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“INTO THE WOODS”: INTERTEXTUALITY IN CHILDREN‟S AND YOUNG ADULT FANTASY TEXTS By CARI JO KEEBAUGH A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 Cari Jo Keebaugh 2 To Aunt Vickie, with love 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people helped me throughout the dissertation process, and I‟d like to thank each of them. First, I would like to thank my committee, and specifically Dr. Kidd, my dissertation chair, for his constant support and calm advice. I always came out of meetings with him feeling better than when I went in. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Leverenz for all of his thoughtful and thorough feedback on my chapter drafts. I also thank Dr. Cech and Dr. Kawashima for their pointers and advice. I also wish to thank the staff of the Smathers Library, particularly Rita Smith, retired curator of the Baldwin Library of Historical Children‟s Literature, for all her help locating and making available to me many of the more obscure texts with which I worked, as well as for finding and purchasing a copy of Girvin‟s Round Fairyland with Alice and the White Rabbit for the Baldwin. I would like to thank my parents, Duane and Jo, for their unwavering love and support. I thank them for always believing in me and being there for me. And last but not least, I wish to thank my husband, Aaron, for all the love and patience he showed me as I was researching and writing. He provided a shoulder to cry on, a second set of eyes to proofread, and a hand to hold. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTERTEXTUALITY AND META-COMMENTARY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CHILDREN‟S LITERATURE ........................................ 9 Epigraph ................................................................................................................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 9 Crossover Intertextuality in the Victorian Era .......................................................... 17 Concluding Thoughts .............................................................................................. 40 2 PICTURE BOOKS: INTERTEXTUAL TALES IN A POSTMODERN WORLD ........ 51 Epigraph ................................................................................................................. 51 Crossover Intertextual Picture Books ...................................................................... 51 Definitions: The Postmodern Picture Books versus the Crossover Intertextual Picture Book ........................................................................................................ 52 Pre-Intertextual Picture Books: Maurice Sendak, Allan & Janet Ahlberg, and Alma Flor Ada ...................................................................................................... 58 Category 1: The Main Character Changes or Acts as a Catalyst for Other Characters‟ Stories .............................................................................................. 63 Category 2: Crossover-Intertextual Picture Books that Focus on Expanding Readers‟ Background Knowledge of the Characters and Their Stories ............... 72 Category 3: Tales that Expose Trends in the Canon by the Way They „Test‟ Children‟s Knowledge of Literary Characters and Plots ....................................... 77 Concluding Thoughts .............................................................................................. 81 3 PERILS OF THE PROFESSION: RED CAPES, GLASS COFFINS, AND THE DEBATE ABOUT CHILDREN‟S STORIES IN LITERATURE FOR OLDER READERS .............................................................................................................. 85 Epigraph ................................................................................................................. 85 Crossover Intertexts for Older Readers .................................................................. 85 Didacticism and the Reader‟s Practical Education .................................................. 89 „Enchantment‟ and the Reader‟s Psychological Education ..................................... 93 Feminism and the Reader‟s Social Education ........................................................ 99 Mixed Messages: the Reader‟s Anti-Education .................................................... 110 By Way of Conclusion ........................................................................................... 117 4 “IT‟S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL”: REWRITING HISTORY WITH DIGITIAL INTERTEXTS ....................................................................................................... 122 5 Crossover-Intertextual Video Games, Disney, and Cultural Literacy .................... 122 Landmark Crossover-Intertextual Video Games: A Brief History .......................... 124 Disney: Remediating and Repainting the Past ...................................................... 131 Conclusion: It‟s a Small World After All ................................................................. 152 5 MINDING THE FUTURE: A CODA ....................................................................... 157 Epigraph ............................................................................................................... 157 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 157 APPENDIX LIST OF CROSSOVER INTERTEXTS ........................................................................ 165 Nineteenth-Century Crossover Intertexts .............................................................. 165 Picture Book Crossover Intertexts ........................................................................ 166 Young Adult Crossover Intertexts ......................................................................... 170 Theatrical / Filmic Crossover Intertexts ................................................................. 172 Video Game Crossover Intertexts ......................................................................... 175 Adult Crossover Intertexts ..................................................................................... 178 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 181 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 193 6 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY “INTO THE WOODS”: INTERTEXTUALITY IN CHILDREN‟S AND YOUNG ADULT FANTASY TEXTS By Cari Jo Keebaugh August 2011 Chair: Kenneth Kidd Major: English This dissertation explores intertextuality in children‟s and young adult texts from 1805 to the present. I employ the term “crossover intertext” to describe those texts which incorporate pre-existing characters into a new narrative. Crossover intertextuality both promotes and subverts the discourses from which it borrows and in which it resides. This dichotomous function renders it a potent tool, but also one that is double- edged and, at times, unpredictable. I explore these texts‟ influence on the canon, how they alter expectations of cultural literacy, how they critique contemporary culture, and how they teach children to understand the way narratives work on the most fundamental level. The study spans crossover intertexts from their inception in Victorian children‟s culture up to the most recent video game releases, including such texts as Jane G. Austin‟s Moonfolk, Ada Flor Alma‟s Enchanted Forest picture book series, Michael Buckley‟s Sisters Grimm young adult series, as well as Disney‟s much-anticipated Wii game Epic Mickey. My project recasts the current conversation about intertextuality in children‟s and young adult literature by examining a much broader range and spectrum 7 of source materials than any study thus far and by demonstrating that intertexts – and crossover intertexts, more specifically – function more effectively and subversively than has previously been suggested. Venturing into an intertext evokes all manner of questions regarding cultural literacy, (cultural) memory, commentary on structure and genre, and, above all, questions regarding the nature of narrative itself in all forms and guises. In this dissertation, I hope to offer some answers to these provocative matters by guiding the reader through the metaphorical and ideological woods of crossover intertextuality in children‟s and young adult fantasy. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTERTEXTUALITY AND META-COMMENTARY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CHILDREN‟S LITERATURE Epigraph “This was a populated wood. All wild creatures lived here, dangerous or benign according to their natures. And all the other travelers you had heard of were in the wood too, at this very moment: kings and knights, youngest sons and third daughters, simpletons and outlaws; a small girl whose bright hood flickered between the pine trees like a scarlet beacon, and a wolf moving on a different vector to intercept her at the cottage . These people, these dangers were not far away, but you would never meet them.

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