Painless Picture Books: A Comparative Analysis of Verbal and Visual Representations of Pain in Australian Picture Books

Abstract

Pain is an inevitable and complex lived experience with the potential to shape our individual identities and the quality of interactions with the world. As a primary form of children's literature, picture books offer children a space to explore the experience of pain to increase understanding of this multifaceted phenomenon. How, then, is pain currently depicted in commercial children's picture books in Australia, and how might those depictions speak to current pain scholarship? This research presents comparative textual analysis of five Australian picture books regarding the representation of pain, viewed through the lens of a biopsychosocial understanding of pain. The article introduces the research problem and background, outlines the method employed, presents aspects of our textual analysis followed by the study's key findings, then raises discussion points regarding the analyses within the context of picture book theory and pain theory. The article concludes that while children have access to literature promoting pain literacy, the representation of pain is limited due the perseverance of dichotomous views of pain and recovery, and the challenges associated with expressing this complex phenomenon in verbal and visual media.