Suggestions or Assertions: Themes of Childhood and Gender in 'Peter and Wendy' and 'El laberinto del fauno'

Myrnalejandra Canales-Gutierrez, University of Texas at Austin

The original title of J.M. Barrie’s novel 'Peter and Wendy' (1911) establishes the importance of Wendy as a co-protagonist. My paper will explore the themes put forth by their relationship in connection to Guillermo Del Toro’s 'El laberinto del fauno' (2006). Peter and Wendy’s relationship begs the following questions regarding gender and childhood: How does storytelling play into the responsibility of cultural conservation ascribed to women and children? What is implied about the gendered progression towards sexual maturity? How do Rousseauian Naturalism and Romanticism, as defined by Harry Hendrick (2015), interact in the novel’s depiction of childhood? 'Peter and Wendy' frames these questions by presenting us with adults who fail to perform normatively moral, independent, and heroic adulthood; children who fail to perform normative childhood; and a narrator whose identity, and therefore authority, is questionable. Via this deconstruction of the adult/child binary, as defined by John Wall (2013), Barrie invites the reader to interpret his gendered and romantic notions of childhood instead of presenting them as self-evident or universal truths. In contrast, Del Toro’s film presents us with Ofelia and the faun, two characters who abide by the adult/child binary and who have narrational authority. The audience is faced with questions similar to those found in 'Peter and Wendy', but the interaction with these questions vastly differs.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 64. Talking about My Generation: Youth Crisis and Conflict