Screen Adaptations and the Politics of Childhood: Transforming Children's Literature into Film (Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture)

This book features a cutting edge approach to the study of film adaptations of literature for children and young people, and the narratives about childhood those adaptations enact. Historically, film media has always had a partiality for the adaptation of ‘classic’ literary texts for children. As economic and cultural commodities, McCallum points out how such screen adaptations play a crucial role in the cultural reproduction and transformation of childhood and youth, and indeed are a rich resource for the examination of changing cultural values and ideologies, particularly around contested narratives of childhood. The chapters examine various representations of childhood: as shifting states of innocence and wildness, liminality, marginalisation and invisibility. The book focuses on a range of literary and film genres, from ‘classic’ texts, to experimental, carnivalesque, magical realist, and cross-cultural texts. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Introduction: ‘Palimpsestuous Intertextuality’ and the Cultural Politics of Childhood (Robyn McCallum)....Pages 1-32 The Imperial Child and the Romantic Child: Film Adaptation as Cultural Capital (Robyn McCallum)....Pages 33-84 The Dream Child and the Wild Child: Adapting the Carnivalesque (Robyn McCallum)....Pages 85-122 ‘Flapping Ribbons of Shaped Space-Time’: Genre Mixing, Intertextuality and Metafiction in Fiction and Film Adaptation (Robyn McCallum)....Pages 123-171 Angels, Monsters and Childhood: Liminality and the Quotidian Surreal (Robyn McCallum)....Pages 173-209 Invisible Children: Representing Childhood Across Cultures (Robyn McCallum)....Pages 211-264 Epilogue (Robyn McCallum)....Pages 265-268 Back Matter ....Pages 269-280 This title features a cutting edge approach to the study of film adaptations of literature for children and young people, and the narratives about childhood those adaptations enact. Historically, film media has always had a partiality for the adaptation of 'classic' literary texts for children. As economic and cultural commodities, McCallum points out how such screen adaptations play a crucial role in the cultural reproduction and transformation of childhood and youth, and indeed are a rich resource for the examination of changing cultural values and ideologies, particularly around contested narratives of childhood. The chapters examine various representations of childhood: as shifting states of innocence and wildness, liminality, marginalisation and invisibility Machine Generated Contents Note: 1. Introduction: `palimpsestuous Intertextuality' And The Cultural Politics Of Childhood -- 2. The Imperial Child And The Romantic Child: Film Adaptation As Cultural Capital -- 3. The Dream Child And The Wild Child: Adapting The Carnivalesque -- 4. `flapping Ribbons Of Shaped Space-time': Genre Mixing, Intertextuality And Metafiction In Fiction And Film Adaptation -- 5. Angels, Monsters And Childhood: Liminality And The Quotidian Surreal -- 6. Invisible Children: Representing Childhood Across Cultures -- 7. Epilogue. Robyn Mccallum. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.