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Returning to Wonderland : Utopian and Carnivalesque Nostalgia in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

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.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-24148
Date January 2013
CreatorsStreiffert, Elin
PublisherLinnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR)
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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