Fairies, Stuffed Animals, and Death Never Grow Old: The Literary ‘Representation’ of (Autobiographical) Trauma in Peter Pan and Winnie-the-Pooh
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2018-07-18
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en
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For a long time, children’s literature has been underrated and under-researched. During the past few decades however, a more critical scholarly interest has arisen. Children’s literature has its own parameters which allow for it to explore aspects of reality which normally might appear inaccessible. To research a complicated part of said literature – the representation of trauma – this thesis poses as its research question the question: how do J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (1911) and A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), as works of early-twentieth century children’s fiction that feature fantasy elements, represent (autobiographical) trauma? By asking this question, this master thesis concerns itself with other academic debates, such as the representation of childhood in children’s literature, the (un)representability of trauma, the role of the author in relation to the creation of meaning, and the literary potential of fantasy as a literary mode.
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Faculteit der Letteren