Returning to Wonderland : Utopian and Carnivalesque Nostalgia in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This essay claims that the novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass trigger nostalgia in the contemporary reader. Nostalgia is a powerful and complex feeling which, in contemporary times, is triggered by a longing for the lost childhood. This essay connects that longing with the novels about Alice. I argue that the nostalgic experience in the Alice in Wonderland books combines utopia and Bakhtin's concept of carnival and brings it into the lost childhood. The utopian part strives for something better while the carnivalesque part is an upheaval of daily life. This essay illustrates how utopia and carnival are related to a childhood free of adulthood anxieties and that they are a part of Alice in Wonderland, which triggers nostalgia in the adult reader.
Author: Elin Streiffert
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1510983009