Rules and Rhizomes: A Mary Poppins Sampler

Authors

  • Margaret Mackey University of Alberta, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2016vol24no1art1108

Keywords:

Mary Poppins, Disney, P.L Travers, cultural schemas, adaptations, phase space, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, rhizomes, Saving Mr Banks

Abstract

When the Disney movie of Mary Poppins was released in 1964, I was a teenager and far too cool to watch it under the aegis of my own identity. But as a long-term devotee of the books I was keen to see what Disney had made of this adaptation, so I borrowed the children of some family friends as camouflage and headed for the cinema. To my dismay, Julie Andrews was too pretty, too sweet, too twinkly, and too insipid to suit my sense of the stern nanny, and I found the story diminished as a consequence.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

  • Margaret Mackey, University of Alberta, Canada

    Margaret Mackey is Professor Emerita at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta, currently phasing into retirement. She teaches and researches in the area of print and other literacies among young people. Her most recent book is One Child Reading: My Auto-Bibliography, published by the University of Alberta Press in 2016; it is a study of the print and media materials with which she herself became literate, as a child growing up in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her newest research project involves an exploration of the role of landscape and setting on developing literacies.

References

Aplin, Brett (2014, January) ‘The Shadow of Mary Poppins.’ http://brettaplin.com.au/the-shadow-of-mary-poppins/

Bird, Alan (2004, December) ‘Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre.’ LondonTheatre.co.uk https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/reviews/mary-poppins

Brantley, Ben (2006, November 17) ‘Meddler on the Roof.’ New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/17/theater/reviews/17popp.html?_r=0

Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Elick, Catherine L. (2001) ‘Animal Carnivals: A Bakhtinian Reading of C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew and P. L. Travers's Mary Poppins.’ Style 35 (3): 454-470.

Flanagan, Caitlin (2005, December 19) ‘Becoming Mary Poppins.’ The New Yorker, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/12/19/becoming-mary-poppins

Hughes, Kathryn (2013, December 7) ‘What Saving Mr Banks Tells Us about the Original Mary Poppins.’ TheGuardian.com. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/07/pl-travers-saving-mr-banks-original-mary-poppins

Hutcheon, Linda (2006) A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routledge.

Kroll, Justin (2016, May 31) ‘Disney Announces Release Date for ‘Mary Poppins’ Sequel.’ Variety.com http://variety.com/2016/film/news/disney-announces-release-date-for-mary-poppins-sequel-1201785893/

Lawson, Valerie (1999) Out of the Sky She Came: The Extraordinary Life of P.L. Travers, Creator of Mary Poppins. Balmain, Australia: Hodder. Republished as Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P.L. Travers. London: Aurum, 2005; New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013.

Levin, Donald (2007) ‘The Americanization of Mary: Contesting Cultural Narratives in Disney's Mary Poppins,’ in L. Stratyner and J.R. Keller (eds), Fantasy Fiction into Film: Essays. Jefferson, NC; McFarland; 2007, pp. 115-123.

Mackey, Margaret (1999) ‘Playing in the Phase Space: Contemporary Forms of Fictional Pleasure.’ Signal: Approaches to Children’s Books 88:16-33.

Mackey, Margaret (2006) ‘Inhabiting Anne’s World: The Performance of a Story Space,’ in F.M. Collins & J. Ridgman (eds) Children’s Literature in Performance and the Media. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 61-82.

Mary Poppins (2013/1964) Dir. Robert Stevenson. Walt Disney Productions. Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Home Entertainment. DVD.

Mary Poppins (December 15, 2004 – January 12, 2008) Dir. Richard Eyre. Pro. Disney and Cameron Mackintosh. Prince Edward Theatre, London. Stage play.

Mary Poppins (November 16, 2006 – March 3, 2013) Dir. Thomas Schumacher. Pro.Disney and Cameron Mackintosh. New Amsterdam Theatre. New York. Stage play.

Newman, Melinda (2013, December 19) ‘ Interview: Composer Richard Sherman on ‘Saving Mr. Banks’.’ Hitfix. (http://www.hitfix.com/news/interview-composer-richard-sherman-on-saving-mr-banks#6516u6kguJwiM7fv.99

Overton, Scott (2016, May 6) ‘Theatre Cambrian’s Broadway Version of Mary Poppins Is Different but Spirited.’ Sudbury.com https://www.sudbury.com/columns/theatre-cambrians-broadway-version-of-mary-poppins-is-different-but-spirited-292041

Pearce, Sharyn (2015) ‘The Business of Myth-Making: Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers and the Disney Effect.’ Queensland Review 22 (1): 62–74.

Pullman, Philip (1998) ‘Let’s Write It in Red: The Patrick Hardy Lecture.’ Signal: Approaches to Children’ s Books 85: 44-62.

Reese, Debbie (2014) ‘Travers (author of Mary Poppins): ‘I lived with the Indians....’ American Indians in Children’s Literature, (2016) http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.ca/2014/01/travers-author-of-mary-poppins-i-lived.html

Rochlin, Margy (2013, December 6) ‘A Spoonful of Sugar for a Sourpuss.’ New York Times. http://nyti.ms/1aGec34

Saving Mr. Banks (2014/2013) Dir. John Lee Hancock. Walt Disney Pictures. Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Home Entertainment. DVD.

Sherman, Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman. (1964) ‘A Spoonful of Sugar.’ In Mary Poppins. Walt Disney Productions. Song.

Sibley, Brian and Michael Lassell (2007) Mary Poppins: Anything Can Happen if You Let It: The Story behind the Journey from Books to Broadway. New York: Disney Editions.

Szumsky, Brian E. (2000) ‘“All That Is Solid Melts into the Air”: The Winds of Change and Other Analogues of Colonialism in Disney's Mary Poppins.’ The Lion and the Unicorn 24 (1): 97-109.

Travers, P.L. (1965/1934) Mary Poppins. Illus. Mary Shepard. London: Collins.

Travers, P.L. (1953) The Magic Compass: A Story from ‘Mary Poppins.’ Illus. Gertrude Elliott. A Little Golden Book. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Travers, P.L. (2006/1962) Mary Poppins from A to Z. Illus. Mary Shepard. Orlando: Harcourt.

Travers, P.L. (2006/1975) Mary Poppins in the Kitchen. Illus. Mary Shepard. Orlando: Harcourt.

Travers, P.L. (1999/1978) ‘I Never Wrote for Children.’ In A Lively Oracle: A Centennial Celebration of P.L. Travers, Creator of Mary Poppins, ed. E.D. Draper & J. Koralek. New York: Larson Publications.

Travers, P.L. (2010) Mary Poppins: The Complete Collection. Illus. Mary Shepard. London: HarperCollins.

Walt Disney Studios (2013) Saving Mr. Banks: The Official Multi-Touch Book. Disney Publishing Worldwide. iBook.

Downloads

Published

2016-01-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“Rules and Rhizomes: A Mary Poppins Sampler” (2016) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 24(1), pp. 1–29. doi:10.21153/pecl2016vol24no1art1108.

Similar Articles

51-60 of 81

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.