Word and Image in Children's Narrative Literature

This bachelor thesis focuses on the interaction between verbal and visual components in contemporary narrative literature for children. The aim is to explore the picturebook as a specific, complex medium (iconotext) in which illustration performs not merely a decorative function but acts as an autonomous meaning-making device. The theoretical part anchors the topic within the context of semiotics, defining concepts such as imagetext and supersign, and delineating the role of the implied viewer. The practical part applies multimodal analysis and the typology of text-image relationships by Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott to a selected corpus of Czech books awarded the Golden Ribbon (Zlatá stuha). The analysis demonstrates that the expanding relationship, where the image actively complements or modifies textual information, prevails in contemporary Czech production. The thesis also identifies specific narrative strategies, such as the use of focalization, atmosphere, metafictional elements, and book materiality, which require the active participation of the child reader in the construction of meaning.