Work

Beyond Semiotic Representation: A Study of Emotion in Ukrainian Children’s Paintings

Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: As part of the Ukrainian children support project, the platform Mom, I See War presents, on its official website and social media, more than 4,000 drawings by children from war‐affected areas (mainly Ukraine). Based on the artworks on this platform, this article delves deeper than mere symbolic interpretations and explores the various categories of emotional expression in these children’s drawings. Through a close reading of different elements (symbols, colours, structures) within the drawings, the study is carried out within the theoretical framework of emotion and political and cultural study. While each painting contains a complex combination of various personal emotions, the article makes a general outline of all the paintings as a whole and analyses the various possibilities of emotional expression among the group. In response to war conditions, four categories of emotional expression are presented: fear, pain, anger, and hope.
Author: Zihan Zhou
Language: English
Field: Psychology
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,132
OpenAlex ID: W4404334581
FWCI: 0.94
Cites: 19
Cited by: 2
Related to: 10