Szczęśliwe ogrody dzieciństwa Literackie obrazy przestrzeni parkowej w powieści Piotruś Pan w Ogrodach Kensingtońskich Jamesa Matthew Barriego

Aleksandra Wieczorkiewicz

Published: 2018-06-29

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2018)

Happy Gardens of Childhood Literary Portrayals of Garden Space in James Matthew Barrie’s Novel Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

Aleksandra Wieczorkiewicz

Abstract

It is impossible to imagine London without its royal parks. One of the most beautiful among them is Kensington Gardens, forever connected with the figure of a boy who didn’t want to grow up: Peter Pan. This article provides an interpretation of James Matthew Barrie’s novel Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), centred mainly around literary portrayals of garden space, which becomes an embodiment of the paradise of childhood: Arcadia, a pleasant place, locus amoenus, allowing one to exist beyond evanescence, growing up and sadness. Kensington Gardens are London’s green island, primeval Neverland, where the fairy-tale and the magic are rooted: during a day it creates a playing space for “human children,” whereas at night it goes under the rule of Queen Mab and mysterious fairies. The outline of various interpretation paths which can be followed in Kensington Gardens are accompanied by the reproductions and analyses of Arthur Rackham’s illustrations, which in an outstanding way capture the whimsical genius of the author of Peter Pan.

Keywords:

park , Peter Pan , James Matthew Barrie , Kensington Gardens , locus , amoenus

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Wieczorkiewicz, A. (2018). Happy Gardens of Childhood Literary Portrayals of Garden Space in James Matthew Barrie’s Novel Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne [Silesian Journal of Polish Studies], 11(1), 89–108. Retrieved from https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/SSP/article/view/8666

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Vol. 11 No. 1 (2018)
Published: 2018-06-29

ISSN: 2084-0772

eISSN: 2353-0928

Publisher

Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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