Komagata’s “Paperscapes”: Theatricality and Materiality in Blue to Blue
Komagata’s “Paperscapes”: Theatricality and Materiality in Blue to Blue

Summary/Abstract: In picturebooks, the text, the image and the material book compete or cooperate with each other to convey and perform the narrative. The incorporation of material elements into the picturebook narrative at the same time extends reading beyond a purely cognitive activity: the reader enacts and interprets the narrative by interacting physically with the architectural space of the book. In Katsumi Komagata’s Blue to Blue, the paper steps forward to take up a significant narrative role rather than retreating as the decorative backdrop or mere material support for the visual and textual elements. Not only do the qualities of the paper like texture, transparency and luminosity evoke features of the landscapes and characters in the story, but the shapes of the paper and the die-cuts also create physical depth and form characters that spring into life at the turning, poking and caressing of the reader’s hands.

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