Historical Evolution of the Illustrations of " Khālih Sūskih"

In their article ‘Historical Evolution of the Illustrations of “Khālih Sūskih” ’ Massih Zekavat and Zahra Nazemi contend that the notion of implied viewer is not neutral and that pictures in illustrated and picture books interpellate their reader/viewers through creating preordained subject positions for them. The illustrations of different adapted and recreated versions of Khālih Sūskih، a Persian folktale، are analyzed within the framework of implied viewer as proposed by Perry Nodelman by administering content analysis. Nodelman’s concept of implied viewer، founded on Wolfgang Iser’s notion of implied reader، posits that pictures imply specific social subjects and their response as viewers. Yet، a diachronical investigation of various illustrations of the folktale conveys that the relationship between the real and implied reader/viewer of these books is reciprocal and the child viewer cannot be considered merely as an agent who takes pleasure in consuming their pictures. To put it in other words، the child viewers are not pre-constructed stable subjects before their encounter with pictures، and illustrations contribute to children’s interpellation as social subjects and partly modify their subjectivity through their definition of subject positions and their ideological impositions.