Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
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The tale of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) has found its way to a children's audience despite the tensions it elicits around the idea of childhood. After the novel "The Little White Bird" ...Show moreThe tale of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) has found its way to a children's audience despite the tensions it elicits around the idea of childhood. After the novel "The Little White Bird" (1902), where Peter appears for the first time, and its stage adaptation "Peter Pan" (1904), both explicitly intended for adults, Barrie arrived at his final version for children published in 1911, the novel "Peter and Wendy", through a tormented history of reworkings. My research aims at exploring the significance of Barrie’s constant reshaping of the Peter Pan materials in order to recast the story for a young audience. Moreover, I will investigate as to what extent the ambiguity and instability of the Peter Pan fictions have been tamed in its school and cinema adaptations. These adaptations have deployed strategies to counter Barrie’s rebellious attitude against the didacticism and pedagogic expectations which are conventionally associated with children’s literature. As will become clear in the following, Barrie challenged the traditional barriers between adults and children on many points. Nevertheless, Peter Pan has been singled out to become a cultural icon of children’s literature – hence, my central questions: How, exactly, did Peter Pan grow up into a children’s story? What conflicting discourses and ideologies concerning childhood may be seen to inform Barrie’s different versions of the Peter Pan story?Show less
This thesis focuses on the theme of growing up in the novels Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. By analyzing this theme and also by comparing the Walt Disney film adaptations to the...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the theme of growing up in the novels Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. By analyzing this theme and also by comparing the Walt Disney film adaptations to the novels, this thesis will argue that these children’s novels present the reader with contradictory points of view. The theme of growing up which is built into the novels provides the reader with different perspectives. These leave the reader with several questions and uncertainties, which is problematic because it does not fit well with the different functions of children’s literature. Although children’s literature is difficult to define, scholars suggest that it has an entertaining function with educational aspects, which children can use to develop themselves. In the case of Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this function is neglected in a way; although literature can be ambiguous and raise questions, Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland provide the reader with numerous questions and uncertainties regarding the struggle of growing up. That is why these novels can be considered “impossible” within the field of children’s literature.Show less
