Anna Karenina: Illustrative Character Interfaces

Abstract

This study analyzes and compares three illustrations of Anna Karenina, a character from Liev Tolstoy’s novel. They were published in media channels with diverse objectives and audiences. The first illustration is translated into an artistic and personal portrait of Anna K. by a Polish artist in a digital magazine. The second illustration in an American magazine, also accessible online, refers to a character’s speech in Tolstoy’s novel, illustrated with a traditional matryoshka doll. The third illustration is from a Japanese manga, translated and edited in Spain in a pocket book format. In the manga that bears her name, Anna Karenina’s illustration showcases the invariant traits of this comic book style but gives the signifier another connotation as a specific means of mass communication. Far beyond the verbal vs. non-verbal opposition, these interfaces articulate perceptions and points of view. The awareness of the dialogical relationship between the symbols and the reader highlights fundamental ideologies as pathways of interpretation, with emphasis on semiotic analysis.