Variations of the Hero's Journey in Contemporary British, French and Australian Picture Books about the Great War: Reimagining the Horrors of the Past (1)

Synopsis

This book is grounded in the belief that every nation had its own ‘Great War’, and that children’s picture books are an important barometer of each country’s national approach.To explore the depiction of the Great War in modern Australian, British, and French children’s picture books, where this historical event is reimagined in different ways as a futile conflict, as a painful victory, and as part of one country’s founding mythology, this book uses the concept of the hero’s journey as an underlying framework. It claims that this monomythic pattern, as developed by Joseph Campbell and modified by Christopher Vogler, not only informs all picture books selected for this project but can also be used to highlight the extent to which modern children’s picture book authors and illustrators conform to their respective nation’s cultural memory.It further maintains that the specific historical context of the Great War in these children’s picture books can be used to identify a variant of the hero’s journey: the ‘ordinary soldier’s journey’. This analysis of children’s picture books about the Great War through the lens of Campbell’s hero’s journey will be of interest to both students and researchers in the fields of children’s literature, literary theory, history, cultural studies, and education.

Copyright:

2026

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

166 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781040426258

Related ISBNs:

9781003466758, 9781032720562, 9781040426234

Publisher:

Taylor & Francis

Date of Addition:

09/30/25

Copyrighted By:

Martin Kerby, Denise Burkhard, Alison Bedford, Marion Gymnich, and Margaret Baguley

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Children's Books, Teens, Literature and Fiction, Language Arts

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.