Où est maman ? Paysages de l’absence dans deux albums jeunesse illustrés

Abstract

Mothers are recurring characters in literature, and even more so in children’s literature. From an anthropological, psychoanalytical, and literary perspective, we approach two picture books—Piggybook (Browne, 1986) and Where’s Our Mama? (Goode, 1991)—which bear great resemblance yet are simultaneously quite different, both structured around a plot of temporary and unexpected absence of the mother and thus the role it plays in developing experience. By analyzing several devices within these texts for children, we explore the way in which children’s literature seems to have shifted from the character-effect of persuasion to the effects of pretext, seduction, and temptation.