Peter Pan's Shadows In The Literary Imagination Children's Literature And Culture

This book is a literary analysis of J.M. Barries Peter Pan in all its different versions -- key rewritings, dramatisations, prequels, and sequels -- and includes a synthesis of the main critical interpretations of the text over its history. A comprehensive and intelligent study of the Peter Pan phenomenon, this study discusses the books complicated textual history, exploring its origins in the Harlequinade theatrical tradition and British pantomime in the nineteenth century. Stirling investigates potential textual and extra-textual sources for Peter Pan, the critical tendency to seek sources in Barries own biography, and the proliferation of prequels and sequels aiming to explain, contextualize, or close off, Barries exploration of the imagination. The sources considered include Dave Barry and Ridley Pearsons Starcatchers trilogy, R*gis Loisels six-part Peter Pan graphic novel in French (1990-2004), Andrew Birkins The Lost Boys series, the films Hook (1991), Peter Pan (2003) and Finding Neverland (2004), and Geraldine McCaughreans "official sequel" Peter Pan in Scarlet (2006), among others.