Cixous Carroll

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Introduction to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and The Hunting of the SnarkAuthor(s): Hlne Cixous and Marie MacleanSource: New Literary History, Vol. 13, No. 2, Narrative Analysis and Interpretation (Winter,1982), pp. 231-251Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/468911.

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Introductionto Lewis Carroll'sThrough heLooking-Glassnd TheHuntingofthe nark*Helene Cixous

Concerning readingwhich lays tworkingHE READING whichwillfollow ettlesdownwithoutmakinganybones about it inside Carroll's text,takingadvantage of theremarkable work of clearingthe groundwhichhas been ac-complished byother people. Whoever wantsto surveythe territorycompletely, o be informed bout thedifferent iographical,critical,phenomenological, nd structural spects of theworkof Lewis Car-roll, should refer to the publicationsof Jean Gattegno and GillesDeleuze.1

To be honest,the territorys so well studied, ts stratificationsn-covered in everydirection, hat tseems bold or even impossible"toadd" anything. hat's whywe're going to playat thisreading"as if"we didn't knowanythingboutprecedingreadings. tsuitsus tomoveforward,with the feigned innocence-and the innocent feint-ofAlice,following he rule of "let'spretend"whichopens the doors ofthe House of the text: there we willwork on the extractionof twofragments,n order to pass to theother side of theStructure, o playthepart againstthewhole,and fairly nd squarelyto seize thewritingand its adventures where it pauses for breathand just before,as sooftenhappens in thisstory,t s cut off. n otherwords, et us reflect.Or again: let'spretend,under cover ofreading,toreflect hetext, ndletus methodically ursue whatescapes between sense and nonsenseand betweennonsenseand appearance. Finally, ne should be able, ifone hasn'tbeen thrown ffthetrack, oenjoylosingand relosingthegame in manydifferentways:reading as one dreams.

* Introduction to Lewis Carroll's Through heLooking-Glassnd WhatAlice FoundThere/Theunting f he nark.De l'autre 6te u miroirtde cequeAlice trouva/Lahasse usnark, r. Henri Parisot, n Englishand French (Paris, 1971).0028-6087/82/130231-21$ .00/0Copyright?1982 byNewLiterary istory, he University f Virginia

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYProblemsfMediationTranslating?In Alice's stories anguage works at all levels.The organizationofrelationships, f series,thesyntactical unctioning,heproductionofmeaning,the mastery f signification,he movementfromdesigna-tiontoexpression, hetotalityfoperationsexecutedbythesystem fthelanguage on itsownbodycan onlybe perceivedpreciselyfthe earhears the beat or what makes the textbeat: one should therefore sfaras possiblehave recourseto theEnglishtext n ordernot tomiss tseffects.One of the insolubleproblemsthatmake translationn gen-eral so hazardous is this nevitable ossofall types feffect:no matterhow scrupulous and skillful he translator s,the translations neveranything utanother,speciallywhen the surfaceof theoriginalcon-stitutes playofwords as vitalas that of the textof Lewis Carroll.So here let us pointout the value ofcertaineffects orwhich eventhe excellenttranslation f Henri Parisotcan inevitably ot findanequivalent.Thepoemsare structuredby the "noise" which theymake in thesense inwhich, nAlice nWonderland,heDuchess says, Take care ofthe sense, the sounds will take care of themselves."The rhymes,echoes, and redundancies attractthe words and deposit them inphonic layerswhere meaning attaches tselfhere and thereby acci-dent. It's the sonorous site of thatNonsensewhich the English lan-guage produces, less an "absurdity" han a system f sounds whoselaws or hidden structures ne could probablydeduce.The style f these poems in English is less conventional hantheirFrenchtranslation,with tsbasis of alexandrines, etsone realize,andmore"whimsical," ut it s as grotesqueas you like, nd as theFrenchshows.Humpty-Dumpty-Tweedledumnd Tweedledee: et's get itclear here:the appearance and disappearance of characters in ThroughtheLooking-Glasss apparentlynot caused by any demands of the storyand rests n a different asis: thus thepawnshave theirplaces alreadyfixedfrom hemomentwhen Alice setsthegame ofchess in motion,withthe resultthatkings,queens, and knights re foreseeableup totheir mallestgestures.But it'sprimarilynobedience totheordersofthe anguage towhichtheybelong,at once on a semantic evel and ona phonetic level, that Humpty-Dumpty and Tweedledum andTweedledee make theirappearance in a cleverlymultiplied eriesofechoes. Egg, full of himself, nd master of words' desire for self-expression, Humptyrefersyouback to Dumptybytheredoublingofhis veryname; everythingomes back to whathe decides to be, buthe's alreadyhimself quoted," repeated, importedfromthe nursery

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rhymewhichtellsof his fall and his breaking nto pieces. Humpty-Dumpty is produced by the phonemes of his own name. While hecomes back into the book as theplotrequires,theappearance of ourEgg is an example of the double functioning f thetext, t the evel ofthe signifiers y its surface sound, at the level of the storyby theassociation of unmatched sets linked to one another by metonymy:the kingscall the soldiers,the kingsand the soldiers call Humpty-Dumpty,who calls himself.A couple in himself, he Egg makes acouple with the pair of equally round twins whose names-Tweedle/Dum/Dee-revolve around a common onomatopoeia(Tweedle: to scratch an instrument, o produce a series of sharpsounds): complementary ivals,theyworkbydoublingand overbid-ding; theirdiscourse s less a conveyor fmeaningthan a producerofpiercingnotes.Because the object of Desire in this Storyof Alice is a certainknowledgewhich cannot be dissociated from anguage, or perhapslanguage itself, he "other side" frequently efers to the sonorousaspectof thingsor of words. The characters, he tests,belong to thesame listeningpattern:theiractionsoftenrepresentroles in sound.One can hear the battles nd the falls nd, ingeneral,all the ncidentsof theJoustas the enactment f an echo: in other words thisbook ofquestionsnever sends you back to anyreplybut perpetuates tself ninterrogation.t's no accident if the confederate n Alice's transfor-mation, hekitty-queen,s an animaldeprivedofspeech-which Aliceinsists n twenty imes-an animal which the ittlegirlbombardswithquestionsand which pretends"nottounderstand. t isnecessary, orthe purposes of the whole, thatthe question of the subject shouldunendinglycome up against a refusal to understand and reboundfrom t, nd thusmove frompointtopoint up to the eadingquestion:Who dreamedthat?A questionwhichfinally urns n thereader,thussharply ecalled tothereality fhisown role vis-a-vishetext; fAliceis in the dream of the King which she dreams, the reader may beaddressed in the book which he reads.Who reads? Who is there? Who dreams?Who is dreaming?Onecan imagine some simplifying eplywhich would indicatethe originor the author: the titleof the finalchapterwould seem to point to-ward a singleauthor: "Which reamed it?" my talics).But thequarrelformastery of meaning,of knowledge,of power) rebounds indefi-nitelyfrom nside,one mightalmost say fromthe inner wall of thediscourse: the textappears less as a patchwork "discourse in severalpieces of which one can reconstitute coherentversion,"saysJeanGattegno)2 han an impossible lidealong itself, trackwhich oses itsown way,a slip inasmuch as the textslips (in the sense of skidding),

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYjust as much as it pursues, since the object of thispursuit s pursuititselfas-and the veryrecordingof the gesture here produces itspossibility-the veryconditionof its existence. Certainly 'm awarethat tthismoment 'm perchingmydiscourseon thenarrow restofthewall whichseparates language from the place where it settles tsown affairs,n thedangerous mannerof Humpty-Dumpty, hich salso thatof Lewis Carroll. It is not the meaningless, t is what usttouches it,whichmakes this textremarkable,which gives it move-ment, haste, precipitation.A textwhichust brushes,herefore textwhich ever tops,not onlybecause of the chessboard,whichin itselfappears to be something lse (see further n), but because of LewisCarroll's propheticdeconstruction: f there are readers forCarrolltoday,it is not onlybecause there are childrento follow him ("thechild,"an imaginary pecies, nventedbya certaintypeofpsycholog-ical literature; he "littlegirl,"a complex fantasmof Lewis Carroll'sown, to which I will return); it's because he lost himself, s he leftthesemind-boggling racks, n the side which s called "modernity":that s to say,a formofwritingwhichdoesn't settle n one place anymore thana birdor an operation,but skips,flutters,moves,"out ofbreath,"without ryingo maintain enseor catch t,butmovedbythecuriosity-in theetymological enseof theword-which it feels aboutitsown existence:the verywriting uestions itself bout what it willpossiblybe able to say,what t'sgoingtodo, how far t'sgoing.Noth-ing lasting,no winner nobody"wins"the chess game which finishesin an Apocalypse): the end is ust as hard to grasp as thebeginning,and ifbychance I am temptedto believethat 've finallyeized someconcrete, olid,real,heavy,capital object (thegold crown,for exam-ple) and that 'm goingtobe able to sitdown,to takea seat,topreside,to govern, n an atmosphereof inauguration, f politicalor religiousfestival, f coronation, hen"somethinghappens": a universalupris-ing which seems to be caused bya reactionagainsttheEstablishment,which s mimedhere bythe set,overloaded table. Nobodywins,no-body keeps anything,but somethinghappens and the text is pro-duced: Carroll wasn't an avant-garde theoreticianbut a scholar,worriedby the factthat, n spiteof himself,his knowledgewas un-dermining nstitutions. his iswhy he criticismf established hings,and of the Law, of "the essence of all governesses," remainsmetaphorical or parodic; the game allows subversionby letting thappen unknownto itself; very egotistical" ractice selfish hingsAlice exclaims,whom the twinsdon't invite to shelterunder theirumbrella) sdenounced,even in itseverydaymanifestations. hus therecitationswhichclutter hemeetings re literallyweighedoutbythepound, measured out and chosen in considerationof theiraccount-

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INTRODUCTION TO LEWIS CARROLLable length-excretions ofmemory,whichhave thevalue ofan objector a simulacrum of value for the same reason as the rattle s themusical instrumentwhich the twinsargue about: the derisorybe-comes the markof property.Surreptitiously,hestorywhich ubjected tself, ythe ntermediaryof the chessboard, to the laws of a precise numberof moves is ev-erywhere isrupted-beginning bythedisruption f thechess game,which s itself heckmated n as far as itis a game aimingat a victoryaccordingto the rules-and defeats ts own game.IfCarrollwere not the worrieddouble of Charles L. Dodgson,whoinsisted n each of theletters fhisreal name3and enjoyeddoublingthoseofhis assumed name,one could see Throughhe ooking-Glasssone sees the work of a literarymachine. But there'sno author's nten-tion ofthatsort;Carroll wanted to tella story o a littlegirl, hestoryloses itsway, he ittle irl hanges,Desire remains lone master fthespace which sorientedbyno time,while on theedges of thetext,hewho gave the signalfordeparture aments, nd confidestheanguishof an ancient,masochisticadolescent to its moist verses. The textreally is humid, and it's there, between the banks of the dreamthroughwhich the hidden meaningflows, hat are mirrored hetextand its timidities: verythinghappens as thoughCarroll,instead oftakingtherisksof loss (of time,of life,of strength,fmeaning),sawhimself t risk, ook pleasure in it,exploited thispleasure,while theveryfactofwriting ownthispleasure frightened im out ofhis wits.Several dreamers-readers-authors re at work "contrariwise" n thesame wayas the twoTweedles-the one who knows thathe doesn'tknow,the one who doesn't know that he knows, heone who doesn'tthinkthathe's expressed himself o well,the one who sees that he'safraid,the one who's afraid of what he sees. They are what anxietymakes of Dodgson-Carroll. The axis of patience/action uns rightthrough he andscape and thechessboard,which lso revolve roundthe axis of knowing/pretendingo know: if Humpty-Dumpty m-pressesAlice because he makes wordssaywhat he wantsthemto say,he doesn't ask any questionsabout theplace oforiginof these words.The mainthing s to know who is themaster,he says.Actually,who isthe master? While Alice, obstinate, shrewd,enterprising,gnorant,curious, dissatisfied,makes people write she holds the King's penciland the act ofwriting s transformed, nothertextstirsbeneath theroyaltext),Humpty-Dumpty etshimselfaid: Master ofmeaning,hisclaims are onlyof any value in the world of meaning: he takes thewords,but themeanings evaporate: he must peak togetthe words toconsent,and when he breaks offhis recitationwitha "but")nobodyknowswhether hesilence nto whichhe is absorbedis an effect f his

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYpowerorof his mpotence: s itHumpty-Dumpty hobreaksoff fter"but," r "but"which breaks offthediscourse?If there are words which come withoutreason, is it because Iwantedto saythem thenI knew themonce, and they ome up fromthe place to whichI had relegated them,and I do not know,and Ifear,whattheyhave to saysincetheyhave been there),or else do thewords precede me, and do theycome and look for me? If I makesentences,what do the sentences make of me?Reply: a Snark: reply:a Boojum.That is quite something.TheHunting fthe nark must be followeduntil tsevaporation ntheeighthfit in themiddleofthe word he wastrying o say" ... softly nd sharply, n everydirection,the rightdirection, hewrongdirection, he forbiddendirection, hat tcan befollowed. For theSnark is a Boojum, you see" is notactuallydevoidofmeaning: the hunt does put up a Snarkin theend, an object-wordwhich devoursthepersonwho speaks it,which f t s notsaid cannotbe; a hollow or a crackwhich, s soon as it s split pen,closesagain onthe personwho is opening it. The Snark,like the Subject,can onlyexist ntheverymovement f itsownproduction,which s at thesametimethatof its oss.All thatremains s to go huntingfortheBoojum.Nothingremainsexcept the Snark who is a Boojum. A Boojum isperhapsthe . jum, or perhaps"a passingbreath."Thus from toB,and fromK toJ,one is carried along toward that secretplace, un-explored, perhaps unexplorable,where sciencegives up through ackor incompetence nits nstrumentsfresearch, heplacewhere drivesmold the breath ntophonemes.And now, s thereader or thelistener ure thathe doesn'tknow tall what a Snark is? Or perhapsdoes he think hat he knows,or sees,afterall? Before language who was he? And in his beginningwhatletterdrove Carroll on, fromwhat S or K or W does he come?Whatchancydesirecouples Snark or Boojum thustogether, o thatone cannot existwithout heother, hatone is theother, hatone doesnot exist fthe otherdoes exist, n thatnonplace propped up bythebook, which knocks the props, in the nicestway, fromunder thereader?If all Carroll's tale is onlydiscourse,so thatdiscourse is character,subject,plot,reality, tc., it is onlyso in a stateof dissolution: eventalking bout theconditionsof the work s alreadyreadingafter,us-tainingone's readingbythescaffolding f theready-made tructuresof the language, while the text remains unattainable.However, et'splaythegame: wecan show how thediscourseworks,catch it showingoff,accept the stage of the dream as a convention:and set in order what makes itself learlyvisible even if it doesn't

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INTRODUCTION TO LEWIS CARROLLmake itself lear). Let's playfirst hegame ofmeaning, et'sfollow hethemes which tdraws togetherup to the pointwhere theyare scat-teredagain. AliceThroughhe ooking-Glassorthe scapeofa text.Escape, fromthe popular French,from appare,Latin: in itsoriginalmeaning, ogetout of thecape, leaving t nthehandsofthepursuer.Thus it is with the reader-pursuerwho almost lays hands on thees-caped text,but nevercompletely. n the same wayit will never beexactlytime for Alice to eat the am ifshe enters the service of theWhiteQueen: symbolic f the interdictionwhichweighson all food,and on consumption n general or on reward, s the offer f employ-mentwhichtheQueen makes tothe ittle irl "twopencea week,andjam everyotherday,-jam yesterday nd jam tomorrow,but neverjam today").This stresses llegorically henongratifyingelationshipwhichthisbook establisheswiththe reader: no daywill be theday ofmeaning,but there is meaningon one side and on the other of thetime of reading, meaning both promised and inaccessible.Alice re-fuses; her refusalsgive to her Crossingitstrenchant, nergetic, ndrebelliousaspects. She never concedes anything ut a little ime,or alittleground, through politeness,but she resolutelymaintains thecriticaldistance,stronger,more impatientthan thatwhich she dis-played throughouttheundergrounddventures:n the play of forcesshe dominates, s in relationships f stature.The worldthroughtheLooking-Glass s reduced, Lilliputian,without herebeing any needforrecourseto physicalmodificationswhichare so impressive fea-ture ofthe marvelous nWonderland).On thecontrary,Alice,exceptin theepisode of therowing-boat,emainsunshakable,powerful, ndfullofauthority: he isnotdeceivedbythe tricks fothers, nd listenstopleadingwithout aking nyrisks.Observingherclose up, one feelsthat there exists in Alice a certainduplicitywhich is hidden by apretenseof "politeness": the only thingchildlike about Alice is herage. Her faculties f adaptation,thecompromiseswhichshe unceas-ingly puts intoeffect, he playacting f whichshe is capable at anymoment, ll thesebelong to the adult. Around her thecharactersofall types re infantile. he sum of therelationships s markedbya sortof diminution of affectivityless pleasure, less violence) simulta-neouslywith diffusedgrowth fanxiety, funeasiness.Something slackingor presents vague threat, nd veils the formerpetulance: ifThroughheLooking-Glasss the storyof a surface,which is told be-tweengame and dream,it s also themantleofa drama whose obses-sive featuresproduce from the veryfirst strongly ymbolic pace.

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYThat is why,outside the game or exterior to the discourse,and ex-amining t fromtheexterior, he book naturally ends itself o a the-maticsurvey:Alice-through-theooking-Glass:Read: Alice/seen/through/theirrorAlice/through/theirror eeing. The glass forseeing,theglass tobeseen, the glass whichsees, the glass where I see myself eeing,andseeing myself eeing myself, nd startingfrom there reading AliceThroughhe ooking-Glass.f one can readilygivean analytic nterpre-tationtoAlice nWonderland,hisbook lends itself ess readilyto suchan interpretation;ertainlyne isimmediately empted othink f theMirrorStage (inJacques Lacan, Writings),nd to take thewhole ad-venturefora figurative epresentation ftheimaginary onstructionof self, heego, throughreflexive dentification,he other side of themirrorneverbeing anything lse butthis ide; one could see in it theadventof narcissism, hus the titleAnd WhatSheFound Therewouldpoint toward the discoveryof herself, hroughntersubjectivity,dis-coverywhich would be triumphant. ndWhat heFoundTherewouldthusbe split nto"whatshe thought he found there" and especially"whatfoundher,"as one mayexpectthatan analytic eflection ear-ingon theEgo and theunconscious shouldend byputtingnquestionor betweenparentheses the object-believed-found.f Alice had be-lieved that he had foundsomething, ne wouldexpectthatwhen sheleft heHouse of the Mirror he would be markedbytheexperience,be slightly ther.But Alice"crosses"themirror rom ide to side,and thesurface, sit gives way,makes possible an invertedeadingof the world. Thisreading has as its essential object Time-History-and the effectswhich the mirrornversion f its awsproduce: inversion fcausality,effectprecedingcause. The effect hus becomes cause of the cause,the pain makesnecessary hecut,thecake is only"cutable" [coupable]once it is eaten.4 One should read here a notable insinuation n thechoice of examples: it is the cut whichwrites n the delay and itscontrary, he leap-or the revolution-in the order of things, r al-ternativelyhecuttingp (oftheroast, hepudding,thefish) s thoughthrougha disquietingreturnofbreaking ntopieces (rightup to themoment of universaloverthrow):the tales and the poems seem topointtoward a sort of invertedbirth, sortof regression oward thepoint of dismantling,where there gathertogetherall the fantasmsof devouring and being devoured. Even ifone limitsoneself to themachinery f frustrated ausality, ne mustrecognize n this time offoreboding-about-to-come-true,fthe future ording t nthepast,orof thefutureparticiple, heworld of CarrollianAnxiety. he moment

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INTRODUCTION TO LEWIS CARROLLwhen the Imminentumps onto the tablewillafter ll be nothingbutthe sudden entranceof death where it doesn't seem to have beeninvited,n childhooditself.Carroll s a masochist utalso, on theside,a bitof an ogre.Understated:suggestive froleur]:an anyonewho reads the open-ing poem not feel that repressed desire to touch, of which thewhole text is an extension?The last stanza is the expression of adenial:

And,though heshadow f a sighMaytremblehroughhe tory,For"happy ummer ays"goneby,Andvanished ummer lory-It shallnottouch,with reath fbale,The Pleasance f ourfairy-tale.

I, Carroll, hadow fan author, hantom f my esirewhich unsthroughhis torynd makests xcusesorbelongingothe ast-Iaffirmhat do nottouchwithmy vil breathAlice PleasanceLiddell, leasanceofourtale, he whom wish opleaseand whomakesmethinkf my eath.Hard, bold,withouthesitation, utequivocal, thequeen of the miss-ingteller("vanishing" s a favorite rocedureofdiscreet uicide). Herpassage and herreturn re presentedas a parenthesis, imilar o thedream in itsnature butdifferentn itseffects: verythingwhichhap-pened on theotherside remains xternaltotheSubject.Returncouldbe experienced as repression. f there s something roubling n thisoutward ourney and the return, t's whatone mightcall its theatri-

cality, r as we did earlier, ts feint:Alice is not and does not want tobe eitheron one side or on the otherbuthere or there, s a visitor,s atale-teller,s neither child nora grown-up,neither ut nor n,but nfact, n the same way as portmanteauwords whichare made up ofembedded elements, he is subjectto thisoutside of the insideof theoutside, to this place where the language is situated betweenmonologue, soliloquy,and dialogue, to this one in the other in theone, analogous to theportmanteauword: one cannot decide whichofthe words is the portmanteau.But there tis. For themoment etusthink bout one elementwhichseems more "portmanteau"thantherest and which we willcall: White.White: akingas pointof departurethemost exteriorspace of thestory, ne is fromthebeginningcaughtbetweenfireand snow: onesees Alice between thewintrywindowand themirrorhangingabovethefire,between ight nd itsreflection, etweenwhite nd red. The

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYElements will work throughand throughthe text, n complex re-lationshipsof meaning and forceswhere neverthelesswhite and thewordswhichconnoteit are dominant:water,frozen ater, now,cold,etc. A winter andscape and what resultsfrom t. The passage fromhouse to another house. Two kitties, ne white innocent, t has noresponsibility),ne black (guilty . .), ust as before therehad been,penis on paws, a rabbit with whiskersto enticeAlice into her firstadventure. A skein ofwool whichfalls,unwinds,getsmixedup, getstwisted round the neck of a kitty,erves as a ball, but is probablyintendedfor notheruse. Skein. Thread of thestory.Alicemother rmistress. he fire, he snowwillbe foundagain,and the elementsofthisfirstceneunderkindredguises n all theepisodes. Alice sherselfbetweenfire nd snow inthe attitude fdesire,ofwaiting.But she ispreceded in this"pleasure-nest"bythededicator;one mustread thestrangeopening poem and itsfinalecho to be grippedbythe melan-cholywhichcreated this nest" nest,to nest,returnunceasingly,ustas sun,sunburned, ummer,burning, tc.,return, ut stricken ycoldmemory).A sinistermetaphormarksthe fourth tanza of the poemwith fatalwarning:a sad bed awaitsthe childand theelderlychild;weddingbed and death bed are superimposed.How the elements are displaced,in differenthapes and in differ-ent places, as a resultof the first ppositionswhichset the story nmotion, n such a way that the summerwith ts symbolism nd itsattributes eems to emerge frombeneath thewinterwhichcarries twithin tself s memorycarries a memoryand as writing arries itsown unconscious: distillation fsnowthroughfire, f the whitewhichbeatsdown on thecountryside rom heoutsidethrough hegreenofLooking-Glass ountry: he other side is notexactly n inversion ut acontrarywith tscharge of desire. Besides, immediately,he relation-shipofthesubject otheelements ppears ambiguous:thecelebrationof fire has its effect on the coldness of the atmosphere. Thesnowflakes ndeavor as wellto crossthroughto theotherside of thewindow. Thus there is set up, on one side and on the other of atransparencywhich makes one believe in its own absence, a wallwhichrises invisibly like the forbidden, the theme of breakingthrough/repressionand, finally, oreclosure nthe sense thatthere srejectionof any "signifier"-here thesnow inasmuchas itis signifierof death-which makes itsreturn n reality, ut on the other side),and thatmedianspace which o often auses an abruptturn round inthescenes.Take the door and thespeechless porterofchapternine:Whichside of the door is the side whichgivesinward,which side isthatofthereply?The snowflees,driven way,checkmatedbythe fire(bonfireoutside and fireon the hearth),comes back by means of

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INTRODUCTION TO LEWIS CARROLLwhitenesswhich connotes sweetnesswhich is the sign of physicalweakness r mental weakness (the timid White Queen, the gentleWhiteKnight). t comes backtoo,we will ee, bymeans oftherushes,whose character s thattherushesthatone is goingto pickare alwaysmore beautiful han thosewhichhave been picked--"thereal scentedrushesmelting ike snow."5Followingthe course of the water and itsavatars,one sees theelementredoubled,a river-porter ith ts banksborderedwithsnow becomes flower; tdissolvesand reappears thenvanishes n rain (ch. 4) whichdoes not fall. n fact ts thematic pera-tionis fromtheverybeginningdiverted to serve the fantasmwhichpreventsmeaning coming into contact with t: the snow is fromthebeginning he kissofdeath,the fantasm f old age whichonly youthcan melt.As forthefire, tbreaks outwith n equally ambiguousviolence: asa deterrent orce, tputson quite a show: as a volcano it s Lilliputianwhenitterrifieshekingand thequeen in chaptertwo,or itsetsfireto meaning and reduces it to ashes, in the language of the Book-reflection,by means of the flamingeyes of the Jabberwock,themonsterwho is cut to pieces. The fire-sun, ed light, angible ight, salso intelligible ight,meaning: it smolders under the words like aJabberwock tself nd obeys the inconsequentialorders of Humpty-Dumptywhen he interprets he first oem of the Mirror ch. 6): thereadingofJabberwocky ythe Egg, an economical polysemy"I canexplain all thepoems that verwere nvented") srelatedtotransport,and so is a metaphor,but a metaphorofmetaphor tself, transportwhich makes its way inside the very object to be transported, heportmanteauword.Besides,transports itself major theme, nd as it weremetaphor-ical of itself,mirroring tself s itmakes itself vailable. It is, at oneand the same time, a theme of displacement associated with themovements f theair,and a theme ofpassage which srepeatedfromtheoutside to the inside,a themeof thegame on thechessboard,ofthe trips n the train or in theboat, and of themessage.The Theme fDisplacementnvolvesnot onlythewanderingsof thewhole textbut also, bymeans of everythingwhichcontradicts t,theestablishment f its complement,the on-the-spot: s soon as Alicegoes throughthe looking-glass bymeans of melting nd dispersal),the surfacebecomingcloth gauze), thenmist, nd entersthe Houseof theSame (or theHouse of Mime) and then mmediately xits ntothegarden,an exit acted out as a glidingdream,one moves into theappearance ofdepth: as one movesfrom hesignifier o the delusionwhich tconstitutes, r from he writtenwordto the infinite uestionofreading,a questionwhich s itself aised atevery quare, and often

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYeven "consumed" or passed over when, throughan erroror a badcalculation, thas been placed where it s threatenedbya pawn: eachtime Alice, or the reader, sets the question of meaning and onemeaning only ("what does it mean?"), the game of relationships sdisplaced and transformed. he pawns and the charactershave notgot a fixedplace but are determinedbysystems f movementwhichconstantly enew theconstellations fmeaningand givea pluralstatetoanymomentof thegame. It is impossible, nthespace of thegame,tobe an autonomous individual: each one involves ll the othersandis simultaneouslynvolved.The whole in an atmosphereof violence,for, fter ll, thisgame is a war and moves towardthe exhaustion ofthe twocamps (with minimal hance ofbeing broughtbackfor omelostpawn). The wear,sincethegame is thatofchess, s inevitable ndtheexpense enormous.As a result, n the astanalysis, n an imitationof stalemate,we get themotionlessrace and thethemeof havingtoget fasterand faster to stayin one place. To change without everchanging: thedelusion of History ertainly, utalso thereversesideof the desire for mmortality: owhardone has tolive so as not todie,how one has togetoutof breath n order not to be passed The breathofwind,whichcarriesAlice fromheretothere,forms pairwith hebreath so often lost. Between the two,as betweenthe Storywhichrecreates hepawn (sincethere s always setor a group in thebook)and thebiography thedesire of thesubjectremodeled bytherealityprinciple),blow strongwinds, "as strongas soup," whichcarryoffhair,pull offthe WhiteQueen's shawl, iterally e/cape.Decapitate.One should see there the threat of castration.The individualwhobelieves himselfmasterof his movements progress,becoming) s vic-timto an illusion: he is alwaysdeterminedby the structureswhichframe him and force him to submitto scientific aw: constrainingnineteenthcentury,which shakes the reassuring foundations oftheology nd replaces them mmediately yoverwhelmingmaterialistdeterminism.Hence theridiculousness f a belief n autonomy, r increativestrength or theexceptional individual, uch as is blindinglyexposed bytheepisode of the WhiteKnight: I invented tmyself," erepeats,as he collapses at everystep. His fall whichrepeats that ofHumpty-Dumpty, fallequallydictated nadvance,evenbya nurseryrhyme) s whathe accomplisheswith hegreatest uccess. t is no helpto leave on time, ne alwayshas torun,being s born on the track ndin therace, the table is set,thedesired hillraises its naccessible ndprovokingphallus,butwhatevermaybe Alice's obstinacy n wishingto reach it,thealreadydrawnpathcorkscrews nd carriesheraway.Is thepath involuted or folded?Displacementgoes side byside withenclosure and changes places

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INTRODUCTION TO LEWIS CARROLLwith t: reversalsand comings and goings lie in waitfor Alice's en-thusiasms and her nevertheless nsatiablecuriosity.Certainly, achreturn ozero,tothepointofdeparture, etsthe movement ff gain,butonlyup tothedaywhen t willno longerhavethestrengtholeaveagain. Constantwastageofenergy, njoyment nd weariness,work nharmony. n the end Alice rejectseverything.Displacement s onlypermittedwithin he ruleswhichannul itorlimit t: on thechessboard, n thecyclicalframeof theseasons,and inthe limitedframeof the totalityf thecountryside:hedges, streams,fences, nd highpoints.The seasons,theday-nightpposition whichis invented), ll thefalse movements urround theearth,whichplayswith hem as itassumes theirreflections. he playof thefour seasonsmay be taken separately,each one involving ts own mythologynsymbolic radition nd its familiarprops: brown eaves,greenfields,etc. These props are also too familiar nd indeed subvert he differ-ences projectedbythe imaginary epresentation f the fourperiodsof the year. The seasons do dutyas limits, s frames,and are nolonger landmarksof climatebut doublets of the square; finally, sHumpty-Dumpty's oem sets tout, they eem to organizethe stagesof communication: nwinter, sing; in spring, willtry nd explainwhat I mean; in summer,perhaps you willunderstand; in autumn,take pen and ink and writedown mysong (winter+ expression +present; spring + interpretation future;summer + reception +future; utumn + inscription law; meaningis yetto come; writingcomes under therule oflaw; communication nd exchange belongtothe order of desire and of the nonsatisfaction f desire).A landscape xists but it is subverted,urned into a theme,and souprooted,thefigureof anotherspace, butvisible nd greenin oppo-sitionto thevolatilization f theelement,water:Green: hisgarden into whichAlice rushes is at first real piece ofground, later extended. The flowers,before being allegories orpeople, are planted naturally; here s a real, soft awn, .. a wood, aforest, rees,but theyhave no name other than that of the species.Alice hides behind "a tree,"but theyhave no specificproperty: heyare thereto "make-believe"naturewhich,without olor,withoutre-lief,without roperties, resents n image"ofthegreatgameofchessplayed all over theworld"whichcan be seen fromthe (false) hill.It is here,before"Nature's trompe 'oeil,"because of the reneweddis-mantling f the ground/text,hatthe setting lowlygapes open.This gap allows us to be presentat the scene, the only scene whichreallyescapes fromcontrol,and it is the same crackwhich showsusthe sidesteppingby which the game itself s outmaneuvered. Thesymbolicdenaturation of natural objects is invertedby the uncon-

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYscious, which lifts he lid at the verymomentwhen one no longerexpects it. And afterthe series of fake-forest,mountain, streams,gardens,suddenlythereappear: therealrushes with guardof honorof sensual qualifications, bouquet notof people or of words but ofsignifiers, azzling returnof the dancing object-a fin-de-siecle oand frobetween Narcissusand Salome-which eludes thegrasp againand again and again. It is here thateverything eld fastsuddenlytakes its own course, but so quickly that it's easy to miss what isnevertheless he trueraisingof the veilwhich s the text:

"Ohplease Thereare some cented ushes "Alice ried na sudden rans-port fdelight."Therereallyre-and suchbeauties ""Youneedn'tayplease' o me aboutem," heSheep aid,withoutookingup from erknitting:I didn't ut emthere,nd I'mnotgoing otakeemaway.""No,but meant-please,maywewait ndpick ome?"Alicepleaded. Ifyoudon'tmind toppingheboata minute."The true rushes escape fromthe mirror n a sudden upheaval ofthe structure.The storyundergoes a disturbanceplayed out by anunexpected elementwhichhas occurred in the veryfunctioning fthe game. This lastsno more than the rushes do. The narrator ndnature renew the pact which makes them accomplices in escape:"Even the real scented rushesonlylasta very horttime," nd these"darlings" given such powerful connotations have the fate ofsnowflakes;theymelt and lie at Alice's feet; theyare what snow iswhen it falls n dreams,greetedbyshoutsof oy.Subversion of the landscape as a resultof the themewhich is the

landscape.The snow reassumesand remelts tswateruntil ummer, tan equal distancefrom sense and non-sense.What can we sayaboutthe adventureof sense at thispoint?The landscape is sensed to bearound the house which is around the room which is around themirror:the embedding of themesdemands a polysemicreading ofwhatappears tobe a plaything s well as a game,a pieceofmachinery.This game seems to be a dazzling, prismaticEffect:but ust as Alicesees the signpostwhichpointstowardTweedledum's house and thatwhich points towardTweedledee's house repeat itself,which leadsone to suppose that two houses exist whileactually t's a house withtwoowners). In the same way,this text s an object which works toproduce theappearance of the illusionwhich tis: there s a mirror,but it'snoton theside thatone imagines.The mirror s itself eflectedbythosemirrors fmemorywhich re thefields, hesea, thestreams,and, especially, hechessboard; a visionof theworld as a planisphere,

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INTRODUCTION TO LEWIS CARROLLan illusionofdifferentevelswhich sgiventhe iebythesetting utofthechess game, flattening f the order of meaning,and dispersal ofrelationships.Flattening: contrivedpolysemyndicates nd reindicates he otherself: reality s in the mirrorwhichwas, supposedly,contained in theroom whichwas contained,etc. ... is in the mirrorwhichin realitycontainsthem,permitsthem to exist,retainsthem,playswiththem,losingbecoming as it does so: the book moves withoutmovingfor-ward,and readingis playeduntil t reaches checkmate.All this n theend isonlya leaf.And it snot toproduce a metaphortosayso: the "isonly" s notonlythe denial of thedreamerwho,when he wakes,saysit'sonlya dream and immediatelywipesit out: thewaking, he returntothings nthreedimensions,happens intwoperiods;the first eriodis destruction, he second is the period of Alice's story.Everythinghappens as ifthe otherside had become intolerable or perhaps tootolerable?);thetensionwas takento a pointof suchextremevibrationthatthe text uddenlybreaksoff.Alice,attackedon all sides,screams.And wipesout: "You're nothingbut a packofcards,""I can't standitany longer " The operation of annihilationshould be seen in twoways: first, s a sudden return to the world after a crossingof themother the two final scenes of Wonderland nd ThroughheLooking-Glass are superimposable:Alice standsup to theQueen and destroysher immediately fterhaving acquired her real stature,or the mys-teriesof the maternaltongue) and so as Alice's assumption;but sec-ondly,as the realizationof a failure.Realization,or desire to realizethe failure: forthennothingremains but to immediatelymove for-ward to the second period,thatof deferredenjoyment, hatofwrit-ing,of repetition,n oppositionto the paroxysticperiod of the fan-tasm.That iswhy he chessboardnotes thegame but s also itsfailure.That is whythingswhichwere unbearable on the other side, heavywith nxiety, re takenup again bythestorywhichfrequentlymakessure we know tis on the otherside byremarks ike "and laterwhenAlice told.. .") but without nxiety.Whatwas violentbecomes won-derfulat a distance.Annihilation,lattening,isaffection,nd story o together:that's be-cause the mirrorwraps the house and the snowcoversthe text.Thiswrappingof the house is, in reality, he whitenessof the mirror:meaning and blank, law and death, memoryand cold are inter-changeable. What is read in the mirror s erotic ifeand death, thetracesof the forbiddensown in the uncertainwake of the signifiers;the poems which framethe story, rozen and concrete,say this n aquite explicitway.The equivocal nature of Carroll's text, tsgeneraldream quality, the scenes-fantasms-the profusion of lapsus, all

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYthese breakthroughs f the unconsciouswhichmake their markontheotherside of the silverbacking re thetracesofthisfrozendesire.(Just s Carroll was a photographer, fixer f light, caretakerofimages: photography, he retrospective rtpar excellence.)Twoexamplesf cenes fdesire:1. Chapterone, thechapterofAlice'sdesire,also recordsat the tex-tual level thewriter's esire:"Do youhearthesnow gainst hewindow-panes,itty? ow nice nd softitsoundsJust s if omeonewaskissinghewindow llover utside. won-derifthe snow oves hetrees nd fields hat t kisses hem o gently? ndthen tcovers hemup so snug,youknow,with white uilt; nd perhapsitsaysGo tosleep,darlings,ill he summeromes gain.'Andwhen heywakeup in the ummer, itty,hey ress hemselvesll ingreen,nd danceabout-whenever hewindblows-oh,that's ery retty "riedAlice, rop-ping heballofworstedoclaphands. And do sowishtwastrue 'msurethewoods ooksleepyn theautumn,when he eaves regettingrown."One should regard thisfragment s moving etweentwo scenes be-tweenwhichreadinghesitates: hesetwo scenes are each intheir urnthe area of a doubling; and yetone and the other are moved bythesame desire, insistent, xclamatory, aught between love and wish,whichthe edition underlines:thereader's attention s attracted t firstglance by the signsof lack, of expectation,but it is the writer's arwhichis at first ddressed: actuallythisfragment llows the sugges-tion,to the attentiveistener, f what one can compare to a "primalscene,"which functionshere,at thebeginning, s theUr-scene f theentiretext;the real and thefantasmaticre mixed na scenariowherecommentarygoes beyondwhat actuallyhappens: the desire for in-formation (curiosity),sexual stirring,self-questioning about thelibido, t s the desireof desirewhichtitillates lice and preparesherforexploration:what nterests er takesplace on the other ide ofthepane, and she onlygrasps itsnoise, as a resultof whichshe recon-structs he whole relationshipbetween snow and earth.The subject comes up against the window of knowledge: againstimplies barrier nd so a desiretocross t. She willnot crossthroughthewindow to thetrue now.)Thescene aysdrivewith n S: nice-soft-soundiss now, tc.,flutter,phoneticproductionof the unconscious.The same maneuver occursat the semantic evelwhere cover nd quiltcover and double one an-other, o be articulated t the zero pointofsleep,onlytobe rejectedatthe momentwhensummeretsup. But it s also (and which s "other"in relationshipto the firstone cannot decide) a mythologicalcene:dionysiac, t is played fromthe moment of death/winter/burialntilthewakingof nature/summer/reemergence.inally, he distribution

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INTRODUCTION TO LEWIS CARROLLof connotation color, movements,noises . . .) implies, n the wholetext,notonlythe seasons butthe hesitation etweentwocomplemen-taryseasons. Everything waysbetween seeming and truth,dreamand reality.I do so wish twas true .. .: thewishdoes notnecessarily ntail tscomingtrue,nor even the desirethatthe order of thefantasm houldcome true nreality. he forestswhich eemasleep, are they r aren'tthey?The snowembraces and kills r putstobed: itsuspends life;butifthere ssleep,one maypresumethattherewillbe dream,and hencetext.Then one can playwith he ball of wool whichAlice, norder toclap, has let fall:globe (skein,guideline of theadventure)-if itrollson the analytic xis, it is themother; f itpivotson themythologicalaxis, it is the earth. Unrolled,it is the line withoutbeginningor endwhich actsas a path to the mirror.2. Theoutbiddingfthedreamer/thereamed:

"If thatthere King was to wake," added Tweedledum, "you'd go out-bang -just like a candle ""I shouldn't "Alice exclaimed indignantly. Besides, if 'm only a sortofthing n hisdream,what areyou, should like to know?""Ditto,"said Tweedledum."Ditto,ditto " cried Tweedledee.He shouted thisso loud thatAlice couldn't help saying"Hush You'll bewakinghim, 'm afraid, fyou make so much noise.""Well, t's no useyour alking boutwakinghim," aidTweedledum, "whenyou're onlyone of the things n his dream. You knowverywell you're notreal.""I am real " said Alice,and began to cry."You won't make yourself bitrealerbycrying,"Tweedledee remarked:"there'snothingto cryabout.""If I wasn'treal,"Alice said-half laughingthroughhertears, tall seemedso ridiculous-"I shouldn't be able to cry.""I hope youdon't suppose those are real tears?"Tweedledum interruptedin a tone of greatcontempt."I knowthey're alkingnonsense,"Alicethought oherself: and it'sfoolishto cry bout it." So she brushedawayhertears, nd wenton, as cheerfullysshe could. "At any rate, I'd betterbe getting ut of thewood, forreally t'scomingon verydark. Do you think t'sgoingto rain?"Tweedledum spread a large umbrella over himself nd his brother, ndlooked up into t."No, I don'tthink t s,"he said: "at least-not under here.Nohow.""But itmayrain outside?""Itmay-if it hooses,"said Tweedledee: "we've noobjection.Contrariwise.""Selfish hings " houghtAlice,and she was ust goingto say"Good-night"and leave them,whenTweedledum sprangout fromunder theumbrella, ndseized her bythewrist.

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYHere, thequestionofexistence, et between the twinswhocomple-mentone another and are opposed byAlice,makes itswaybetweenreality nd fiction owardbeing,but never attains t nspiteof itshopsand jumps:If sets tunderway, hypothesiswhich raisesthequestionand pro-duces thespace-but theKing remainson the other side of this ittlescene,therewhere thedesire forknowledgeand formovingforwardis halted,Alice is blocked off, eized byTweedledum who takesherwrist.However,the debate has wound itswaythroughtheverbsof exis-tence, ookingfor a meetingpoint,producingas itmoves forwardsystemwiththreeontological pairs:

I am 1. I am/Iam not being/nonbeingyou 2. I/otheryouramhere 3. here/outsideoutsideIn fact,all the pairs which define the ego in a logical world arequestioned, apart from the three selected pairs: these run throughand through hechess game because oftheorganizingpowerof theiroppositions. Thus the plot is a resultof these couplings: attack/dis-play, attack/display,he sequence of blows deliveredby alternatingsubjects s set nmotionbycouples 1 and 2: (War) dance of Tweedle-dum/Tweedledee, then Tweedledee/Alice,then Alice/Tweedledum.As well, couple 3 reenacts the others: there is, of course, a fourth

subject, absent, the sleeping King, toward whom everything on-verges: everythingwhich s said is said about him.Alice occupies theplace of the opposite in relationship o the King: she is present,theonlypermanentfeature n thestory,nd exceptforrare moments feclipse, she assures the movementand presence of the text,some-timeswithuncertaintyn her game, but never any deep-seated un-certaintyeven hername,whenit swiped out in the wood of forget-fulness, emainsattached toherbyone letter).As forthe twoyelpingmusicians, nsteadof replying o her,theyreplyto one another andecho one another.If + wake + added . . bang,imitate, s intheprecedingfragment,a rise and then a fall: when nearest to drive the semantic risingmovements et up an overall vibrationwhich comes together n thedilutedtotalityf a greatsemanticunity ssociatedwithrising: andleis drawn into thisparadigmto the extent that tis an erect ight;but

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INTRODUCTION TO LEWIS CARROLLalthoughit has connotationsof power, it (and hence Alice) is neveranything ut a candle.You'd go out,bang ikea candle: the candle shows a light recallingthe theme of fire) and bursts (phallic symbol), but with anonomatopoeia whichone mustnot underestimate. ts effect s deep,sonorous,crack of a weapon or bang of a door, it's thesonorousechoof a suggestionof extinction, trongand disproportionateas in adream. It is notonlyTweedledum's rhetoricwhich s exercisedhere,butalso hisaggressivity:t thepsychological evelthe ittleman seeksto wipe Alice out, to blow her out like a candle, to snaffleher like apawn. Bangexclaims. lice echoes it and the movementfrom xclama-tion to the expression of exclamation (exclaimed) ets the doublingunderwayat the very deepest levels of the story: n the same way,Alice's Besides outbids and plays the same game withadded thatexclaimed oes withBang. The risingmovement s sustainedbya re-newal of aggressionwhich s still imed at the question of existence:whatare youif am whatyousay am; whatam I if 'm notreal, fhedreams me; who are you?If the object of her dream dreams her as dreamed in her dream,where s shewhatshe is?An exchange ofbeingbetween dreamer anddreamed perpetuates the uncertainty nd raises the question ofknowledge:ne comes back to thequestion of the primalscene. Whatam I, I would ike to know, f I am engendered in the structure,questionwhichproduces an anxiety ncreasedbythevery xistenceofTweedledum and Tweedledee. Moreover, their manner of being,excess, dysymmetryn asymmetry: itto Ditto Ditto theirway ofrelaying ne anotherwith lightdifferences roduces a psychologicaleffect f enhanced surreptitiousness. he replyseems to escape, it salwayselsewhere,sometimes t is alreadygivenbut without ontent,and in foreign anguage. However,the sequence, noisierand noisier(Bang Hush ), produces as itmovesalong yet nothercouple, thatofsleep/waking,nd all the oppositionswhichaccompany them: reali-ty/fiction,nowledge/ignorance,ilence/noise,nd so on, in a swarm-ing of otherpairswhich surround the Subject.I amreal: this s perhaps thegreat paradox of the Crossingof theMirror. If it is written hat Alice is real in the dream, hen the text,insofar as it is written, enies itself. t produces the denial of thedream which it is, since thisoperation produces the escape whichconstitutes hewritten ext.Logic ofmeaningon the side of thewin-dow, logic of lack on the side of the mirror: Alice is asymptotic obeing in relationship o:the surface whichseparates theexterioroutsidethe axis ofbeing fromthe interior utside.

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NEW LITERARY HISTORYTweedledee is all too close to the truthwhen he saysthatshewon't

make herself nymore real bycrying, nd there sn't nythingo cryabout. Lack is what always remains lack. "There's nothing to beabout." Because there sn'tanyotherside,because one doesn't touchthe mirror ven ifone thinks ne's crossing t:Alice,seeingthewholeroom oftheHouse of the Mirror xceptthe blindpointwhere thefire-place is,is at thelevel ofbeinginsofar s to say"mirror" s also to saythat am thismirrorand that anguage is itself hething hatreflectsratherthan the thingwhichhas meaning). When Tweedledee indi-catesAlice's lack,he remains outside the lack,while he trugglesnsidethe ack,nsidewhat emains utside eing. he iscandle,to the extent hatshe is what one can blowout; but she's also laughter hroughears:If the three discourses, which displace Alice's reflectionfrom thespace of thedream (I am) to the space of herdiscourse the real) tothe space of her internaldiscourse, ead to an impasse,at least thatprovokes aughter.Outbursts fgaiety,movementswhich,both at thepsychological evel and at the story evel, produce the same risingeffect s If. If bychance . . .As cheerfullys she could:renewed riseofAlice,who stops crying omoveon toanother sortofquestion: thisnewsequence (Do youthinkit'sgoing to rain . . .) has the strength f illusion,whichgivesto thesubject omething ogo on with fterfailure: s soon as thequestion sasked, a big umbrella is unfolded. The supposition engenders thegesturewithremarkablereciprocity: he fantasm ngendered bythetext ngendersthe text n itsturn.The darkeningofthesceneworksin several differentways: obscurity f meaning (foolish,nonsense,ridiculous),obscurity f the sky,which demands rain. As ifthe rainwas a secretion f theabsurd. Besides, itdoesn't rainexceptoutside.Tweedledum extends theumbrella,which xcludesAlice,protects hetwo characters but doesn't protect her. This umbrella in whichTweedledum rollshimself,sn't t dream? Or could dreambe made ofthe stuff f theumbrella?Last mix-up-mixing it: Tweedledum (he saysfourtimesno, no,not, nohow) moves at the same tempo as the text Strengthof thespoken). Alice basically s isomorphicwith hecharacters he encoun-ters: she is chosen byher choice,which s the character he dreams.Only the textescapes, unexpected; it is up to all the moves on theboard. "It may, f it chooses"; it,the subjectwhichgetsaway, is theescapee.Free,thinksAlice,whohas,however,notbroken the dream ... andso shewantsto moveaway; she wants,byescaping thecloud, symbol-ically oescape thenight, r perhapstoprecede it.But,at the moment

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INTRODUCTION TO LEWIS CARROLL 251when she says goodnight,Tweedledum seizes her wrist,and thenightmarebeginsagain. Alice is again ensnaredbythedream.UNIVERSITY OF PARIS VIII,

VINCENNES(TranslatedbyMarie Maclean)NOTES

1 Jean Gattegno,Lewis Carroll Paris, 1970); Gilles Deleuze, Logiquedu Sens (Paris,1969).2 Lewis Carroll,Logique anspeine, d. Jean Gattegno Paris, 1966), p. 20.3 Cf. letter f 27 December 1873: "Mydear Gaynor-My name is spelled with 'G',that s,Dodgson ... Ifyou do itagain I'll call you ... 'aynor:Could yoube happywithsuch a name?"4 [The Frenchcoupablemeans bothguilty nd cutable.Tr.]5 [The Frenchtranslation dds "like snow in the sun"; the Englishdoes not. Tr.]

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