Imaginary Friends: Engaging the Unconscious Mind through Picture Books

“Imaginary Friends” investigates the potential of the ‘imaginary friend’ as a narrative device in picture book storytelling. By combining the research of Marjorie Taylor on ‘imaginary companions’ and Lois Rostow Kuznets on ‘toy animals’ in literature, I seek to give form to the concept of the imaginary friend, to then explore the phenomenon further by delving into the intellectual heritage of the imaginary and the unconscious mind. To explain how the imaginary friend works as a visual metaphor in illustrated narratives, I borrow principles of image-making and their effect on children, as discussed by Martin Salisbury, Morag Styles, and Molly Bang. Through examples by picture book makers Maurice Sendak, who uses the device in the form of the ‘wild thing’ in Where the Wild Things Are (1963), and Shaun Tan, in the form of the ’creature’ in Eric (2010), I illuminate the imaginary friend at work. Following a thread of scientific theory into artistic practice, while analyzing the benefits of imaginative play and fantasy in readers by Gianni Rodari and J.R.R. Tolkien, I find the value of the liminal nature of the imaginary friend in children’s literature. Ultimately, I argue for its function as a doorway for young readers to engage with the world of picture books in unique and insightful ways.