Title: Growing up with (ir)replaceable parents: Neil Gaiman's The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book
Variant title:
- Dospívání s (ne)nahraditelnými rodiči: Den, kdy jsem vyměnil tátu za dvě zlaté rybky, Koralína a Kniha hřbitova Neila Gaimana
Source document: Bohemica litteraria. 2015, vol. 18, iss. 2, pp. 83-98
Extent
83-98
-
ISSN1213-2144 (print)2336-4394 (online)
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/135004
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Rights access
embargoed access
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
One of the most popular fantasy authors today, Neil Gaiman has been notorious for representing children's ambivalent perceptions of parents and creating stories based on a child's fantasies of replacing parents with better or kinder ones. This essay offers a reading of The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish (1998/2004), Coraline (2002), and The Graveyard Book (2008) as narratives in which this desire is sublimated, allowing the young reader to vicariously experience the empowerment and the danger that accrue from replacing, getting rid of, or exchanging one's parents. I demonstrate that in each of the three books Gaiman confirms the child's perception of parents as potentially replaceable, but suggests that this awareness serves a vital developmental purpose. First, it helps the child protagonist outgrow dependence on the parents and, often in rebellion to them, begin to move toward emotional and psychological independence. Second, it leaves the protagonists with a more mature understanding of the parent-child relationship – a realization that the agency they seek is spurious when achieved by finding parents who would cater to all of one's desires. In struggling to come to terms with their parents' limited availability and imperfections, Gaiman's protagonists learn that lasting human relationships are built not in the absence of but despite our own and other people's shortcomings.
Neil Gaiman, jeden z nejpopulárnějších fantasy autorů současnosti, proslul zobrazováním rozporného vnímání rodičů dětmi a vytvářením příběhů založených na představě dítěte o výměně vlastních rodičů za nějaké lepší nebo laskavější. Tato studie nabízí čtení textů Den, kdy jsem vyměnil tátu za dvě zlaté rybky (1998/2004), Koralína (2002, první vydání česky 2003) a Kniha hřbitova (2008, česky 2008) jako vyprávění, v nichž je tato touha vyplněna, takže mladý čtenář zprostředkovaně zažívá pocity moci a zároveň nebezpečí, které vzešly z nahrazení, zbavení se nebo výměny rodičů. Ukazuji, že v každé ze tří knih Gaiman potvrzuje dětské vnímání rodičů jako potenciálně nahraditelných, ale naznačuje, že toto povědomí hraje důležitou roli ve vývoji dítěte. Za prvé, pomáhá dětským protagonistům přerůst závislost na svých rodičích a, často prostřednictvím vzpoury proti nim, je vede směrem k emoční a psychické nezávislosti. Za druhé, opouští protagonisty s vyspělejším pochopením vztahu rodičů a dětí a s poznáním, že cíl, jehož se snaží dosáhnout, se ukazuje jako falešný v okamžiku, kdy uspějí a naleznou rodiče, kteří jim splní všechna přání. Ve snaze vyrovnat se s omezenými možnostmi a nedostatky svých rodičů Gaimanovi hrdinové poznávají, že trvalé lidské vztahy fungují navzdory našim i cizím nedostatkům, nikoli díky jejich absenci.
eng
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References
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[2] GAIMAN, Neil, 2002. Coraline. Ill. Dave McKean (New York: Harper Collins)
[3] GAIMAN, Neil, 2004. The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. Ill. Dave McKean (New York: Harper Collins)
[4] GAIMAN, Neil, 2008. The Graveyard Book. Ill. Dave McKean (New York: Harper Collins)
[5] GAIMAN, Neil, 2010. "Newbery Medal Acceptance Speech for The Graveyard Book", in The Graveyard Book. Ill. Dave McKean. 1st paperback edition (New York: Harper Collins), pp. 314–25
[6] SENDAK, Maurice, 1998. Where the Wild Things Are (New York: Harper Collins)
[7] ATTEBERY, Brian, 2014. Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth (New York: Oxford UP)
[8] BETTELHEIM, Bruno, 1982. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books)
[9] CASHDAN, Sheldon, 1999. The Witch Must Die: How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives (New York: Basic Books)
[10] COATS, Karen, 2008. "Between Horror, Humour, and Hope: Neil Gaiman and the Psychic Work of the Gothic", in Anna Jackson, Karen Coats, Rod McGillis (eds.): The Gothic in Children's Literature: Haunting the Boundaries (New York: Routledge), pp. 77–92
[11] CRAGO, Hugh, 2014. Entranced by Story: Brain, Tale and Teller from Infancy to Old Age (New York: Routledge)
[12] DARNTON, Robert, 1984. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Basic Books)
[13] GOODING, Richard, 2008. "'Something Very Old and Very Slow': Coraline, Uncanniness, and Narrative Form", Children's Literature Association Quarterly 33.4, pp. 390–407 | DOI 10.1353/chq.0.1874
[14] GRISWOLD, Jerry, 1992. Audacious Kids: Coming of Age in America's Classic Children's Books (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press)
[15] HAASE, Donald, 2000. "Children, War, and the Imaginative Space of the Fairy Tales", The Lion and The Unicorn 24, pp. 360–77
[16] KERNS, Kathryn A. – ASPELMEIER, Jeffery E. – GENTZLER, Amy L. – GRABILL, Chandra M., 2001. "Parent-Child Attachment and Monitoring in Middle Childhood", Journal of Family Psychology 15.1, pp. 69–81 | DOI 10.1037/0893-3200.15.1.69
[17] LE GUIN, Ursula K., 1992. "The Child and the Shadow", in The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction (New York: HarperCollins), pp. 54–67
[18] PARSONS, Elizabeth – SAWERS, Naarah – MCINALLY, Kate, 2008. "The Other Mother: Neil Gaiman's Postfeminist Fairytales", Children's Literature Association Quarterly 33.4, pp. 371–89 | DOI 10.1353/chq.0.1873
[19] RUDD, David, 2008. "An Eye for an I: Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Questions of Identity", Children's Literature in Education 39, pp. 159–68
[20] SANDERS, Joe, 1997. "Of Parents and Children and Dreams in Neil Gaiman's Mr. Punch and The Sandman", Foundation 71, pp. 18–32
[21] SHADDOCK, Jennifer, 1997. "Where the Wild Things Are: Sendak's Journey into the Heart of Darkness", Children's Literature Association Quarterly 22.4, pp. 155–59 | DOI 10.1353/chq.0.1112
[22] TATAR, Maria, 1987. The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press)
[23] WATERS, Everett – CUMMINGS, E. Mark, 2000. "A Secure Base From Which To Explore Close Relationships", Child Development 71.1, pp. 164–72 | DOI 10.1111/1467-8624.00130
[24] ZIPES, Jack, 1979. Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales (Austin: University of Texas Press)
[2] GAIMAN, Neil, 2002. Coraline. Ill. Dave McKean (New York: Harper Collins)
[3] GAIMAN, Neil, 2004. The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. Ill. Dave McKean (New York: Harper Collins)
[4] GAIMAN, Neil, 2008. The Graveyard Book. Ill. Dave McKean (New York: Harper Collins)
[5] GAIMAN, Neil, 2010. "Newbery Medal Acceptance Speech for The Graveyard Book", in The Graveyard Book. Ill. Dave McKean. 1st paperback edition (New York: Harper Collins), pp. 314–25
[6] SENDAK, Maurice, 1998. Where the Wild Things Are (New York: Harper Collins)
[7] ATTEBERY, Brian, 2014. Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth (New York: Oxford UP)
[8] BETTELHEIM, Bruno, 1982. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books)
[9] CASHDAN, Sheldon, 1999. The Witch Must Die: How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives (New York: Basic Books)
[10] COATS, Karen, 2008. "Between Horror, Humour, and Hope: Neil Gaiman and the Psychic Work of the Gothic", in Anna Jackson, Karen Coats, Rod McGillis (eds.): The Gothic in Children's Literature: Haunting the Boundaries (New York: Routledge), pp. 77–92
[11] CRAGO, Hugh, 2014. Entranced by Story: Brain, Tale and Teller from Infancy to Old Age (New York: Routledge)
[12] DARNTON, Robert, 1984. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Basic Books)
[13] GOODING, Richard, 2008. "'Something Very Old and Very Slow': Coraline, Uncanniness, and Narrative Form", Children's Literature Association Quarterly 33.4, pp. 390–407 | DOI 10.1353/chq.0.1874
[14] GRISWOLD, Jerry, 1992. Audacious Kids: Coming of Age in America's Classic Children's Books (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press)
[15] HAASE, Donald, 2000. "Children, War, and the Imaginative Space of the Fairy Tales", The Lion and The Unicorn 24, pp. 360–77
[16] KERNS, Kathryn A. – ASPELMEIER, Jeffery E. – GENTZLER, Amy L. – GRABILL, Chandra M., 2001. "Parent-Child Attachment and Monitoring in Middle Childhood", Journal of Family Psychology 15.1, pp. 69–81 | DOI 10.1037/0893-3200.15.1.69
[17] LE GUIN, Ursula K., 1992. "The Child and the Shadow", in The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction (New York: HarperCollins), pp. 54–67
[18] PARSONS, Elizabeth – SAWERS, Naarah – MCINALLY, Kate, 2008. "The Other Mother: Neil Gaiman's Postfeminist Fairytales", Children's Literature Association Quarterly 33.4, pp. 371–89 | DOI 10.1353/chq.0.1873
[19] RUDD, David, 2008. "An Eye for an I: Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Questions of Identity", Children's Literature in Education 39, pp. 159–68
[20] SANDERS, Joe, 1997. "Of Parents and Children and Dreams in Neil Gaiman's Mr. Punch and The Sandman", Foundation 71, pp. 18–32
[21] SHADDOCK, Jennifer, 1997. "Where the Wild Things Are: Sendak's Journey into the Heart of Darkness", Children's Literature Association Quarterly 22.4, pp. 155–59 | DOI 10.1353/chq.0.1112
[22] TATAR, Maria, 1987. The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press)
[23] WATERS, Everett – CUMMINGS, E. Mark, 2000. "A Secure Base From Which To Explore Close Relationships", Child Development 71.1, pp. 164–72 | DOI 10.1111/1467-8624.00130
[24] ZIPES, Jack, 1979. Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales (Austin: University of Texas Press)