Ideology in Children’s Fiction, London, Longman, pp.120-157.
