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| Robinson Crusoe ready for adaption! |
I admit, I digress, this was not part of the plan, but that's one of the energising aspects of blogs, they are fluid, there are no rules, you go where the information current takes you.
Another admission, I had always presumed that this tale of castaways and shipwrecks was written in the main for children.
While researching my previous post Islands and Islanders I found reference to both Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe as important statements about contemporary society written for adults in the eighteenth century and subsequently transformed into texts for children. And so a new search began, - the raison d'etre of adaptations.
I then happened upon an article with the unlikely title of Daily Chicken and an ominous subtitle of The Cultural Transmission of Bourgeois Family Values of Literary Classics for Children, 1850-1950. I persevered and was rewarded by Sannea Parlevliet's, wonderfully insightful response to my query.
Literature as an agent in the transmission of culture is the underlying theme here. Parlevliet explores the idea that the "home sweet home" theme, central to much children's literature originated in eighteenth-century bourgeois culture. He bases his thoughts partly on the findings of research done by Ann Alston, a lecturer at the University of Bristol, who specialises in children's literature.
A happy home would keep the men out of the pub, children under supervision all the time, and women inside to do the housekeeping!
If suitable tales already existed and particularly best sellers, as Robinson Crusoe had been, these were adapted to highlight the ideology of the era. Rewritings deleted many of the original themes, and so the religious and economic undercurrents of De Foe's work were diluted with each adaptation. A similar fate awaited the issue of class, very much to the fore in the original, it doesn't rate a mention by the mid 1900's. (Here's a link to a short video which discusses some of the earlier themes in the Crusoe saga). Instead the young reader is introduced to family scenes, through dreams and memories, characterised "by snugness and warmth", representing the ideal domestic setting.
The children's adaptations of Robinson Cruseo from 1850 onwards, depict the traveller returning into the bosom of his beloved family and living happily ever after. In the original story Cruseo is portrayed as a schizophrenic consumer/producer trying to maximize his personal well-being who finds both parents have died while he was away, and though he settles for a while and starts a family of his own he answers the call of the sea once again. Quite a contrast!
Parleviet, now introduces us to Perry Nodelman's theory regarding the difference between children's and adult literature. Children’s literature has a linear narrative pattern, a character leaves home, endures dangerous and difficult adventures, but finally makes it back home, where he is happy to stay. Conversely the structure of literature for adults is cyclical: A character sets out on a quest, a dangerous or difficult adventure makes him long to go back home, he returns, but after a while the outside world starts to appeal again and the cycle starts anew.
Adaptations manipulated the original text to eliminate these cultural tensions, and so the ideal of domestic bliss and "happy ever after" was introduced as a desirable social theme to children.
Not wanting to let Swift's masterpiece go without comment, did you know that the word Yahoo was coined by Swift in 1726 to describe a member of a race of brutes in Gulliver's Travels?
Bibliography;
Robinson Crusoe's Economic Man:A Construction and Deconstruction 2011, Taylor and Francis Group, viewed 19 September 2011, <http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415701099/>.
Daily Chicken : The Cultural Transmission of Bourgeois Family Values in Adaptations
of Literary Classics for Children, 1850 -1950 2011, Journal of Family History, viewed 19 September 2011,<http://jfh.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/content/36/4/464.full.pdf+html>
The Family in English Children’s Literature 2011, Routledge, viewed 19 September 2011
<http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415988858/>
luis88f 2011,Esame literary adaptation Robinson Cruseo in Gavi 2011, 12 July, viewed 3 October 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_pIZr-IK1U
If suitable tales already existed and particularly best sellers, as Robinson Crusoe had been, these were adapted to highlight the ideology of the era. Rewritings deleted many of the original themes, and so the religious and economic undercurrents of De Foe's work were diluted with each adaptation. A similar fate awaited the issue of class, very much to the fore in the original, it doesn't rate a mention by the mid 1900's. (Here's a link to a short video which discusses some of the earlier themes in the Crusoe saga). Instead the young reader is introduced to family scenes, through dreams and memories, characterised "by snugness and warmth", representing the ideal domestic setting.
The children's adaptations of Robinson Cruseo from 1850 onwards, depict the traveller returning into the bosom of his beloved family and living happily ever after. In the original story Cruseo is portrayed as a schizophrenic consumer/producer trying to maximize his personal well-being who finds both parents have died while he was away, and though he settles for a while and starts a family of his own he answers the call of the sea once again. Quite a contrast!
Parleviet, now introduces us to Perry Nodelman's theory regarding the difference between children's and adult literature. Children’s literature has a linear narrative pattern, a character leaves home, endures dangerous and difficult adventures, but finally makes it back home, where he is happy to stay. Conversely the structure of literature for adults is cyclical: A character sets out on a quest, a dangerous or difficult adventure makes him long to go back home, he returns, but after a while the outside world starts to appeal again and the cycle starts anew.
Adaptations manipulated the original text to eliminate these cultural tensions, and so the ideal of domestic bliss and "happy ever after" was introduced as a desirable social theme to children.
Not wanting to let Swift's masterpiece go without comment, did you know that the word Yahoo was coined by Swift in 1726 to describe a member of a race of brutes in Gulliver's Travels?
Bibliography;
Robinson Crusoe's Economic Man:A Construction and Deconstruction 2011, Taylor and Francis Group, viewed 19 September 2011, <http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415701099/>.
Daily Chicken : The Cultural Transmission of Bourgeois Family Values in Adaptations
of Literary Classics for Children, 1850 -1950 2011, Journal of Family History, viewed 19 September 2011,<http://jfh.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/content/36/4/464.full.pdf+html>
The Family in English Children’s Literature 2011, Routledge, viewed 19 September 2011
<http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415988858/>
luis88f 2011,Esame literary adaptation Robinson Cruseo in Gavi 2011, 12 July, viewed 3 October 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_pIZr-IK1U
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