Search SFE    Search EoF

  Omit cross-reference entries  

Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Never-Never Land

Tagged: Theme.

Also rendered as Never Never Land and Never Land, the Otherworld which features in J M Barrie's play Peter Pan (produced 1904; rev 1928) and its prose sequels. Peter Pan lives there, along with his Companions and his foes. The pathos and melancholy of Barrie's overall concept infects his rendering of Never-Never Land, for it is a venue which exudes both Belatedness and a frail level of Reality, like that of the Fairy Tinkerbell; Never-Never Land seems therefore constantly at risk from the mortal children who visit, for they are doomed to pass through Time into the estrangements of adulthood. Time does not exist for Never-Never Land's denizens, notably Peter Pan himself.

Fantasy otherworlds whose depiction is exaggerated and playful are sometimes called Never-Never Lands – indeed, they are so-called because they actually contradict their readers' sense of reality. They are not uncommon in Children's Fantasy – J P Martin's Uncle novels use such a setting.

The term "neverland" is sometimes used – as in Neverland: Fabled Places and Fabulous Voyages of History and Legend (1976) by Steven Frimmer (1928-    ) – to describe imagined and perhaps believed-in physical locations on this planet, like Atlantis, or "flyaway" islands like Brazil Rock, or the Archipelago visited by Saint Brendan, or the kingdom of Prester John. [JC]



x
This website uses cookies.  More information here. Accept Cookies