Shaun Tan

One of Shaun Tan’s main themes is of alienation such as in the form of someone having a new start in a new place or being in a new and unfamiliar situation. This is clearly seen in his wordless novel ‘The Arrival’ about an immigrant going to an alien country, where the viewer is also put into an unfamiliar place to better sympathise with the main character. The setting the character is in seems bizarre and Shaun Tan removes the comfort of a recognisable language, animals or buildings to emulate some of the uncomfortableness and confusion the character feels.

Double page from ‘The Arrival’(2006) Shaun Tan

The image is striking and the statue is iconic yet not recognisable as a common icon or figure to our minds. The forms of buildings roads and the cityscape are curved which seems unusual where most cities are angular. The typography visible is a pictographic script with similarities to Sanskrit or hieroglyphics which implies an air of mystery and ancient knowledge, making the place seem yet more exotic to the immigrant.

The novel is also silent with no speech, narration or readable text of any kind, in any human language. This is typical of Shaun Tan’s work as he relies heavily on image to communicate.  In an interview he describes this as ‘having a conversation with the viewer, leaving space for interpretation’¹. He does not use text as that would dictate a particular message instead he uses his imagery to suggest a story, a place, a feeling and lets the reader fill the gaps and so contribute to the story, as to a conversation.

‘The Rabbits’ (2000) Shaun Tan and John Marsden

This is seen in ‘ The Rabbits’ where Tan says he considered using the Union Flag as the Rabbit’s flag but thought that this would lead the viewer down a very specific path and be to easily readable as a metaphor for British colonialism.

Tan’s work can be described as ‘Crossover texts’ which is ‘an intertextual transgression between fictional worlds that seems to be included in a larger joint world’- Erwin Feyersinger.² The plot points and surroundings of Tan’s stories are understood in the context of the world’s he creates, even if parts of it are vastly different to what is normal in our world, we still understand the connotations and allow influences of history people and places we know to contribute to our understanding. Thus we understand his work intertextuality.

In this way his books have universality and not restricted to a genre or audience. His imagery is quite surreal and he doesn’t shy away from serious themes. Of his work Shaun Tan says that both adults and children ‘like to look at things from unusual angles, attempt to seek some child-like revelation in the ordinary, and bring our imagination to the task of questioning everyday experience’³ His surreal environments encourage imagination in his readers and entertain them with the fantastical.

            References

1.                  .   Shaun Tan (interview)

2.                        Christophe Dony

3.                  .      Shaun Tan

4.                     .    Shaun Tan

    Bibliography

Christophe Dony. (2012). Towards a vocabulary of displacement and utopian possibilities: Reading Shaun Tan’s The Arrival as a crossover text. Studies in Comics. 3 (1), 83-105.

  statelibraryvictoria. (2011). Shaun Tan: Do you encourage open interpretation of your work?. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cb37WdbBgk&feature=youtube_gdata_player. Last accessed 21st Oct 14.

Tan Shaun. (2002). PICTURE BOOKS: Who Are They For?. Available: http://www.shauntan.net/essay1.html. Last accessed 21st Oct 14.

Tan Shaun (2006). The Arrival. 2nd ed. London: Hodder Children's Books. 1-30.