This paper rereads Lewis Carroll’s Alice-stories from a Lacanian psychoanalytical perspective, building on Lacan’s suggestion to see them as an “epic of the scientific era”.
Keywords: Alternate Realities, Fantasy, Reality, Symbol Are words ambiguous in Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass? If so, why are they ambiguous? Is language in Alice in Wonderland used to reinforce the imposed meanings people have come to associate with words? In this sense, do unconventional words have associated meanings? These questions are brought up in regards to language being used as a symbol and a method to communicate original ideas and definitions. While analyzing his work, there are numerous questions that arise. Lewis Carroll wanted readers to question the world around him and thus introduced new words, different meanings, and inverted texts. In society, people develop an understanding of words and their meanings based on the societal constructs around them and the everyday usage of language. When the child develops a wholeness to them, in the mirror stage, the child enters the Imaginary Order. Similar to an infant who does not understand societal boundaries, fiction blurs the lines of fantasy and reality. Due to Wonderland and Looking Glass Land not having any preconceived constructs, words are used outside of their normal framework and typical meanings that people have come to know and recognize them within civilized society are no longer valid or useful. Carroll’s distinct use of words reinforce theories about signifiers and their intended meanings. The world of Wonderland and the Looking Glass Land exist in alternate realities, next to the universe people reside in.
In both novels, words can be ambiguous and the text itself can be nonsensical becoming unique signifiers. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson had a fascination with words, even creating his own pen name, Lewis Carroll. Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, published in 1865, and Alice Through the Looking Glass, published in 1871, are still both widely read and analyzed today.
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