Transforming the pantomime formula in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan

Abstract

In this article the author argues that J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan deconstructs the British pantomime by exploring the tension between stasis and transformation at the heart of the genre. Peter Pan draws on pantomime’s formulaic structures, plots and prescribed verbal formulas, while other Barrie texts from the same period reveal his fascination with the history of pantomime and the stock characters of the harlequinade. Peter Pan (the character) can be read as a version of a stock harlequinade character and, like the pantomime genre, finds himself caught between formula and transformation.

Keywords:

• Harlequinade
• J. M. Barrie
• pantomime
• Peter Pan
• repetition
• transformation

Notes

1. For a range of recent criticism see the articles collected in Kavey and Friedman (2009) and White and Tarr (2006). See also Stirling (2013) for an overview of the most influential critical approaches to Peter Pan.