Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

2012

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department / School

English

First Advisor

Julie Barst

Abstract

This thesis examines Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland for the sustained argument that it makes about the arresting powers of speech. It outlines three primary objectives of speech: social cohesion, power-assertion, and message-transmission, and it examines how the privileging of these objectives prevents critical thought. To trace Alice's shifting attitudes toward speech, I closely examine the conversations in which she engages; she moves from naively trusting in the purported benefits of Victorian conversational rules to growing suspicious of and ultimately rejecting the powers of speech altogether. Alice's experiences in Wonderland lead her to rebel against the practice of conversation, and her rejection of speech leads to the conclusion that writing, though subject to the same tensions, maintains distinct advantages and thus holds more potential as a generative endeavor.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898 Alice's adventures in Wonderland -- Criticism and interpretation 
Conversation analysis 
Conversation in literature 
Oral communication in literature

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Download

Share

COinS
 

Rights Statement

In Copyright