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Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
“More like a story”The narrative form of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland (1856) & Through the
Looking Glass (1871) compared with that of
Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951 & 2010)
From book to film
Story always changes
Each medium has
specific possibilities
and limitations
This lecture: specific
change of genre in
Disney adaptations of
Caroll’s books
Story: plot
Greimas’s Narrative schema:
1. Manipulation stage
2. Competence stage
3. Performance stage
4. Sanction stage
Each story type (genre) fills
in the stages differently
The four stages in Disney’s
film versions are (radically)
different from those of the
books
Tim Burton:
“Seeing other movie versions of it, I never
felt an emotional connection to it. It was
always a girl wandering around from one
crazy character to another, and I never really
felt any real emotional connection. So it’s an
attempt to really try to give [Alice in
Wonderland] some framework of emotional
grounding that has never been in any version
before. [...] the real attempt was to try and
make Alice feel more like a story as opposed
to a series of events.”
Original books
Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland (1856)
Through the Looking
Glass (1871)
Very ‘episodic’
narratives
A series of episodes
rather than one
coherent whole
Episodic stories
1. Manipulation stage Reason to get going,
e.g. to travel (often
not very special)
2. Competence stage Fix a ship/horse/
spaceship
3. Performance stage E.g. island hopping
4. Sanction stage Turn home rich/
enriched (but not
really changed)
Picaresque (NL: schelmenroman)
Example of episodic
genre
Main character: Picaroon
fully autononomous
Outside society’s hierarchy
Element of chaos in a
(supposedly) orderly world
Alice: reversed picaroon
Element of order in a
chaotic world
Alice as picaroon
Situation too difficult?
Simply moves on
No part of world around
her
Doesn’t change
Mikhail M. Bakhtin on
Picaroon:
No growth
No fruitful interaction
(dialogue) with world
around him/her
Bildungsroman
Bakhtin: opposite of picaresque
Growth
Interaction with time and place
Plot:
1. Manipulation stage Main character doesn’t ‘fit’
2. Competence stage Reflection on self
3. Performance stage Find oneself and one’s place in the
world
4. Sanction stage Main character found him/herself
and his/her place (or not - suicide)
This seems Burton’s idea of a story
Not strange: is everywhere nowadays
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Already more coherent
whole
Alice is given a clear
aim
But only after 51
minutes
To go home
Lesson learned
There is no place like
home
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
1. Manipulation stage Alice doesn’t ‘fit’ in Wonderland. She
(first 51 minutes) thought it would be wonderful, but life
was much better at home
1. Competence stage Alice reflects: I give myself very good
advice, but I hardly ever follow it
2. Performance stage Finds her way home.
3. Sanction stage Important lesson learned: no place like
home
Compare 1951 film with book
“I’m through with rabbits. I wanna go
home!” [Cries pitifully]
'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice,
'when one wasn't always growing larger and smaller,
and being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost
wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole—and yet—
and yet—it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life!
I do wonder what can have happened to me! When I
used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing
never happened, and now here I am in the middle of
one! There ought to be a book written about me, that
there ought!
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Sequel, not adaptation
It’s all about Alice
Alice and Wonderland
change each other
Surface: adventure story
about fight between good
and evil
Underlying plot: Alice must
find herself and her place in
the world
“You cannot live your life to please others. The choice must be yours”
(White Queen)
Comparing book and 2010 film
Caterpillar in the book
“Who are you?” is a riddle
without an answer
Yet another frustrating
conversation without a solution
Picaresque
In the film
“Who are you” is an incitement
to go looking for herself
From hardly Alice to almost
Alice to truly Alice
Bildung
Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
1. Manipulation stage Alice doesn’t ‘fit’
2. Competence stage Needs ‘time to think’:
self-reflection made
concrete in Wonderland
3. Performance stage Finds herself and place
in the world
4. Sanction stage Has grown and is ready
to change the world