Adapting Canonical Texts in Children's Literature [Hardcover]

Adaptations of canonical texts have played an important role throughout the history of children's literature and have been seen as an active and vital contributing force in establishing a common ground for intercultural communication across generations and borders. This collection analyses different examples of adapting canonical texts in or for children's literature encompassing adaptations of English classics for children and young adult readers and intercultural adaptations of children's classics across Europe. The international contributors assess both historical and transcultural adaptation in relation to historically and regionally contingent concepts of childhood. By assessing how texts move across age-specific or national borders, they examine the traces of a common literary and cultural heritage in European children's literature.

Introduction \ 1. Shakespeare for Girls: Victorian vs. Contemporary Prose Versions of Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice (Laura Tosi, Ca' Foscari, Venice, Italy) \ 2. Shylock's Daughter, Nathan and his Children, Golem Silent Brother - Adapting European Classics in the Work of Miriam Pressler (Jana Mikota, Universit?t Siegen, Germany) \ 3. Shakespeare in Children's Literature: Susan Cooper's King of the Shadows and Tad Williams's Caliban's Hour (Eva Oppermann, Universit?t Kassel, Germany) \ 4. The 'Canon' of the Animated Tales from Shakespeare and Julius Caesar (Maddalena Pennacchia, Roma Tre University) \ 5. Adapting and Parodying Shakespeare for Young Adults: John Marsden's Hamlet and Andy Griffth's Just Macbeth! (Mark MacLeod, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga Campus, Australia) \ 6. Shakespeare Comic Books - Adapting the Bard for a Young Audience (Anja M?ller, Universit?t Siegen, Germany) \ 7. Rosemary Sutcliffe's Beowulf: Dragonslayer (Lukascz Neubauer, Technical University of Koszalin, Poland) \ 8. The Kids of the Round Table: Arthurian Traces in Fantasy Fiction for Children and Young Adults (Anne Klaus, Universityl#¦