Reading and re-reading Shrek

This article presents the findings of a small-scale research project which aimed to enable young people to reflect on their childhood responses to the popular films, ‘Shrek’ and ‘Shrek 2’. During the project the participants develop new readings of the films in the light of their own recent experien...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Parry, Becky
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40188/
_version_ 1848796002425765888
author Parry, Becky
author_facet Parry, Becky
author_sort Parry, Becky
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This article presents the findings of a small-scale research project which aimed to enable young people to reflect on their childhood responses to the popular films, ‘Shrek’ and ‘Shrek 2’. During the project the participants develop new readings of the films in the light of their own recent experiences both of life and of other texts. The research draws on reader response theories to describe the complex readings of the films made by two young women from Rotherham. These readings include an engagement with an element of the films’ narrative structure, the relationship dilemma between the main characters. There was also clearly recollection of enjoyment of the animation style, the humour and the fairytale intertextuality of the film. However, the strongest response was based on more recent experiences and involved considerable empathy with the characters. This has important implications for both educational research and classroom practice. This paper argues for an increased recognition of the significance of children and young people’s engagements with popular children’s films as integral to their development as readers and creators of narrative texts.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:41:03Z
format Article
id nottingham-40188
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:41:03Z
publishDate 2009
publisher Wiley
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-401882020-05-04T16:28:27Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40188/ Reading and re-reading Shrek Parry, Becky This article presents the findings of a small-scale research project which aimed to enable young people to reflect on their childhood responses to the popular films, ‘Shrek’ and ‘Shrek 2’. During the project the participants develop new readings of the films in the light of their own recent experiences both of life and of other texts. The research draws on reader response theories to describe the complex readings of the films made by two young women from Rotherham. These readings include an engagement with an element of the films’ narrative structure, the relationship dilemma between the main characters. There was also clearly recollection of enjoyment of the animation style, the humour and the fairytale intertextuality of the film. However, the strongest response was based on more recent experiences and involved considerable empathy with the characters. This has important implications for both educational research and classroom practice. This paper argues for an increased recognition of the significance of children and young people’s engagements with popular children’s films as integral to their development as readers and creators of narrative texts. Wiley 2009-06-12 Article PeerReviewed Parry, Becky (2009) Reading and re-reading Shrek. English in Education, 43 (2). pp. 148-161. ISSN 1754-8845 Children Young women Shrek Children's film Gender Identity http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1754-8845.2009.01037.x/abstract doi:10.1111/j.1754-8845.2009.01037.x doi:10.1111/j.1754-8845.2009.01037.x
spellingShingle Children
Young women
Shrek
Children's film
Gender
Identity
Parry, Becky
Reading and re-reading Shrek
title Reading and re-reading Shrek
title_full Reading and re-reading Shrek
title_fullStr Reading and re-reading Shrek
title_full_unstemmed Reading and re-reading Shrek
title_short Reading and re-reading Shrek
title_sort reading and re-reading shrek
topic Children
Young women
Shrek
Children's film
Gender
Identity
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40188/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40188/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40188/