Chapter 13 “Behind the Bars, No World”: Brecht Evens’ Panther as an Ironic Response to Children’s Literature
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Abstract
Brecht Evens’ Panther is a visual narrative whose convoluted form explores the cultural status of childhood and exposes the degree to which the concept of childhood may be mystified and misunderstood in modern societies. As argued in this chapter, Panther’s implications and metaphorical senses address controversies inherent in the very genre of children’s literature. By alluding to children’s literature and yet targeting the work at a more adult audience, Panther contests cultural norms surrounding the “child”/“adult” distinction, challenges strict categorisations of literary works, and becomes a kind of metacritical commentary on the cultural status and role of children’s literature. What is more, Panther can be seen as a text which refers ironically to the controversy implied in the cultural status of fairy tales. Exploiting and twisting some of the iconic conventions of well-known fairy tales, Panther exposes the hypocrisy of the fairy tale, which has been solidified with time as a genre that communicates “humanistic” values to its audience, although its history has been defined by the presence of dark, even antihumanistic, subjects and very ambivalent plot twists and endings.