his paper traces the history of Peter Pan, from its earliest beginnings as a story by Sir James M. Barrie to present-day cinematic adaptations. Departing from a brief introduction to theories of intertextuality and adaptation, commenting on different modes of intertextuality, the role of - and relationship between - author and reader, and the problems of adapting between genres and media. A short comparison of the three different media dealt with in the paper - theatre, book and film - is also undertaken. The main body of the thesis puts the various versions and adaptations of Peter Pan under scrutiny. It examines how Barrie's childhood experiences, coupled with his early love for pulp adventure novels and a genuine fondness for children (especially for the brothers of the Llewelyn Davies family) blend into the stories which he made up to entertain the boys. The ideas thus conceived eventually resulted in his writing of a novel, The Little White Bird (1902) in which the character of Peter Pan first appears. The paper points out the similarities between this book and Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up which reached the stage in 1904. Indeed, in many ways The Little White Bird can be read as a prequel to both the play and the prose version of Peter Pan. The chapter dedicated to the stage play discusses the tradition of the English pantomime as an additional source of ideas for Barrie's story, and describes Peter Pan's development from the first scripts and rehearsals for the original London production of 1904, through actual performances in England and America, to eventually the "final" text of the play, published 24 years after its first performance. The thesis documents some of the major changes that took place during this period and seeks to account for them. In a further step it analyses the novel Peter and Wendy in terms of its structure and the role and position of the narrator, and it takes a closer look at the way in which it employs parody and irony. It also highlights remnants from the novel's past such as songs and restricted character movement, elements which betray its theatrical origin. Besides these works by Barrie, four Peter Pan adaptations are analysed in the second part of the paper. First, the film script that Barrie himself wrote and suggested to Paramount executives. This script, in exploiting fully the possibilities of the then new medium, deviated further from the original stage play than the actual Paramount movie which was made in 1924. Second, Walt Disney's adaptation, in which the original story line and the characters are in many respects simplified, so that what is presented are often merely stereotypical caricatures. The focus of Disney's film is also shifted from Peter to Wendy as the main protagonist, and the adventures in Neverland are discovered in the end only to have happened in a dream, which spares Wendy the pain of having to wait for the ever-young Peter while she herself must grow up. This, of course, completely eliminates the underlying tragic implications of Barrie's novel. Third, Steven Spielberg's feature film Hook, which departs from the original narrative by presenting a grown-up Peter Pan who has to return to Neverland to rescue his children from Hook. The paper traces the motifs and quotations taken from Barrie's works and explains their transformation into the new context. Hook touches on other, perhaps more up-to-date, problems than Peter Pan, such as the importance of believing in oneself, the relationship between father and son, and the 1990s lifestyle dictated by money and a tight working schedule. Fourth and finally, the musical version, and in particular a performance starring gymnast Cathy Rigby as Pan from the year 2000. Here the paper takes into account the early history of Peter Pan Broadway productions, and illustrates the changes necessary to incorporate song and dance into the show and comments on their significance and usage. Peter Pan has undergone many changes in its century-long history, the majority of which have been shown to be due to practical requirements of the respective medium, financial restrictions, individual talent, theatre traditions, etc. Hence theories of intertextuality and adaptation, which of necessity tend to generalise, can only to a certain extent be applied to the variants and adaptations of Peter Pan.
Home 
Calendar
