From Carroll's HBO's Alice: gender, sexuality and non-conforming subjectives

The main points of the paper include:

The paper will look at Alice's changes in appearance, age and behavior in adaptations from the original novels.

Alice was originally a Victorian girl.

Alice appears to be at odds with the expectation of conforming.

The Alice books are the most widely quoted books after the Bible and Shakespeare.

Alice in Wonderland is the inspiration for two videogames in the American McGee Alice series.

Some studies of Lewis Carroll have judged that he is a 'repressed pervert.'

There have been many versions of the stories with different ilustrators.

Many critics have read the Alice books and centered on gender and feminist issues.

Victorian children's literature was very highly moralizing before the Alice books appeared.

Girls and women's places were fixed in Victorian society.

Alice was one of the first books written where the female character is 'active, inquisitive, intelligent and engaged in her own right.'

Some critics linked non-conforming female characters to abnormal sexuality.

Some critics compare Alice to a typical Tomboy.

Alice displays logic and manners in the original stories.

In the original stories Alice gets compared to a serpent, a housemaid and a monster.

Alice can be considered dislocated and non-conforming in both Wonderland and in the Victorian world.

Fantasy 'frees female characters from the constrains of the Victorian ideal feminity.'

Alice can be considered a role model.

The Alices in adaptations differ in age, physical appearance and personality.

There have been some X-rated adaptations of the Alice story.

One of these is Alice in Wonderland: An X-rated Porn Comedy. The film includes singing, an adult Alice and, obviously, sex.

Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland film is a 'sanitized version of the Victorian books.'

Alice is more passive and conforming in the Disney movie.

Disney's film centers around fantasy.

In the X-rated film Alice accepts growing up (by having a sexual relationship.) At the start of the film she is a repressed adult.

Recent adaptations are quite different from the original stories.

In American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns she wants revenge on those who brought her to the mental hospital.

In the game Alice is trying to overcome feelings of guilt.

In the Tim Burton movie Alice is the only person who can slay the jabberwocky.

'Muchness' can be defined as independence, courage and self-assurance.

The HBO series takes place in Brazil. It has various presentations of gender.

In that version Alice is strong, inquisitive and intelligent.

That version has little actual relationship to the original story.

Alice has acquired the status of myth.


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