Anthropomorphism in Indian Visual Narratives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1209.14Keywords:
visual narratives, anthropomorphism, graphic novels, illustrations, children’s literature, IndiaAbstract
The study of images begins to flourish because of the ubiquity of visual representations in communication. A visual medium communicates across ages and languages. Each artifact, like strokes, colours and gestures, has its specific meaning that highlights human behaviour. In stories, animals in human form delight and capture the audiences’ attention. The selection of animals and their projected ways reflects more than what is expressed directly in the text. As a result, anthropomorphism (nonhuman entities that talk and act like human) is widely used as a communicative tool to insist on sensitive themes. Simultaneously, there is a belief that anthropomorphism misattributed human-like abilities to nonhuman which can risk the people’s approach towards nonhuman. This paper identifies some of the degrees of anthropomorphism noted in Indian visual narratives from Malik’s Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir, Gupta and Rastogi’s Chhotu: A Tale of Partition and Love, Amar Chitra Katha’s Animal Tales from India, Samhita Arni’s Sita’s Ramayana, Amruta Patil’s Aranyaka: Book of the Forest and Samit Basu’s Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma: Panchatantra. The study researches the role and importance of anthropomorphism in visual narratives.
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