Reading without Words: Exploring the Visual Narrative in Shaun Tan’s ‘The Arrival’

Elizabeth Ward
Trinity College Dublin
Department of History of Art and Architecture
2018
BA

Subject: Mixed Media
Country: Australia
Period: 21st Century

10,000 words

‘The Arrival’ (2006) is an internationally acclaimed wordless picturebook by Australian artist and writer Shaun Tan that deals with the topic of migration and the wider issue of belonging. Comprising solely of the visual, it tells the story of one man’s experience as he is forced to leave his home country and travel to a new, unknown environment. ‘The Arrival’ has been studied extensively in the fields of literature and sociology, but this dissertation approaches it as a form of visual art. It examines in detail the processes and techniques involved in the book’s creation, and analyses how Tan constructs his visual narrative. In particular, it explores the diverse methods of visual coding used to engage the view and progress the storyline. Tan’s many art historical sources and visual references incorporated in the work will be discussed.

Irish Georgian Society

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Reading without Words: Exploring the Visual Narrative in Shaun Tan’s ‘The Arrival’