The worlds between, above and below : "growing up" and "falling down" in Alice in Wonderland and Stardust
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Authors
Potter, Mary-Anne
Issue Date
2013-10-17
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Victorian womanhood , Fairy tales , Fantasy literature , Portals , Woman as ‘Other’ , Growing up and falling down , Self-alienation , Neil Gaiman , Lewis Carroll
Alternative Title
Abstract
The purpose of my dissertation is to conduct an intertextual study of two fantasy texts — Alice in Wonderland by Victorian author Lewis Carroll, and Stardust by postmodern fantasy author Neil Gaiman — and their filmic re-visionings by Tim Burton and Matthew Vaughn respectively. In scrutinising these texts, drawing on insights from feminist, children’s literature and intertextual theorists, the actions of ‘growing up’ and ‘falling down’ are shown to be indicative of a paradoxical becoming of the text’s central female protagonists, Alice and Yvaine. The social mechanisms of the Victorian age that educate the girl-child into becoming accepting of their domestic roles ultimately alienate her from her true state of being. While she may garner some sense of importance within the imaginary realms of fantasy narratives, as these female protagonists demonstrate, she is reduced to the position of submissive in reality – in ‘growing up’, she must assume a ‘fallen down’ state in relation to the male.
Description
Citation
Potter, Mary-Anne (2013) The worlds between, above and below : "growing up" and "falling down" in Alice in Wonderland and Stardust, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/11870>
Publisher
License
University of South Africa