ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how visual metonymies contribute to the challenging of gender stereotypes in a sample of picture books, with research drawing on multimodal social semiotic and cognitive approaches. The discourse functions of metonymic representations are determined by analysing how their source domains are projected onto their targets in the contexts where they are construed. The results reveal that part-whole character representations are used in the picture books featuring boys and girls in order to align the viewer with the focalising characters’ perspective and to ascribe negative qualities or attitudes to characters who do not embrace diversity or promote equality.
