Ontological Indeterminacy and Intersubjectivity in Film Adaptations of Post-War English Children’s Books

Main Article Content

John Stephens
Sung-Ae Lee, PhD

Abstract

When a novel is adapted as a film, the representation of the relationship between subject and society changes because of spatio-temporal modifications in narrative mode, period and location. Ideologies of childhood and hence children’s literature underwent major change after 1945, as English society experienced ontological insecurity in response to the ruptures of war. Childhood was perceived as a period of ontological indeterminacy and child development seemed best served by discovery learning in formal education and everyday life. This change led to an acknowledgement of children’s ability to cultivate subjective agency, a limited capacity to negotiate choices and execute intentional self-performed actions. It was also recognised that lack of agency can cause anxiety and trauma. Children’s literature began to represent the interiority of pre-adult protagonists, notably by means of third person narration grounded in intradiegetic character focalisation and its representations of positive ideologies of intersubjective selves and social practices. Film adaptations find visual forms to express and transform these ideologies. This study draws upon examples of film adaptation of novels by Mary Norton and Joan G. Robinson.

Article Details

Section

MONOGRAPHIC

Author Biography

John Stephens, Macquarie University

John Stephens, Emeritus Professor in English at Maquarie University, is a former president of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature and foundation editor of International Research in Children’s Literature (2008–2016). In 2007 he received the 11th International  Brothers Grimm Award and in 2013 the Anne Deveraux Jordan Award, both given to recognize significant contributions to the field of children’s literature in scholarship and service. He is author of Language and Ideology in Children’s Fiction; Retelling Stories, Framing Culture (with Robyn McCallum); and New World Orders in Contemporary Children’s Literature (with Clare Bradford, Kerry Mallan, and Robyn McCallum). He edited Ways of Being Male: Representing Masculinities in Children’s Fiction and Film; Subjectivity in Asian Children’s Literature and Film; The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature; and Children, Deafness, and Deaf Cultures in Popular Media (with Vivian Yenika-Agbaw). He has also authored over a hundred articles.

How to Cite

Ontological Indeterminacy and Intersubjectivity in Film Adaptations of Post-War English Children’s Books. (2023). VERBEIA. Revista De Estudios Filológicos. Journal of English and Spanish Studies, 7, 40-64. https://doi.org/10.57087/Verbeia.2023.4620