Question:
Explore Peter Hollindale’s claim that Peter Pan ‘retains its magical elasticity and its ongoing modernity’ (Reader 2, p.159), with reference to different versions since its original production.
Peter Pan – whether as a stage play, a book, a stage musical, a live-action film or a pantomime – has endured for more than a century as arguably the most famous, and certainly most influential, stories for children. First performed in 1904, the fairytale drama has been addressing the ever-changing boundaries between childhood and adulthood ever since. Educationalist and literary critic Peter Hollindale – in A Hundred Years of Peter Pan (Reader 2, p. 159) – asserts that “the play retains its magical elasticity and its ongoing modernity”, or rather that Peter Pan is fantastical and adaptable, and still full of lasting appeal for audiences. In exploring Hollindale’s claim, this essay will consider the original production in December 1904, the 1928 play text, Disney’s 1953 production, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s revolutionary production in 1982, the P.J. Hogan feature film of 2003, and the pantomime tradition. It will consider how Peter Pan as a whole can be regarded as modern, and which aspects of it, as well as looking at how these aspects have been adapted over the years. It will further assess how JM Barrie’s script allows flexibility in terms of constructions of childhood since its initial performance, and look at why Peter Pan is often regarded as a prime example in the genre of the pantomime.
At the time of the 1904 premiere at the Duke of York Theatre of Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, Barrie was at the height of his fame and it was heralded as a theatrical extravaganza. It was to be a magical specta...
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...95.
EA300 DVD 1, no. 12 ‘Peter Pan Caird Nunn’.
EA300 DVD 1, no. 13 ‘Peter Pan Disney’.
EA300 Study Guide (2009) Milton Keynes, The Open University
Hollindale, P. (2009) ‘A Hundred Years of Peter Pan’ in Montgomery, H, and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 153-164.
Peter Pan, film, directed by P. J. Hogan, USA, Universal Pictures 2003.
Rose. J. (2009) ‘Peter Pan and the Spectacle of the Child’ in Montgomery, H. and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 145-152.
White, D. R. and Tarr, C. A. (2009) ‘Peter Pan and the Pantomime Tradition’ in Montgomery, H. and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 164-172.
Wilson, Nance S. “ZINDEL, Paul.” Continuum Encyclopedia Of Children’s Literature (2003): 848-849. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
...e of literary works. Foster dedicates an entire chapter of his book to how novels have common plots and themes to fairy tales. The fairy tale Peter Pan entails a young boy with magical powers, refusing to grow up. Collins at a younger age coincides with the fairy tale character Peter Pan.
In conclusion, critical evaluation of what makes a book good or bad depends on the selection criteria and agenda of those making the evaluation. The prizes have been criticised through the years and the selection committees have risen to this by changing the selection process, even if this change has been slow. Children’s Literature is in flux due to the ever-changing ideas and perceptions of childhood. Children’s books seen as prestigious today may become, like Blyton, unpalatable to the critics of tomorrow.
Corliss, Richard. “Peter Pan Grows Up, but Can He Still Fly?” Time Magazine. 19 May, 1997. 75-82.
Senick, Gerard J., and Hedblad, Alan. Children’s Literature Review: Excerpts from Reviews, and Commentary on Books for Children and Young People (Volumes 14, 34, 35). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1995..
If children or adults think of the great classical fairy tales today, be it Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella, they will think Walt Disney. Their first and perhaps lasting impression of these tales and others will have emanated from Disney film, book, or artefacts (Zipes 72)
Peter Pan has appeared in many adaptations, sequels, and prequels. Peter Pan first appeared in a section of The Little White Bird, a 1902 novel that was originally written for adults. In 1904, Peter Pan was turned into a play and since the play was so successful Barrie’s publishers, extracted chapters 13–18 of The Little White Bird and republished them in 1906 under a different title. This story was adapted and changed into a novel, was published in 1911 as Peter and Wendy, later the name changed to Peter Pan and Wendy, and then changed to Peter Pan, as we know it today. The tale that we are familiar with was even expanded more. In 1953 Walt D...
Zipes, Jack. Fairy tales and the art of subversion the classical genre for children and the process
The Darling children leave their nursery to experience their imaginations come true with Peter Pan. Instead of staying forever children, they return to the safety of the nursery and bring the Lost Boys home with them. In turn, they submit to the dominance of their parents. The nursery is the place where they have the least amount of freedom, but are also the safest from any danger.
Falconer, Rachel. The Crossover Novel: Contemporary Children’s Fiction and Its Adult Readership. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Sir James M. Barrie wrote a dystopian novel detailing the life a young boy that goes by the name of Peter Pan. Peter Pan is a character that everyone regards as this mischievous little boy, who never wants to grow up and always wants to have fun due to the many adaptations of this novel. These views are distorted by Barrie as he uses Peter Pan as a way to discuss the values of London society at the time of the novel’s conception. In Sir James M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, Peter commits several dystopian transgressions or acts that would be unacceptable in normal society because Peter Pan disrespects the adults in his life, Peter commits many acts of violences or recklessness, and most of all Peter does not want to grow up and become a man.
In this essay, I examine what Zipes means by institutionalised, define what makes a fairy tale and evaluate how different versions of Little Red Riding Hood reflect the social ideology of the period.
... (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University
Potter’s book is, beneath its didactic Victorian narrative, remarkably subtle and subversive in its attitudes towards childhood, and its message to its child readers. Browne’s Voices in the Park, on the other hand, dispenses with any textual narrative; by his use of the devices of postmodernism, visual intertextuality and metaphor, he creates a work of infinite interpretation, in which the active involvement of the reader is key. Although The Tale of Peter Rabbit is not a ‘modern’ picturebook, and was written to a different concept of childhood than Voices in the Park, it certainly falls within Bader’s description.... ... middle of paper ...
"Children's Literature - Early History, Fairy and Folk Tales, Victorian Childrens Literature, Contemporary Childrens Literature - Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society." Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education - Faqs.org. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .