VOCABOLARIO SCONOSCIUTO

Pedantic= pignola, pedante

Delightful= piacevole, incantevole

Carry= trasportare, portare, sostenere

Wonder= chiedere, domandare, sapere

Belong= appartenere, retsare, far parte di

Enclose= chiudere, allegare, recintare

Puns= giochi di parole

Subleties= sottigliezze, sfumature

Bindings= combinazioni, corrispondenze

Womb= grembo

Outlines= delinea, illustra, descrive

Outward= verso l’esterno

Facade= facciata, apparenza, maschera

LEWIS CARROLL
Life and Works

Lewis Carroll is the pseudonym under which Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote his novels. He was born in
Cheshire into a numerous family with considerable literary and artistic interests. His childhood was an
intensely happy one described as a true ‘wonderland’ by the writer himself. At Oxford, where he became a
Lecturer in Mathematics; In the meantime, he wrote a series of books for children under the penname of
Lewis Carroll; Critics have often spoken of a dual nature in connection with the pedantic personality of the
mathematician Dodgson and the delightful one of the writer Carroll, since poetry and logic were to him
linked rather than opposed. Lewis Carroll is the creator of a scientific nonsensical world, where the
principles that govern the common social and moral universe are questioned and carried to their logical
extremes. In a period like the Victorian era Carroll showed the inevitable absurdity of the world he himself
belonged to.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

Plot. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tells the story of a young girl, Alice, who follows, in a dream, a
White Rabbit down a rabbit hole into an amazing world where everything happens with fantastic
illogicality. Here she meets strange things and animals, characters like the Duchess, the Cheshire Cat, the
March Hare, the Hatter, the King and Queen of Hearts. The novel, which tells her adventures with these
creatures, is enclosed in a dream. In the end Alice wakes up coming back to reality and leaving the dreamy
dimension.

Style. The story, whose characters are distinct persons with their own voice and features, is carried forward
through a series of musical elements, puns and subtleties of typography, like spacing, inks, italics, margins
and bindings. The result is a harmonious whole
Interpretations. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been interpreted in many ways, as mere fantasy, as
a dream vision guided by free association, or nonsense literature. In fact, underlying motifs of a
psychological nature have often been suggested, like prenatal memories, rebirth, and re-entry into the
womb. (Double nature of Victorian Age)