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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)

Alice in wonderland: Comparing Carroll's original books with Disney's movies

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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

Conclusion

Picaresque plot became Bildung plot

Preference for plot type is sign of the times

A plot type has its own ethics and values

Growth, gain and belonging instead of wandering

and the joy of not belonging