Children’s theatricals and other games in E. Nesbit’s 'The Enchanted Castle' and David Almond’s 'Kit’s Wilderness'

Abstract

The motif of children-characters making a theatrical performance, found in many children’s texts, is considered on the basis of E. Nesbit’s The Enchanted Castle (1907) and David Almond’s Kit’s Wilderness (1999) where it is made parallel with children’s other playful activities. Though an improvised performance in Nesbit’s humorous novel contrasts with a controlled and structured activity in Almond’s more sombre text, the two books share a metafictional interest in the power of imagination and its relation to hidden aspects of reality. Play-as-performance is also parallel to other games which introduce elements of the fantastic, of metaleptic transgression, and of ritual initiation. Both novels link childhood, imagination and creativity in a way reminiscent of Romantic ideas.