16 February - 15 March 2016
The Tavistock and Portman presents a series of seminars that will explore the application of psychoanalytic thinking to our understanding of children's literature and the films of some well-known stories for children. Led by Margaret and Michael Rustin, authors of 'Narratives of Love and Loss: Studies in Modern Children's Fiction', the seminars will explore why these stories have lasting appeal and the extent to which they are rooted in the exploration of children's emotional experiences and anxieties for example, separation, the challenges of growing-up, friendships and even mortality.
Cinema is often more accessible than the printed word to many c hildren and this series will examine a number of classic stories written for children, together with films which have been based on them. The seminars will also explore what the medium of film contributes, and perhaps also diminishes, in the reader's and viewer's experience.
The literature and films the series will focus on are:
• The classic fairy tale and early Disney: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (16 February)
• EB White's Charlotte's Web (23 February)
• Mary Norton's The Borrowers, and Myazaki's Arietty (1 March)
• J.K. Rowling's Harry Pottter, Novel and Film (8 March)
• Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, novel and film (15 March)
More info here.