Sendak and Knussen’s Where the wild things are: a developmental journey

Abstract

Where the wild things are has captured readers’ imaginations for decades. It is also one of the few children’s books that have been made into an opera. This article focuses on Sendak and Knussen’s opera of Where the wild things are and explores the way in which the libretto, staging, and music enriches the original, familiar story in new ways. The story captures a specific moment of discord between a mother and her child and considers Max’s ensuing ‘journey’ from a psychoanalytic perspective. A host of defensive manoeuvres and Oedipal issues are openly displayed, displaced or projected. However, one aspect of the story rarely explored is the way in which Mama’s reaction to Max’s omnipotence and defiance also provides a developmental challenge. Their separation sets in train an internal process in both mother and son enabling them to begin to apprehend their earlier encounter from a different point of view. For Max, relinquishing his ‘king’ position and a growing awareness of his feelings of loneliness allow a more dependent part of himself to come to the fore. It is only at this point that he can begin to apprehend his mother’s love.

Keywords:

• Children’s literature
• opera
• psychoanalytic perspectives
• developmental challenges

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Debbie Hindle is a consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist, who trained at the Tavistock Clinic. For 10 years, she was Head of the Clinical Training in Child Psychotherapy at the Scottish Institute of Human Relations in Edinburgh and worked clinically in a specialist fostering and adoption Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Glasgow. She has written extensively about work with this group of children and about sibling relationships. She has a strong interest in the interplay between opera and psychoanalysis. Now retired from the NHS, she continues as an external tutor on the Scottish Child Psychotherapy Clinical Training.

Notes

1 Sendak and Knussen collaborated on another opera, based on Sendak’s book Higglety Pigglety Pop, written in 1984–1985 and revised in 1999.