Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland as a Work of Nonsense Fiction

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature grade: 1.0 University of Vechta (IKG) language: English abstract: The following thesis is about Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland as a Work of Nonsense Fiction. Carroll's masterpiece Alice in Wonderland which includes both books namely Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There does not only belong to the most popular English children's books but it is also regarded as a classic around the world. Especially in English-speaking countries lines from the Alice books have been as often cited as lines from Shakespeare or the bible. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson who used the pseudonym Lewis Carroll for his writings made up the tale Alice in Wonderland for his most-loved child-friend and muse Alice Liddell and her sisters during a boat trip on the River Thames. Lewis Carroll is known next to Edward Lear as one of the most famous Nonsense poets and writers. Moreover it is claimed that he was the first author to introduce Nonsense into children's literature and as result had a huge impact with his Alice books on English children's literature. The split between the two personalities namely the Victorian author Carroll and the Reverend and mathematician Dodgson who taught at Christ Church Oxford has to be considered in order to get a better understanding of the Alice books as a Nonsense Work.This is exactly what will be done in this thesis. Firstly there will be given a general overview on the author's life. Secondly the boat trip itself and with it the genesis of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There will be discussed. After that a closer examination of the plot and its construction in both books will be given. In addition similarities and differences will be shown between the construction of the plot of the first and the second Alice book. F