From Visual Signs to a Grand Narrative: A Semiotic Synthesis of Children’s Post-Narratives of War

Abstract

This study synthesizes the findings of three preceding semiotic investigations of children's poster narratives depicting the Marawi Siege. It specifically examines the grand narrative emerging from the cumulative findings and identifies the semiotic principles that explain how children construct and communicate meaning through visual representations of armed conflict. Using a qualitative, interpretive, social-semiotic synthesis, the study treated the visual signs, thematic interconnections, and abducted meanings established in the preceding investigations as interconnected analytical layers. The synthesis reveals a grand narrative that moves from peace, disruption, destruction, and displacement toward sanctuary, resilience, cultural belonging, and hope for peace. The narrative demonstrates that children's representations of the siege extend beyond accounts of violence and victimization to include their reconstruction of meaning through faith, family, community, and cultural identity. The study further establishes an interconnected set of semiotic principles consisting of the Principle of Truth Sign, Color as a Semiotic Resource, the Meaning Potential of Children's Poster Narratives, and the Role of the Sociocultural in Reading Children's Poster Narratives. Together, these principles demonstrate that children's poster narratives function as experiential, visually constructed, and socioculturally situated forms of meaning-making. The study concludes that synthesizing visual signs, thematic relationships, and abducted meanings provides a higher-order understanding of children's experiences of armed conflict and highlights their capacity to communicate not only trauma and loss but also resilience, belonging, and aspirations for peace.