"Tennyson Would Never Approve": Reading and Performance in Kevin Sullivan's <em>Anne of Green Gables</em>

Abstract

Résumé: Selon Eleanor Hersey, l'adaptation télévisée d'Anne...la Maison aux pignons verts de 1985 met l'accent sur l'identité de l'héroîne en tant que lectrice. La multiplication des scènes où, seule ou en public, Anne Shirley s'adonne à la lecture fait valoir deux aspects essentiels de la populaire série : si le personnage, grâce aux livres, forge son identité, lire, en revanche, devient pour les téléspectateurs un plaisir qui remet paradoxalement en cause le caractère frivole des lectures dites féminines. Summary: This paper argues that Kevin Sullivan's 1985 made-for-television miniseries version of L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables departs from the novel in sophisticated and compelling ways to focus on Anne Shirley's identity as a reader. The multiple images of Anne reading in solitude and in public dramatize her intellectual development and encourage viewers to take pleasure in reading while challenging the view that women's reading is frivolous or merely escapist. Interviews with Sullivan and with screenwriter Joe Wiesenfeld reveal their approach to Montgomery's novel and their desire to appeal simultaneously to new and old readers of Montgomery's fiction. As well, close readings of the miniseries emphasize its engagement with texts ranging from Alfred Tennyson's poems to Alfred Noyes's "The Highwayman."