Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/922122

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Title
'I'll be judge, I'll be jury': 'tail'-telling, imperialism and the other in Alice in Wonderland
Author/Creator
Webb, Caroline
Institution
The University of Newcastle. Faculty of Education & Arts, School of Humanities and Social Science
Description
This essay examines how Carroll’s Alice is represented as a child immersed in Victorian cultural perceptions of race and in contemporary English attitudes to the Other, locating this portrayal in relation to debates about the child reader. I demonstrate how, in Alice’s conversations with the creatures in and following the ‘pool of tears’ episode, she repeatedly attempts to engage them with her own values and in so doing consistently ignores the reality of their situations. The imperialist nature of her vision is highlighted by the Mouse’s ‘dry’ account of the origins of the English nation. I examine the implications of Carroll’s visual representation of the Mouse’s tale as a tail, and demonstrate how Alice in Wonderland reflects English cultural imperialism and its manifestation in the individual.
Relation
Papers: Explorations Into Children's Literature Vol. 20, Issue 1
Relation
http://www.paperschildlit.com/index.php/papers/article/view/69
Date
2010
Publisher
Deakin University, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Keyword(s)
Alice in Wonderland;  race;  cultural perceptions;  imperialism
Resource Type
journal article
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/922122
Identifier
ISSN:1837-4530
Reviewed
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Subject
"Papers: Explorations Into Children's Literature"
 
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