Hugo Filipe Rodrigues Machado Fantasy Vs
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Universidade do Minho Instituto de Letras e Ciências Humanas Hugo Filipe Rodrigues Machado Fantasy vs Repression: Representations of the Child and the Feminine in Lewis Carroll’s Alice Cycle Fantasy vs Repression: Representations vsof the Repression: Fantasy Alice Cycle Carroll’s in Lewis Child and the Feminine Hugo Filipe Rodrigues Machado abril de 2017 UMinho | 2017 Universidade do Minho Instituto de Letras e Ciências Humanas Hugo Filipe Rodrigues Machado Fantasy vs Repression: Representations of the Child and the Feminine in Lewis Carroll’s Alice Cycle Dissertação de Mestrado Mestrado em Língua, Literatura e Cultura Inglesas Trabalho efectuado sob a orientação da Professora Doutora Paula Guimarães abril de 2017 Para a Alice, Minha querida afilhada, A quem não faltará uma infância feliz E o sonho, Porta para um inquebrantável mundo fantástico. iii iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The accomplishment of this work is due not only to my effort and commitment, but also to the effort, commitment and contribution of others whom I would like to thank. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Paula Guimarães, for all her support and inspiration, cordiality, objectivity and rigour, as well as her generous advice which guided me during this important stage of my life. In the same way, I would like to thank my family, particularly my mother, for the support and understanding demonstrated throughout this project. I dedicate this dissertation to Alice, my goddaughter, who inspired (and still inspires) me every day to understand children’s imaginative capacities and to be close to purity. I am deeply grateful to my friends António Lobo, César Ribeiro and Jorge Gonçalves for their patience and constant presence and who, in the most difficult and contrived moments, have always had a positive word and a smile that has encouraged and strengthened me. I will not forget the availability shown by my inspiring school teachers Anabela Teixeira and Isabel Pacheco, as well as their genuine friendship, their selflessness and their belief in my capabilities. I also thank my high school English teachers Lurdes Silva and Ana Isabel Vicente for having been tireless in the task of preparing me for the English language examination that would give me access to university. Also a word of gratitude to Lurdes Ferreira for her ability to listen and the wisdom to speak the right words that inspired me to move forward in life. I cannot finish without thanking all the teachers who accompanied my academic life, both in undergraduate and postgraduate studies, for the inspiration and all the knowledge they passed on to me. I thank you immensely, because all of you contributed to my personal growth. As an area of study for which I have always had great interest and also for its major relevance in Lewis Carroll’s work, subchapter 4.1 is inspired by and dedicated to Professor Isabel Ermida. Last but not least, I would like to thank my dearest friend Bárbara Machado for her true friendship and also for her inspiration and company along our academic paths. I also thank Martina Barbosa for her company in the many moments we spent together during the research for our projects, while looking at the shiny summer sun outside. And, as I could not fail to mention, I leave a special thanks to my fellow colleagues, Cátia Vaz, Catarina Monteiro, Estela Cosme, António Ferreira and Priscila Machado, for their presence, joy and encouragement during our master’s degree. Braga, April, 2017. v vi RESUMO O objetivo principal desta dissertação é abordar o papel relevante que o escritor inglês Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) teve no desenvolvimento da chamada Literatura Infantil. O trabalho em questão pesquisa quer o contexto específico quer as inovações que o autor incorporou no seu revolucionário ciclo: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) e Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871), com relação à evolução do conceito de infância e à representação do feminino, que marcam o início de uma mudança no papel da criança e da mulher na sociedade. Distanciando-se do realismo cru, tendência que caracterizou a época Vitoriana, o autor apresenta o fantástico como um estilo que combina uma linguagem plena de humor situacional e um fluxo narrativo de cariz episódico. No sentido de estimular a imaginação da criança, Carroll reescreve as formas mais tradicionais do conto de fadas e da fábula, nomeadamente através da inesperada introdução de diálogos desafiantes e de ilustrações alusivas às suas narrativas. Além disso, ele recorre ao elemento do sonho para sugerir certos significados latentes e subjacentes aos episódios e situações, provavelmente com a intenção de questionar a identidade quer de Alice quer do próprio leitor. O absurdo literário (nonsense) que caracteriza a escrita do autor permite assim dois níveis distintos de leitura – o da criança e o do adulto. No primeiro, é possível constatar a perceção que Carroll tem da criança: um ser sensível e com uma maneira particular de entender o mundo. Todavia, no segundo, o absurdo de Carroll permite-lhe parodiar criticamente a sociedade vitoriana e os seus valores, sem comprometer a sua própria posição social e profissional, como diácono e matemático em Oxford. Relativamente à figura feminina em Alice, denota-se uma prevalência de representações fortes e independentes; personagens maioritariamente severas e autoritárias que, quando contextualizadas na era Vitoriana, demonstram uma subversão ousada e crítica. Assim, as questões de género e a separação entre as esferas pública e privada são aspetos centrais ao seu texto, permitindo a Carroll revisitar padrões educacionais femininos, relacionamentos conjugais e até noções de maternidade. Esta problematização está intimamente associada ao debate central deste estudo, que é a tentativa de demonstrar a forma única como Carroll representa a fantasia e o fantástico: inicialmente pretendendo espelhar a liberdade como um valor ou prática contrária à repressão, mas também como algo que em última instância pode representar a própria repressão. Por um lado, Carroll apresenta um mundo paralelo e sem regras, para poder confrontar as regras rígidas que existem no mundo real, as quais significam repressão. Mas, no final, o leitor conclui que um mundo (louco) sem regras também acaba por resultar num contexto repressivo e injusto, fundado numa arbitrariedade total. As formas através das quais o autor reinventou o fantástico inspiraram a literatura infantil moderna e também outros autores, os quais demonstraram um interesse particular no seu estilo, como James Joyce ou irginia Woolf. Da mesma forma, ele veio a ter uma grande influência no Surrealismo e nos seus artistas, muitos dos quais eventualmente o reconheceram como antecessor. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: INFÂNCIA, FEMININO, NONSENSE, FANTASIA, REPRESSÃO. vii ix viii ABSTRACT The aim of this dissertation is to bring Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898) to light as an important writer in the context of the development of Children’s Literature. The work researches both the specific background and the innovations that the author incorporated in his revolutionary Alice cycle: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871), with regard both to the evolution of the concept of childhood and his representations of the feminine, which echo the beginning of a change in children’s and women’s role in society. Moving away from a crude realism, the tendency that characterized the early Victorian era, the author presents a fantastic style encompassing a language full of situational humour and word play, and a distinctive narrative episodic flow. In order to stimulate the child’s imagination, Carroll rewrites the more traditional forms of the fairy tale and the fable, namely through his unexpected introduction of challenging dialogues and allusive illustrations in his fantastic narratives. Additionally, he recurs to the dream element to suggest certain latent and underlying meanings that are present in most episodes and situations, intending to enhance an eventual crisis of identity in Alice and in the reader himself. The literary nonsense that characterizes the author’s writing thus allows two distinct levels of reading – the child’s and the adult’s. In the first, it is possible to see Carroll’s clear perception of the child as a sensitive being with a particular way of understanding the world. However, in the second, Carroll’s nonsense allows him to critically parody Victorian society and its strict values, without compromising his own social and professional position as a deacon and a mathematician at Oxford. Concerning the female figure in Alice, there is a prevalence of strong and independent representations; these are mostly severe and authoritarian characters who, when contextualized within the Victorian era, demonstrate a bold and critical subversion. Thus, questions of gender and the division between the public and domestic spheres are central aspects underlying his text, allowing Carroll to revisit female educational patterns, marital relationships and even notions of motherhood. These issues are closely connected with the central question of this study, which is the attempt to demonstrate Carroll’s unique form of representing fantasy and the fantastic: one that is initially intended to mirror freedom, as a value or practice opposed to repression, but which ultimately may also represent a form of repression. Carroll’s fantasy aims at representing a parallel world without rules, in order to confront the strict rules that exist in the real world, which signify repression. But, in the end, the reader concludes that a (mad) world without rules equally results in a repressing and unjust world, grounded in pure arbitrariness. The ways in which the author reinvented fantasy inspired modern children's literature and also other authors who demonstrated a particular interest in his style, such as James Joyce or Virginia Woolf. Likewise, he came to be a major influence in Surrealism and its artists, who indeed recognized him as their predecessor.