Tuesday, February 21, 2023

For Thursday: Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, Chapters I-VI



For Thursday's class, read at least through the "Pig and Pepper" Chapter (VI), though read more if you like. However, we're going to break this into two parts, so we'll finish the rest for next week. 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: How might Alice in Wonderland be a satire of a Victorian childhood? From what we read here, what might have been expected of young girls or children in the 1860's? What is Carroll specifically making fun of or parodying through Alice's adventures?

Q2: When Carroll originally wrote the book for Alice Liddell (the daughter of a friend), he included his own illustrations throughout. When the book was properly published, the publisher insisted on more professional illustrations, and John Tenniel (a popular artist) was hired to provide illustrations throughout. Why are the illustrations as important as the text of the story? What do they add to the experience of reading Alice in Wonderland

Q3: Writing about Magritte's paintings, Marcel Pacquet said that "Things have a flip side, a reverse, which is even more curious and fascinating than their manifested form." How does Carroll show us the same thing through Alice's adventures through the rabbit hole? Why might the entire book be a surrealist adventure into the mundane? 

Q4: Why do you think the work is so obsessed with eating and drinking (but mostly eating)? Why does she need to consume things to grow bigger or smaller? Could this relate to a child's understanding of how the world works? Sort of like the train coming through the chimney in Magritte's painting? 

 

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