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5. the Tale of Peter Rabbit

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5. the Tale of Peter Rabbit DIPLOMARBEIT Titel der Diplomarbeit „Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature: Rabbits“ Verfasserin Sarah Pugl angestrebter akademischer Grad Magistra der Philosophie (Mag.phil.) Wien, 2015 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 190 344 299 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: UF Englisch, UF Psychologie und Philosophie Betreuerin ODER Betreuer: Assoz. Prof. Mag. Dr. Susanne Reichl Declaration of Authenticity I hereby confirm that this diploma thesis was written by myself. Quotations from secondary sources, as well as any ideas borrowed or paraphrased passages are clearly marked in the text and acknowledged in the bibliography. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I want to thank my advisor Assoz. Prof. Mag. Dr. Susanne Reichl for introducing me to Shaun Tan’s bizarre and wonderful world and for her invaluable tips and feedback throughout the writing process. Her guidance and inspirational advice helped me to stay motivated and finish this thesis with passion. Above all, I want to thank my family for their unconditional love and encouragement as well as their endless support and patience. Thank you to my Mum for pushing me to push myself, for sparking my love of animals and for always offering the finest pieces of advice. Thank you to my Dad for continually believing in me and for being the calm anchor I so often needed during this hectic time. Thank you to my loving grandparents Ferdinand and Maria for always supporting me and believing in me. Special thanks go to my brilliant sister and best friend Luise, whose endless love and encouragement have been continuous fuel during my studies. And thank you to my friends for listening to my endless monologues about rabbits, rabbits and rabbits. Thank you for motivating me, cheering me on and celebrating with me every single achievement during my studies. Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 2. ANTHROPOMORPHISM IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE ........................................ 4 2.1. DEFINING ANTHROPOMORPHISM ............................................................................. 4 2.2. ANIMALS IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE ...................................................................... 6 2.2.1. Completely anthropomorphic animal stories ................................................. 7 2.2.2. Partially anthropomorphic animal stories .................................................... 12 2.2.3. Realistic animal stories ............................................................................... 18 3. RABBITS IN LITERATURE ..................................................................................... 21 4. PICTURE BOOKS .................................................................................................... 26 4.1. ANIMALS IN PICTURE BOOKS ................................................................................. 27 4.2. ILLUSTRATIONS IN PICTURE BOOKS ....................................................................... 28 5. THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT .............................................................................. 32 5.1. THE TALE OF BEATRIX POTTER ............................................................................ 33 5.2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................... 36 5.3. POTTER’S ARTWORK AND NARRATIVE STYLE ......................................................... 38 5.3.1. Potter’s style of illustrating and narrating .................................................... 38 5.3.2. Cover, format and design of The Tale of Peter Rabbit ............................... 43 5.4. ANALYSIS OF THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT ............................................................ 45 5.4.1. The relationship of text and image in The Tale of Peter Rabbit .................. 46 5.4.2. The importance of clothes in The Tale of Peter Rabbit .............................. 52 5.4.3. The depiction of Peter Rabbit ..................................................................... 57 6. THE RABBITS ......................................................................................................... 62 6.1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND - COLONISATION AND ABORIGINAL PEOPLE ................... 63 6.2. THE RABBIT PROBLEM IN AUSTRALIA ..................................................................... 68 6.3. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................... 71 6.4. SHAUN TAN’S ARTWORK IN THE RABBITS .............................................................. 78 6.4.1. Shaun Tan’s style of illustrating .................................................................. 79 6.4.2. Cover, format and design of The Rabbits ................................................... 81 6.4.3. Mood and atmosphere in The Rabbits ........................................................ 84 6.4.4. Objects in The Rabbits ............................................................................... 89 6.4.5. The depiction of the rabbits and numbats ................................................... 95 7. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 102 8. BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 106 9. ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ 114 10. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG ....................................................................................... 115 11. CURRICULUM VITAE .......................................................................................... 116 List of Illustrations Fig. 1: Opening illustration (Potter, Peter 6) ......................................................................... 48 Fig. 2: Peter getting caught in the net (Potter, Peter 37) ............................................... 50 Fig. 3: Peter – half human, half animal (Potter, Peter 50) ............................................. 60 Fig. 4: Mrs. Rabbit (Potter, Peter 14) ....................................................................................... 56 Fig. 5: Cover of The Rabbits (Marsden and Tan) .............................................................. 83 Fig. 6: Choices in ambience (Painter et al. 35) ................................................................... 84 Fig. 7: Artificial landscape (Marsden and Tan 11) ............................................................. 87 Fig. 8: Fertile land (Marsden and Tan 3) ................................................................................ 89 Fig. 9: Barren and infertile land (Marsden and Tan, 26) ................................................ 89 Fig. 10: Wheel-legged rabbits squash a lizard while transporting a painting of buildings on furniture legs (Marsden and Tan 9) ..................................................... 92 Fig. 11: Introduced animal species (Marsden and Tan 11) ........................................ 95 Fig. 12: Various artificial framing devices (Marsden and Tan 5-6) ........................... 97 Fig. 13: Rabbits experimenting with native animals, measuring the land and teaching the numbats (Marsden and Tan 5) ............................................................ 100 Fig. 14: Rabbit and numbat looking into an uncertain future (Marsden and Tan 29) ................................................................................................................................................... 101 1 1. Introduction The animals have been very good to us, after all, lending themselves for our entertainment and edification with never a murmur (Blount 19). Children’s literature is full of talking and dressed animals, and one could even go as far as to say that the appearance of anthropomorphised animals is almost expected in children’s stories. Ranging from little spiders, to pigs, mice, horses, wolves or monkeys and tigers, animals of every kind populate children’s literature and especially picture books. But if one looks closely enough, one might realise that not all animals are represented in the same way and while some are dressed in beautiful human clothes and talk and sing, others behave completely like their natural selves without any human attributes being portrayed on them. However, no matter which kind of animal story, children nearly always love stories about the furry creatures because children are not only fascinated by their four-legged friends but also because they relate to animals. One animal that seems to be portrayed particularly often is the rabbit. When looking at a library shelf for children’s literature one might easily stumble upon books such as Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904), Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon (1947) or Richard Adams’ Watership Down (1972), but even in stories where rabbits are not the main characters one can still find them hopping around, such as for instance the White Rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). So why are anthropomorphised animals so prevalent in children’s books and why are they so popular? The first chapter of this thesis will consider these questions to detect whether an explanation for it can be found. Additionally, the first chapter will discuss different varieties of animal stories. Even though there are various ways of dividing stories by means of their animal characters’ behaviour,
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