Affective Spaces and Mindscapes

“Affective Spaces and Mindscapes” explores the emotional depth of Jeffers’ picturebooks through a deconstruction of The Heart and the Bottle and This Moose Belongs to Me. This chapter provides a contextual understanding of using picturebooks to navigate emotional landscapes, or indeed mindscapes, through a visual and textual deconstruction. The spaces, places, and non-places of Jeffers’ design each contribute to the complexity of the self, whilst often allowing the protagonist – and the implied reader – to “sit” in difficult emotions. While space and place are key components of understanding the setting of the text, both physically and cognitively; non-place is just as important, if not more so in this instance.