I’m a camper. With just those three words you’ve probably already created a mental picture of me. Much of what you imagine is probably true. I’m not much into fashion and my make-up takes about five minutes to apply. I don’t own a hair dryer or a hair straightener, and more often than not I wear sensible shoes. I guess that goes to show that stereotypes exist for a reason. Lost in those stereotypes though are actual people. People we might have something in common with: a favourite book; a favourite band; a place we’ve lived; a place we love. It could be lots of things. I know this and…

When Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is read through a Foucauldian lens, the impacts of discursive power become evident. Since Carroll was writing before Foucault, it cannot be said he was writing to uncover discourses; however, it can be claimed that in challenging people’s taken for granted assumptions, that is exactly what he did. Alice’s experiences are analogous of Foucault’s ideas of discourse and power made manifest in narrative form. Many examples can be drawn from the text but the focus here is on the discursive power of time and Carroll’s manipulations of it throughout his narratives. As temporal beings, we exist in the space between the past and…

Whilst it is possible to see Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as meditations on Victorian social practice (Geer 2), to do so denies their ongoing power and relevance. Carroll’s writing is entertaining, yet provocative. He was a mathematician and a logician (Green, xxix) able to make us laugh at a world that often defies logic. Nonsense provided the perfect platform. However, taking material from the world around him does not counter the fact that according to Charlton (346), Carroll himself admitted his writing was nonsense. Further, in a letter written to the children reading his books, he refers to his joy in being able to bring them happiness…