Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T02:05:41.749Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ALICE'S ADVENTURES AT THE CARNIVAL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Mark M. Hennelly Jr.
Mark M. Hennelly Jr.*
Affiliation:
California State University, Sacramento
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Imagine a story featuring a dreamy descent underground, grotesquely gigantic and dwarfish carnality, a prodigious pool of body fluid, cartwheels and pratfalls, cornucopian helpings of food and drink, antic playgrounds, riddling language and name games, repeated nonsense (re)verses, various negative capabilities, mathematical miracles, voyages of discovery, cycles of crowning and uncrowning, not to mention metalists like the previous catalogue in this sentence. It seems curious that this tangled tale, Lewis Carroll's in the Alices, has never been linked to the Carnival tradition typified by François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–64) even though our imagined story equally describes Rabelais's glorious epic. At least, it's never been linked much beyond Northrop Frye's suggestion that “[t]he Alice books are perfect Menippean satires, and so is [Charles Kingsley's] The Water-Babies, which has been influenced by Rabelais” (310) and Martin Gardner's note to Looking-Glass that Medieval and “Renaissance chess games were sometimes played with human pieces on enormous fields” as in “Gargantua and Pantagruel” (135, n. 2). And yet, to spin William Empson's memorable take on Freudian readings (357), one has only to tell Alice's story to make it a carnival tale.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 103 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

WORKS CITED

Arac, Jonathan. “The Form of Carnival in Under the Volcano.” PMLA 92 (1977): 481–89.Google Scholar
Auerbach, Nina. “Alice in Wonderland: A Curious Child.” Lewis Carroll. Ed. and intro. Bloom, Harold. Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. 31–44.Google Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich. Rabelais and His World. Trans. Hélène Iswolsky. Forward Krystyna Pomorska. Cambridge: MIT P, 1968.Google Scholar
Banks, P. W. “Of Rabelais.” Fraser's Magazine 20 (Nov. 1839): 513–29; 21 (Feb. 1840): 212–27; 21 (July 1840): 60–80.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Michael André. Bitter Carnival: Ressentiment and the Abject Hero. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besant, Walter. The Autobiography of Walter Besant. London: Hutchinson, 1902.Google Scholar
Besant, Walter. The French Humorists From the Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1877.Google Scholar
Blake, Kathleen. Play, Games, and Sport: The Literary Works of Lewis Carroll. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1974.Google Scholar
Browning, Robert. “Fra Lippo Lippi.” Selected Poetry of Robert Browning. Intro. Knickerbocker, Kenneth L.. New York: Modern Library, 1951. 235–45.Google Scholar
Campbell, Joseph. Transformations of Myth Through Time. New York: Harper, 1990.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures Underground. Intro. Gardner, Martin. New York: Dover, 1965.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition. Intro. and annotat. Martin Gardner. Illus. John Tenniel. Norton: New York, 2000.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. Illus. John Tenniel. Intro. Alexander Woollcott. New York: Modern Library, 1936.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. “An Easter Greeting to Every Child Who Loves Alice.” Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass. Illus. John Tenniel. London: Puffin, 1962. 162–63.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. The Game of Logic. Symbolic Logic and the Game of Logic. New York: Dover, 1958.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. The Hunting of the Snark. The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. 753–78.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. The Letters of Lewis Carroll. 2 vols. Ed. Cohen, Morton N.. Assist. Roger Lancelyn Green. New York: Oxford UP, 1979.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. “The New Belfry of Christ Church: 1872.” The Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll. Vol. 1. Annotat. Edward Wakeling. Charlottesville: Virginia UP, 1993. 67–79.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. Sylvie and Bruno. The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. 273–503.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. Sylvie and Bruno Concluded. The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll. 505–749.Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis. Symbolic Logic. Ed., intro. and annotat. Bartley, William Warren III. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1977.Google Scholar
Castle, Terry. Masquerade and Civilization: The Carnivalesque in Eighteenth-Century English Culture and Fiction. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1986.Google Scholar
Chadwick-Joshua, Jocelyn. “‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking-Glass’: A Menippean assessment and rhetorical analysis of Carroll's Alice books.” Diss. Texas Woman's University, 1987.Google Scholar
Cohen, Morton N. Lewis Carroll: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.Google Scholar
Davidson, John. “The Ballad of a Nun.” Poetry of the Victorian Period. Ed. Buckley, Jerome Hamilton and Woods, George Benjamin. Glenville, Illinois: Scott, Foresman, 1965. 849–51.Google Scholar
de Troyes, Chrétien. “The Story of the Grail.” The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Trans. and intro. Staines, David. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993. 339–449.Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles. The Logic of Sense. Trans. Lester, Mark with Stivale, Charles. Ed. Boundas, Constantin V.. New York: Columbia UP, 1990.Google Scholar
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Ed. and intro. Craig, David. London: Penguin, 1988.Google Scholar
Dickens, Charles. The Letters of Charles Dickens. 12 vols. Ed. House, Madeline, Storey, Graham, and Tillotson, Kathleen. Oxford: Clarendon, 1965–2002.Google Scholar
Dickens, Charles. The Speeches of Charles Dickens: A Complete Edition. Ed. Fielding, K. J.. Hertfordshire: Harvester-Wheatsheaf, 1988.Google Scholar
Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York: Praeger, 1966.Google Scholar
Eco, Umberto. “The Frames of Comic ‘Freedom.’” Carnival. Ed. Sebeok, Thomas A.. Approaches to Semiotics 64. Berlin: Mouton, 1984. 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Empson, William. “Alice in Wonderland: The Child as Swain.” Aspects of Alice: Lewis Carroll's Dreamchild as seen through the Critics' Looking-Glasses 1865–1971. Ed. Phillips, Robert. Illus. Sir John Tenniel and Lewis Carroll. Vanguard P: New York, 1971. 344–73.Google Scholar
Eliot, George. Romola. Intro. Rudoph Dircks. London: Everyman, 1965.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. “Different Spaces.” Aesthetics, Method, And Epistemology. Essential Works of Foucault 1954–1984. Vol. 2. Ed. Faubion, James D.. Trans. Hurley, Robert, et al. . New York: New, 1998. 175–85.Google Scholar
Fowlie, Wallace. The Clown's Grail: A Study of Love in its Literary Expression. London: Dennis Dobson. 1948.Google Scholar
Frank, Lawrence. “Imagining the Antipodes: Lewis Carroll's Midsummer Night's Dream.” Denver Quarterly 19 (1984): 107–18.Google Scholar
Frye, Northrop. The Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, Martin. “Introductions and Annotations.” The Annotated Alice. Lewis Carroll.Google Scholar
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Ed. Shelston, Alan. London: Penguin, 1975.Google Scholar
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. “The Roman Carnival.” Italian Journey 1786–1788. Trans. Auden, W. H. and Mayer, Elizabeth. New York: Pantheon, 1962. 445–69.Google Scholar
Greimas, A. J. and Courtés, J.. Semiotic Language: An Analytical Dictionary. Trans. Christ, Larry, Patte, Daniel, Lee, James, McMahon, Edward II, Phillips, Gary, and Rengstorf, Michael. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1982.Google Scholar
Guiliano, Edward. “Lewis Carroll as Artist: Fifteen Unpublished Sketches for the Sylvie and Bruno Books: Introduction.” Lewis Carroll Observed: A Collection of Unpublished Photographs, Drawings, Poetry, and New Essays. Ed. Guiliano, Edward. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1976. 145–60.Google Scholar
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Ed. Elledge, Scott. New York: Norton, 1965.Google Scholar
Hennelly, Mark M. Jr. “The ‘Original Tess’: Pre-Texts, Tess, Fess, Tesserae, Carnivalesque.” The Thomas Hardy Year Book 25 (1998) 26–68.Google Scholar
Hennelly, Mark M. Jr.. “Victorian Carnivalesque.” Victorian Literature and Culture 30 (2002): 365–81.Google Scholar
Hinz, John. “Alice Meets the Don.” Aspects of Alice. 143–55.Google Scholar
Hollis, Hilda. “The Other Side of Carnival: Romola and Bakhtin.” Papers on Language & Literature 37 (2001): 227–54.Google Scholar
Hyman, Timothy. “A Carnival Sense of the World.” Carnivalesque. Hyman, Timothy and Malbert, Roger. London: Hayward Gallery, 2000. 8–73.Google Scholar
Jameson, Frederic. “Forward.” On Meaning: Selected Writings in Semiotic Theory. Algirdas Julien Greimas. Trans. Perron, Paul J. and Collins, Frank H.. Intro. Paul J. Perron. Theory and History of Literature. Vol. 38. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1987. vi–xxii.Google Scholar
Joyce, James. Ulysses. Forward Morris L. Ernst. New York: Modern Library, 1961.Google Scholar
Kelly, Richard. Lewis Carroll. Rev. Ed. Boston: Twayne, 1990.Google Scholar
Kincaid, James R. “Alice's Invasion of Wonderland.” PMLA 88 (1973): 92–99.Google Scholar
Kinser, Samuel. Rabelais's Carnival: Text, Context, Metatext. Berkeley: U California P, 1990.Google Scholar
Kristeva, Julia. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. Ed. Roudiez, Leon S.. Trans. Gora, Thomas, Jardine, Alice, and Roudiez, Leon S.. New York: Columbia UP, 1980.Google Scholar
Lecercle, Jean Jacques. “The Violence of Style in Tess of the d'Urbervilles.” Alternative Hardy. Ed. and intro. John Butler, Lance St.. New York: St. Martin's, 1989. 1–25.Google Scholar
Lemon, Mark. “The Moral of Punch.” Punch, or the London Charìvari (17 July, 1841): 1.Google Scholar
“Lessons in Punmanship.” Punch, or the London Charìvari (17 July, 1841): 2.Google Scholar
Malory, Thomas. Le Morte D'Arthur. A New Rendition by Keith Baines. Intro. Graves, Robert. New York: Mentor, 1962.Google Scholar
Massey, Irving. The Gaping Pig: Literature and Metamorphosis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: U California P, 1976.Google Scholar
Miller, Edmund. “It thought It Were A Mouse-Trap: The Sylvie and Bruno Books as Archetypal Menippean Satire.” Victorian Literature and Culture 21 (1993): 111–25.Google Scholar
Oates, Joyce Carrol. “Dodgson's Golden Hours.” Soaring with the Dodo: Essays on Lewis Carroll's Life and Art. Ed. Guiliano, Edward and Kincaid, James R.. Carroll Studies No. 6. Charlottesville: U Virginia P, 1982. 109–18.Google Scholar
Polhemus, Robert M. Comic Faith: The Great Tradition from Austen to Joyce. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1980.Google Scholar
Rabelais, François. Gargantua and Pantagruel. Trans. Raffel, Burton. New York: Norton, 1990.Google Scholar
Rackin, Donald. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: Nonsense, Sense, and Meaning. New York: Twayne, 1991.Google Scholar
Reichertz, Ronald. The Making of the Alice Books: Lewis Carroll's Uses of Earlier Children's Literature. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sewell, Elizabeth. The Field of Nonsense. London: Chatto & Windus, 1952.Google Scholar
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Ed. Orgel, Stephen and Braunmuller, A. R.. New York: Penguin, 2002. 446–73.Google Scholar
Sherer, Susan. “Secrecy and Autonomy in Lewis Carroll.” Philosophy and Literature 20 (1996): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverstone, Ben. “Children, Monsters and Words in Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.” Cambridge Quarterly 30 (2001): 319–56.Google Scholar
Stoffel, Stephanie Lovett. Lewis Carroll in Wonderland: The Life and Times of Alice and Her Creator. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997.Google Scholar
Stone, Harry. “Preface” to “A Popular Delusion.” W. H. Wills. Charles Dickens' Uncollected Writings from Household Words 1850–1859. Vol. 1. Ed., intro, and annotat. Stone, Harry. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1968. 113.Google Scholar
Sutherland, Robert D. Language and Lewis Carroll. The Hague: Mouton, 1970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweeney, Kevin W. “Alice's Discriminating Palate.” Philosophy and Literature 23 (1999): 17–31.Google Scholar
Tennyson. Alfred Lord. The Idylls of the King. London: Penguin, 1983.Google Scholar
Thackeray. William Makepeace. Vanity Fair. Ed. and intro. Stewart, J. L. M.. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968.Google Scholar
Tolkien, J. R. R. “On Fairy-Stories.” The Tolkien Reader. New York: Ballantine, 1966. 33–99.Google Scholar
Trollope, Anthony. The Warden. Intro. Angela Thirkell. Illus. Fritz Kredel. New York: George Macy, 1955.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor. “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology.” From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1982. 20–60.Google Scholar
von Eschenbach, Wolfram. Parzival. Trans. and intro. Mustard, Helen M. and Passage, Charles E.. New York: Vintage, 1961.Google Scholar
White, Allon. “Hysteria and the end of carnival: Festivity and bourgeois neurosis.” Semiotica 54–1/2 (1985): 97–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wills, W. H. “A Popular Delusion.” Charles Dickens' Uncollected Writings. 113–22.Google Scholar