Worlds%20of%20Wonder

1
Worlds of Wonder

• English 505
• Dr. Roggenkamp

2
Mid-Nineteenth-Century British Social Conditions

• 19th century changeindustrialization,
  urbanization, imperialism, class change,
  population growth, wars, etc.
• Prosperity in 1850s/60s, then economic and class
  problems in following decades
• Family as enclave against changing world
• Queen Victoria, reign 1837-1901icon of nuclear
  family
• Image Queen Victoria Prince Albert
  Edward, 1844

3
Victorian Attitudes Toward Children

• A culture obsessed with middle/upper-class
  children
• On one hand, Romantic view children as epitome
  of innocence and goodness, with an inherent
  spirituality
• On other hand, Puritanical view children as
  tainted by Original Sin, requiring strictness,
  firmness, even severity in upbringing
• In literature perfect children modeling good
  behavior, or evil children suitably published
• Class-based issue e.g. 80 of cotton mill
  workers were children in early 1800s

4
Cult of Childhood

• Romance with (middle/upper class) childhood seen
  everywhereart, manners, decorating, clothing
  design, leisure culture, literature, etc.
• Deep adult longing for what childhood
  representedinnocence, innate spirituality,
  progress and promise, hope
• Way for adults to work out their own fears and
  doubts about changing, uncertain world
• Search for an Arcadia, an idyllic place, a secret
  garden

5
Publishing Trends for Children

• Childrens books among most profitable segment of
  publishing industry
• Advances in printing technologyexploding print
  marketplace
• From 1860s on two basic streams in Victorian
  childrens literature
• Realismstories set firmly in real world
  (e.g. didactic fiction, school stories, domestic
  tales, most adventure novels)
• Fantasticstories involving some impossible
  thing (e.g. talking animals or toys, magical
  events, nonsense poems and stories)
• Upsurge in fantastic in England during late-19th
  century entrenchment in realistic in America
  during same period

6
Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)

• Even so, Alice books almost utterly
  unprecedentedopens the Golden Age
• 1832-1898
• Mathematics teacher, amateur photographer (little
  girls)
• An intense, buttoned-up loner whom a
  repressive society pushed into real eccentricity.
  Fantasy was his escape, . . . a chance to reduce
  to chaos some of the establishment values which
  publicly he upheld (Jackie Wullschläger)

7
Alices Reception

• Generally hailed as a true path-breaker, even
  genius
• Not universally acclaimed at first Book too
  extravagantly absurd to produce more diversion
  than disappointment and irritation (Illustrated
  Times).
• But generally revered by time Through the Looking
  Glass published (1872)
• Image Alice Liddell as photographed by
  Dodgson