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Full Description
J.M. Barrie's critical reputation is unusually problematic. Originally viewed as a genius to rank with Shaw and Wilde, Barrie soon fell victim to damaging psychological theories about his life and his patriotism. The few critics who have commented on Barrie have colluded with dominant myths about a figure who, like his most famous creation, never grew up, who abandoned Scotland and made light of his own people when serious social analyses of the nation's condition were called for, and who scorned the opportunities of University learning when at Edinburgh. Myths and the Mythmaker attempts to challenge these myths and offer a just revaluation of Barrie's genius. Through closely focused textual analyses, it dispels the popular images of Barrie as "escapist" writer and immature, mother-fixated artist. It seeks to replace the narrow prose canon on which the "Oedipal" and "Kailyard" myths are based with a thorough account of his Victorian apprenticeship. New research into Barrie's early work and criticism show the enduring influence of his Edinburgh education on his creative writing, his academic articles, and his own complex views on artistic genius.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Critical Myth
Filling the Research Gaps: Beyond Freud and the Kailyard
Filling the Textual Gaps I: "Kailyard" Prose 1877-90
Filling the Textual Gaps II: "Kailyard" Drama 1877-93
The Little Minister
To The Never Land and Beyond: A Dramatic Route
To The Never Land and Beyond: A Novel Route
Approaching the Later Plays
Bibliography
Index
