Lewis Carroll's "Alice" and Cognitive Narratology: Author, Reader and Characters

by Francesca Arnavas

Overview

We live in an age that is witnessing a growing interest in narrative studies, cognitive neuroscientific tools, mind studies and artificial intelligence hypotheses. This book therefore aims to expand the exegesis of Carroll's "Alice" books, aligning them with the current intellectual environment. The theoretical force of this volume lies in the successful encounter between a great book (and all its polysemous ramifications) and a new interpretative point of view, powerful enough to provide a new original contribution, but well grounded enough not to distort the text itself. Moreover, this book is one of the first to offer a complete, thorough analysis of one single text through the theoretical lens of cognitive narratology, and not just as a series of brief examples embedded within a more general discussion. It emphasises in a more direct, effective way the actual novelty and usefulness of the dialogue established between narrative theory and the cognitive sciences. It links specific concepts elaborated in the theory of cognitive narratology with the analysis of the "Alice" books, helping in this way to discuss, question and extend the concepts themselves, opening up new interpretations and practical methods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783111104065
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	12/19/2022
Series:	Narratologia , #73
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)

About the Author

Francesca Arnavas, University of Tartu, Estonia.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

List of Abbreviations xiii

Quotations in Headings xv

Preface: Pictures and Conversations xvii

Chapter 1 Why the Alices? 1

1.1 Cognitive Narratology: Conceptual Framework 1

1.2 Lewis Carroll and the Mysteries of the Mind 9

Chapter 2 Virtual Alice 25

2.1 "The Question Is - Said Humpty Dumpty - Which Is to Be Master - That's All": The Author 26

2.1.1 The Rabbit Hole, Humpty Dumpty, and other Metaphor-Related Images 27

2.1.2 Wonderland and the Looking-Glass World as Blended Spaces 34

2.1.3 Cognitive Features of Carroll's Creative Inventions 36

2.2 "He Was Part of My Dream of course - but then I was Part of His Dream, too!": The Character(s) 40

2.2.1 A Curious Child 42

2.2.2 The Dreamchild Dreaming 48

2.3 "The Magic Words Shall Hold Thee Fast: / Thou Shalt not Heed the Raving Blast": The Readers 54

2.3.1 A Cognitive Approach to Fictional Worlds 55

2.3.2 The Visual Aspects of Alice's Worlds 61

Chapter 3 Mirrored Alice 68

3.1 "The More Head-Downwards I Am, the More I Keep Inventing New Things": The Author 68

3.1.1 Magic Mirrors and Lewis Carroll 70

3.1.2 The Cognitive Significance of Carroll's Mise en Abymes 77

3.1.3 The Looking-Glass Land: A Multi-Faceted Narrative Dimension 80

3.1.4 Carroll's Own Literary Doubles 84

3.1.5 Language Is Not a Mirror: Looking-Glass Insects 86

3.2 "So You Are Another Alice": The Character(s) 89

3.2.1 Queen Alice 91

3.2.2 Two Sides of the Same Coin? Mirrored Characters 94

3.2.3 "Impenetrability! That's What / Say!": Here Minds Are Not Mirrors 97

3.3 "Which Do You Think It Was?": The Readers 99

3.3.1 Mirror Neurons: Caveats and Carroll's "Bright Silvery Mist" 101

3.3.2 Mind Games and ToM in Alice's Worlds 103

3.3.3 Worlds Upside Down and Meta-Representations in Trouble 106

Chapter 4 Emotional Alice 112

4.1 "Is This an Extempore Romance of Yours, Dodgson?": The Author 114

4.1.1 The "Discovery" of Emotions in Victorian Literature and the Rhetoric of Nonsense Vs Victorian Sentimentality 114

4.1.2 "The Poignant Love Song Beneath the Invented Nonsense Words" 117

4.1.3 "Still She Haunts Me" 120

4.1.4 "Lolita Has Been Safely Solipsized" 122

4.2 "What Are Little Girls Made of? Sugar and Spice and All That's Nice": The Character(s) 127

4.2.1 Alice's Emotions 127

4.2.2 Alice's Actions 131

4.2.3 Alice's Body 133

4.3 "What Is the Use of a Book, without Pictures or Conversations?": The Readers 138

4.3.1 The Feet of Nonsense: Do We Weep for Alice? 139

4.3.2 "Tut, Tut, Child! Every Thing's Got a Moral, if only You Can Find It" 144

Chapter 5 Unnatural Alice 147

5.1 "You May Call It 'Nonsense' if You Like […] but I've Heard Nonsense, Compared with Which That Would Be as Sensible as a Dictionary!": The Author 148

5.1.1 Is Nonsense Unnatural? 148

5.1.2 Carroll's Interest in the Supernatural, Unnatural, Hypernatural 153

5.1.3 The "Unnaturalness" of the Carrollian Worlds 154

5.1.4 Creating the Unnatural: Authorial Strategies and Scientific Connections 158

5.2 "… But There's one Great Advantage in It, That One's Memory Works Both Ways": The Character(s) 161

5.2.1 Unnatural Minds in the Alices: It's Always Tea-Time 162

5.2.2 "… And the Rule Is, Jam Tomorrow and Jam Yesterday - Never Jam Today" 168

5.2.3 What Happens in the Minds of Flowers, Cards, Chess Pieces 170

5.3 "It Always Makes One a Little Giddy at First": The Readers 172

5.3.1 How Do We Grasp the Unnatural? 172

5.3.2 The Slippery Nature of the Impossible: Unicorns, Little Girls and Other Fabulous Monsters 176

Conclusion 182

Bibliography 184

Authors Index 198

Index of Subjects 200