Shakespearean Adaptations In Nineteenth-Century British Children’s Literature

The practice of adaptation is ubiquitous both in Shakespeare’s own writings and in Shakespeare studies.The legitimacy and justice of adapting his plays has been one of the hottest debates in the academia of Shakespeare research for a long time.So has the adaptation of Shakespeare’s plays in children’s literature.The core issues discussed in this dissertation are as follows:How were Shakespeare and his plays adapted into children’s literature in the 19^th-century England?What are the motives,strategies,functions and significance of the adaptations?Why have hundreds of adapted works fallen into oblivion and only a few survive and turn out to be classics?To answer the above questions,this dissertation tries to track the rise and development of the adaptations from a diachronic perspective on the basis of textual analyses of classic adaptations.At the same time,with the help of the theories of New Historicism,adaptation,pedagogy and fine arts,the dissertation studies how the adapters adopt appropriate forms and strategies to meet the specific needs of particular periods from a synchronic perspective,and then evaluates the achievements and limitations of their adaptations.The dissertation falls into six chapters.Chapter One（the introduction）discusses the current research situations at home and abroad,and states the content,methods and significance of the research.Chapter Two focuses on Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare（1807）,revealing the roots of its birth and enduring prosperity.Chapter Three examines The Family Shakespeare（1818）by Thomas Bowdler and its adaptation background,motivation and strategy in the contexts of British family,history and culture in the 19^thcentury.Chapter Four reveals how The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Heroines（1850-52）by Mary Cowden Clarke interacts with the middle-class family ideology from the perspective of New Historicism criticism（the theory of subvertion and containment in particular）.Chapter Five explores the reasons why Edith Nesbit pays equal attention to the functions of entertainment and education in her Twenty Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare（1907）.Chapter Six（the conclusion part）summarizes the five characteristics and four problems of the adaptations.Despite the drastic differences of their current status and influence,the works selected in each chapter are all extremely popular in the 19^th-century,and have left deep marks both in the history of Shakespeare play adaptation in children’s literature and in the history of the transmission of Shakespeare’s plays.Different as their creation time,adaptation form and writing style are,the adaptation concept of combining education and entertainment,the function of cultural capital of Shakespeare’s plays,and the characteristics of sanctification,moralization,interestingness,popularization and simplification,which have been consistent in the adaptation activities,are all unified by the middle-class moral concept,ideology and value system that are hidden behind the text.In other words,these adaptation works seem to be distinct from each other and rule its own domain respectively;however,they are unified by the internal ideology and culture logic,and fully display the epochal characteristics of adaptation activities:harmony without uniformity,and unity in diversity.As far as the publication dates are concerned,the four adapted works are released in the early,middle and late 19^th century,and they are deemed representative for each period.The four chapters are thus arranged in chronological order,which shows the change of the dominant adaptation mode and demonstrates the diachronic characteristics of the adaptation activities.Both Tales from Shakespeare and The Family Shakespeare are published in the early 19^th century.The former has been a masterpiece of Shakespeare play adaptations in children’s literature,popular and prominent for a long period.The latter used to sell well,but it has been controversial since its release.And it has vanished from the scene since the late19^th century and is degraded into a negative example of Shakespeare adaptation today.Published in the middle of the 19^th century,and re-edited and published by the Cambridge University Press in the early 21^st century,The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Heroines has long been welcomed by children and women readers.Twenty Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare,which is expanded from The Children’s Shakespeare（1897）,is almost as influential and popular as Tales from Shakespeare.As far as the form of adaptation is concerned,it is no exaggeration to regard the four adapted works as the models of the most important adaptation types.Tales from Shakespeare disseminates Shakespeare’s plays among children readers in prose stories,and its successors and imitators are innumerable.Bowdler deletes the“indecent,impure,impious and inappropriate”parts of Shakespeare’s plays in an infamously purified way,and the Bowdlerized plays enjoy great popularity in the 19^th-century British family reading activities.The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Heroines makes up the life experiences of Shakespeare’s heroines when they were“green in judgment”in the prequel stories,which closely follow the plots,themes and characters of the original plays to entertain and educate female readers with reasonable imagination and bold speculation.Twenty Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare highlights the elements of fairy tale and imagination in the plays,helps children readers to understand and appreciate the plays with simple language,clear plots,amiable narrative tone and vivid illustrations,and hence instills the values advocated by the adapter in an educating,entertaining and imperceptible way.In addition,the discrepancy in theatrical concepts,children education ideas,literary thoughts,family environment,life experiences as well as the needs of publishers and book markets leads to the differences of style and characteristic of the adaptatations.At the same time,the consideration of dominant values,popular thoughts and reading groups by the adapters makes these adaptations similar or interconnected in a certain way.These differentiated but interconnected adapted works jointly constitute a panorama of Shakespeare play adaptation in the 19^th–century British children’s literature.Each chapter thus adopts corresponding literary and cultural criticism to interpret the writing background,creative motivation,adaptation strategy and idea,as well as significance and influence of the adapted works,and reveals the hidden changes of British children’s education,Shakespeare reading by children and women readers,family concepts,ethical and moral norms in the 19^th century.To sum up,the 19^th century witnesses the heyday of British economy,military and culture,as well as the golden era of British children’s literature.During this period,taking into account the immediate needs to educate and entertain children readers,Shakespearean scholars,writers of children’s literature,social reformers,Romantic essayists and other adapters were fully engaged in adapting Shakespeare plays with their respective ethical and moral concepts,ideas of children education and Shakespeare criticism in the form of prose,bowdlized play,prequel of Shakespeare characters and children’s story.These adaptations have played a significant part in cultivating and improving children’s reading and writing skills,artistic and aesthetic abilities,ideological and moral qualities,as well as cultural pride,national self-esteem and patriotism.In the long history of Shakespeare play dissemination,the adaptation of Shakespeare plays for children has been rarely interrupted,and it will be undoubtedly in Shakespeare’s close company even in the distant future.