Intertextuality and Psychology in P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins Books.
Title:
Intertextuality and Psychology in P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins Books.
Author:
Kunz, Julia.
ISBN:
9783653039023
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (110 pages)
Series:
ALPH: Arbeiten zur Literarischen Phantastik / ALPH: Approaches to Literary Phantasy ; v.7
ALPH: Arbeiten zur Literarischen Phantastik / ALPH: Approaches to Literary Phantasy
Contents:
Cover -- Acknowledgements -- Table of Contents -- List of Abbreviations -- I. Introduction -- II. Intertextuality -- III. On Not Writing for Children -- 3.1 Children's Literature -- 3.2 Travers and Children's Literature -- IV. Mary Poppins -- 4.1 The Setting -- 4.2 Narrative Structure -- 4.3 Pamela Lyndon Travers -- V. Small Feet in the River of Literature, or References to the Classics of Children's Literature -- 5.1 Of Neverlands, Shadows and Childhoods -- 5.2 Magical Liquids and the Quest for Meaning in Alice and Mary Poppins -- 5.3 Lightness -- 5.4 Marble Statues and the Subtlety of Magic -- VI. The Importance of the Fairy Tale -- 6.1 The Fairy Tale -- 6.2 The Fairy Tale as a Therapeutic Means -- 6.3 Once Upon a Time the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon -- 6.4 Notions of the Female -- VII. Myth in Mary Poppins -- 7.1 Myth -- 7.2 Mary Poppins as the Trickster -- 7.3 Looking to Greek and Roman Mythology -- 7.4 Cosmic Dances, Blavatsky and Gurdjieff -- VIII. Mary Poppins on the Couch-A Freudian Approach to the Mary Poppins Books -- 8.1 Mary Poppins and Freud -- 8.2 Mary Poppins and "The Uncanny" -- IX. Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Primary Sources -- Secondary Sources.
Abstract:
As we approach the seventieth anniversary of the first appearance of Mary Poppins, interest in P. L. Travers' most famous creation is still strong and the time is right for a reassessment of a work that is rich in meaning for child and adult readers alike. This book attempts to analyse some of the reasons behind the longevity and the ongoing appeal of the Mary Poppins material, with particular reference to intertextuality and the presence of what Freud described as the uncanny. By comparing and contrasting the Mary Poppins material with previous texts, it can be seen that Travers has been drawing, consciously and subconsciously, on the great myths and archetypes of the collective human storytelling experience. The idea therefore emerges that the Mary Poppins stories touch on some fundamental aspect of the psyche - an aspect where the symbiosis of security and fear, the familiar and the unknown, are made manifest to the reader, whether as children finding their way into adulthood or as adults recalling their beginnings.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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