Beware the White Rabbit: Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and A. G. Howard’s Splintered as Gothic Cautionary Tales for Young Girls

Auba Llompart Pons

doi:10.32798/dlk.527

Abstract

The aim of this article is to speculate on the meaning that Lewis Carroll’s (1865, 1871) Alice’s journey through dark Wonderland has acquired in two examples of contemporary YA fiction, Tim Burton’s 2010 film adaptation and A. G. Howard’s 2013 Splintered novel, both depicting Wonderlands that are more dangerous and threatening than what Carroll himself envisioned in his novels. The study shows how Alice’s gender and the fact that she is now portrayed as an adolescent affect her narrative. Among other reasons, the author of the paper argues that the fact that Carroll’s books feature a girl protagonist who wanders alone in a strange land, together with a long-standing tradition of warning girls against doing precisely this, has resulted in the proliferation of YA narratives that turn Carroll’s ‘golden afternoon’ into a Gothic nightmare.

Highlights

The aim of this article is to speculate on the meaning that Lewis Carroll’s (1865, 1871) Alice’s journey through dark Wonderland has acquired in two examples of contemporary Young adult (YA) fiction, Tim Burton’s 2010 film adaptation and A
In an attempt to find a definition that applies to all the different cultural manifestations that we instinctively identify as Gothic, Punter (1996b) concludes that the Gothic is “a mode – perhaps the mode – of unofficial history [emphasis in original]” (p. 187); the mode that tells us that “‘realism’ is not the whole story” (p. 186)
Alice Kingsleigh and Alyssa Gardner are oppressed female characters, thwarted and conditioned by their gender and their age, and they are eventually enshrined in patriarchal Gothic narratives

Summary

Introduction

The aim of this article is to speculate on the meaning that Lewis Carroll’s (1865, 1871) Alice’s journey through dark Wonderland has acquired in two examples of contemporary YA fiction, Tim Burton’s 2010 film adaptation and A. Alicja w Krainie Czarów Tima Burtona oraz Alyssa i czary A. G. Howard jako gotyckie opowieści ku przestrodze dla dziewcząt. Abstrakt: Celem artykułu jest refleksja nad znaczeniem, jakie podróży Alicji wykreowanej przez Lewisa Carrolla (1865, 1871) przez mroczną Krainę Czarów nadają dwa młodzieżowe teksty kultury: filmowa adaptacja powieści w reżyserii Tima Burtona. Że jednym z powodów, dla których tak wiele tekstów młodzieżowych przekształca Carrollowskie „złote popołudnie” w gotycki koszmar, jest fakt, że główna bohaterka oryginalnej powieści to dziewczynka, która samotnie podróżuje po dziwnej krainie, podczas gdy właśnie przed tym przestrzega się dziewczynki od bardzo dawna.

Objectives

Conclusion