아동 그림책과 “우리”의 정치성의 문화적 재현

Children’s Picture Book and Cultural Representations of “We” Politics in We Are Water Protectors

The present study aims to examine the cultural implications of “we” politics in both textual and visual representations in the 2021 Caldecott Medal-winning book We Are Water Protectors. Specifically, it focuses on the Korean translation of the book and its reviews, which emphasize the abstract notion of “we” while downplaying the political significance of “I” emphasized in the original work. This essay suggests that the writer and the illustrator highlight the importance of individual agency in social solidarity and resistance whereas the Korean translation obscures this theme by focusing solely on “we” politics. Through a comparative analysis, this study aims to explore the different cultural ideologies at work in the two versions in terms of global citizenship education and multiculturalism so as to indicate the complex interplay between cultural representation, language, and ideology in children’s picture book.