Retelling the Three Little Pigs: Collusion between Text and Image in Postmodern Variations

As one of the most famous folk tales, the story of the Three Little Pigs has been adapted many times but the recent postmodern variations are particularly interesting for the interaction between the textual and visual contents. The notions of perspective, narration and interpretation are central in all the three postmodern picture books selected for the following study. Told by the unreliable wolf, Jon Scieszka’s narrative (1989) is a story characterized by unstability - an aspect further orchestrated by Lane Smith’s multiple cropping and framing effects. As the wolf claims that he has been framed, the visual input relies on multiple perspectives challenging the construction of meaning. Eugene Trivizas’ version (1993), illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, has a subtle intermedial approach opposing a traditional narrative and visual style to a more modern subtext and unusual angles. David Wiesner’s book (2001) crosses not only the textual but also the iconic boundaries of the original tale: the story shifts from traditional storyboard frames to a metafictional world where the pigs become more realistically depicted and gain autonomy by escaping the linear plot. The three revisions of the pigs’ fable will be examined in the light of a new type of text/image interaction which I call “collusion” since it is based on a relationship where the visual and textual elements aim at creating an unstable environment by challenging both the original narrative and the readers. Collusion has to do with what is left unsaid, not directly showed, barely hinted at and constantly submitted to changes and modifications in order to cast reasonable doubt as regards the meaning of the new story.