What is a genre ?

A genre is any form of art that is recognizable through its particular set of characteristics or
content.

Literary nonsense as a genre :

(Refer to mams notes first)

“To write about nonsense is like going to sea in a sieve…” – Wim Tiggs

The term “nonsense” is a “relatively recent phenomenon in literature, originating in

Britain in the Romantic and post-Romantic era” (Tigges 3). According to Holbrook
Jackson, “the literature of nonsense has grown in quality as well as quantity” during the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries (ix) and, still today, nonsense literature is growing, as
we can find many new writers who are fans of this genre. Despite the abandonment of
sense, the Victorian public did enjoy the hilarious rhymes, pictures and texts of different
nonsense writers, and even today, readers still appreciate these nonsense texts.

Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances
elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language
conventions or logical reasoning.[1] Even though the most well-known form of literary nonsense
is nonsense verse, the genre is present in many forms of literature.The effect of nonsense is often
caused by an excess of meaning, rather than a lack of it. Its humor is derived from its nonsensical
nature, rather than wit or the "joke" of a punchline.

Rest defined in mams notes.

Alice as Nonsense literature :

Lewis Carroll included a poem of seven stanzas, “All in the golden afternoon,” in the
beginning of the novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which tells the adventures of
that 4th of July, 1865, during the boat trip with the three sisters.Lewis writes about the
tale in the third stanza of the opening poem that “there will be nonsense in it!” .

Although most people can agree that Carroll’s works are forms of literary nonsense, not many
can agree on the nonsense’s intended (or even unintended) effect. Some argue that Carroll’s
nonsense follows a “Socratic tradition that uses nonsense to help shape a moral personal
identity” (Taliaferro 194) and others find Carroll’s nonsense of the kind “that results from the
very natural confusions and errors that children might fall into” (Pitcher 401). Humphrey
Carpenter’s take on Carroll’s nonsense is of a slightly darker variety, calling it an art form in
which “a simple idea [is] pursued with a ruthless comic literalness to its very end” which, of
course, “if pursued logically to its conclusion, must end in Nothing“ (46). Who would have
thought that Nonsense could mean so much? Probably not Lewis Carroll. I believe he would
argue that the point of nonsense is that it has no point at all.

But that really is the beauty of the genre; it dangles a carrot of meaning in front of us, then
laughs as we jump to catch it. And Carroll’s genius for nonsense lies in the fact that we keep
jumping for twelve chapters. There is just enough “tolerable” and “intolerable” nonsense that it
keeps us engaged, enthralled, and entertained (Dunn 67).

Excerpts from novel to qualify it as nonsense literature:

1.Nonsense description of reality :

just in the very beginning of the story, Carroll used a nonsense description of reality:
“Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly” . Anyhow, this idea makes the
reader think about the logic of that sentence. Instances where a Rabbit talks and has a house
to live in or absurdities of throwingg plates around adds to the idea of living in a world completly
unrealistic.

2.Language:

Many examples from the books show Lewis Carroll’s ability to create a sense of the uncanny.
The characters regularly show no respect for the basic rules of language. ‘When I use a word’,
announces Humpty Dumpty, ‘it means just what I choose it to’. Humpty Dumpty has other views
on words, telling Alice that ‘they’ve a temper, some of them—particularly verbs, they’re the
proudest—adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs’. The novel features a famous
poem, The Jabberwocky, which features dozens of made-up words, as in the immortal line ‘and
the mome raths outgrabe’. The strange sounds of these new words take the reader back to a time
when every sound was something new and bizarre.

3.Time:

During the mad tea-party, the Hatter asks “What day of the month is it?” and Alice
responds to him “The fourth”. Therefore, the Hatter sighs “Two days wrong!” according
to his watch. Because of that answer, Alice thinks that the Hatter owns a very funny
watch, as it is a watch that “tells the day of the month, and doesn’t tell what o’clock it
is!” (Carroll 70). Actually, it is always six o’clock at the mad teaparty place, so “it’s
always tea-time,” according to the words of Hatter (73). Consequently, it does not make
any sense to possess a watch which tells you the hours, it is a better idea to own a
watch which marks the days. Or maybe not. Furthermore, in this same chapter, Alice
notices that, indeed, time is not trustworthy in Wonderland.
4.Nonsense through characters (Symbolism):

Lewis Carroll was the creator of many famous characters, for example, the Cheshire Cat,
the White Rabbit, the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon. Some of the features of these
characters make nonsense in Lewis Carroll’s texts but, anyhow, he eloquently used his
creations to be able to develop his tales.

A well-known character is the White Rabbit, who is wearing a waistcoat. This character
is always running late: “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” (16). The reader could
ask himself why the White Rabbit wears a waistcoat. Maybe, to distinguish the age of
the White Rabbit, probably, as much older than Alice. Alice represents youth, and the
White Rabbit symbolizes the old age. Alice, who is very curious, chases the White
Rabbit, possibly because she wants to learn from the knowledge of the White Rabbit. The
large blue Caterpillar is introduced in the fourth chapter of Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland. The fifth chapter, called “Advice from a Caterpillar,” describes a
conversation between the Caterpillar and Alice. During that conversation, the Caterpillar
does not stop smoking a long hookah while he is seated on a mushroom. “[A]t last the
Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy
voice” (48). This episode, perhaps, is an allusion to drugs use, but maybe not. Again,
Carroll used a character in his books about Alice to express nonsense. In the following
chapter, called “Pig and Pepper”, there is the introduction of a new character, the
Cheshire Cat. This is a cat depicted with a broad fixed grin, which is described as
follows: “The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought:
still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be
treated with respect” (64). The Cheshire Cat has the ability to disappear, even though its
grin does not vanish at the same time than its body. Alice thinks that this Cheshire Cat’s
talent is very interesting because, as she thinks, she has often seen a cat without a grin
“but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!” (67).
Moreover, the cat also poses philosophical questions and logical problems to Alice and,
consequently, she gets irritated .

5. Laws of physics :

Many things in Alice in Wonderland are illogical or just confusing and weird, this is all one need
to know about quantum physics. The mallets and balls in a game of croquet (in this wonderland)
are live flamingos and hedgehogs. And there are illogical laws much like in quantum physics
with the Queen frantically calling for the other player's executions. Amidst this madness, Alice
bumps into the Cheshire Cat again, who asks her how she is doing. But the King of Hearts
interrupts their conversation and attempts to bully the Cheshire Cat, who impudently dismisses
the King. The King takes offense and arranges for the Cheshire Cat's execution, but since the
Cheshire Cat is now only a head floating in midair, no one can agree on how to behead it. In the
Schrodinger's cat, there is a cat enclosed in a chamber with a vial containing hydrocyanic acid, a
radioactive substance. If even a single atom of the substance decays during the test period, a
relay mechanism will trip a hammer, which will, in turn, break the vial and kill the cat. The
Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is
simultaneously dead and alive. (This is all in theory.) So similarly, in this case, no one can decide
whether the cat is both dead and alive, or either dead or alive in this wonderland, no one can
decide how to behead the cat.

6.Making sense in nonsense : On short notes.

Conclusion:

A nonsense text improves the reader’s astuteness and wisdom and, simultaneously, the
reader advances intellectually overcoming the boring axioms which surround us in our
day to day lives. . Lewis Carroll was a nonsense writer who used many sophisticated
logic problems in his books, hence, his texts are an attractive example to break with
those axioms. The term “nonsense” is a fairly recent phenomenon in literature cleverly
used by Caroll in his wonderland of nonsensical literature.

Alice in Wonderland as morally sound book.

In the Victorian age, children’s stories were full of morals. The general idea was that stories were
meant to educate, not entertain. Similarly Alice in Wonderland aside from being what sounds like
an account of the author’s most potent acid trip, the tale is actually full of some rather splendid
life lessons

As the Duchess in the Wonderland said "Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it."
Likewise, Alice is rife with various morals which are summed below via examples taken from
text:

1. "It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then." Lesson: Don’t try
to go back to the person you once were or cling to the past. Instead, grow and change, and
become an even better version of you in the process.We’ve learned from our mistakes, our
struggles, and every experience we’ve been through, and all of those change us. It’s important to
love and accept yourself for the person you are now, not what may have occurred in the past:
you’re not that person anymore.

2. "If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it
does." Lesson: Of course it’s important that we care about our fellow human beings, but minding
our own business when it comes to gossip and the affairs of others is always a good rule to live
by.

3. "You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are." Lesson: You have
to be a little bit crazy to make it in this world! Some of the happiest people embrace their own
eccentricities, and don’t judge others for not being “normal."
4. "There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought! And when I grow up, I’ll write
one." Lesson: Each of us has a story to tell, and learning to value our experiences, feelings skills
is an important step towards self-fulfillment—whether you write your own memoir or not!

5. "Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop." Lesson: Every great
journey begins with a small step. You’ll know when you’ve reached the end, of a project,
relationship or other journey, when you get there!

6. "Everything’s got a moral. If only you can find it." Lesson: We have something to learn from
virtually every experience of our lives, even the most difficult ones. When you come out the
other side of a difficult period, you’ll look back and see how much you learned and grew from it.

7. "She generally gave herself very good advice, though she very seldom followed it." Lesson:
How many times have you given others advice you wish you would take yourself? We must
listen to both our hearts and our heads in order to make the right decisions—especially the tough
decisions of life. Most people are far more likely to listen to advice given to them by others over
their own intuition, but it’s that sixth sense of ours that we really ought to listen to more often.
Intuition will rarely steer you wrong, but you can almost guarantee that things will go badly if
you don’t heed its warning.

8. "We are all mad here". Lesson: Most of us have quirks that we’re self conscious about, or just
freak out about the fact that we feel like we’re on the verge of falling apart while everyone else
around us seems to have everything under control. But the fact is there isn’t a single person out
there who doesn’t struggle with a veritable smorgasbord of issues. And that’s totally okay. The
sooner we learn to accept these quirks as character traits that make us who we are, the sooner we
can move on and create our realities. Our idiosyncrasies make us unique and awesome, and the
awareness that we’re all crazy gives us the opportunity to grow, and evolve, and help each other
along during our journeys on this wild little planet.

9. “How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spread his claws, And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!” Lesson: Politicians, sales reps, and narcissists have something in
common: oily, manipulative charm, and they often use it to coerce others into doing what they
want. When and if you encounter someone with a big, toothy grin and seemingly irrepressible
charisma, take heed: they may be a shimmery crocodile who’ll sink their teeth into you as soon
as you edge within their reach.

10.“I don’t think…” then you shouldn’t talk, said the Hatter.”Lesson: This goes along with the
idea that it’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open your mouth and prove that to
be so. In this era where so many people seem to post or tweet whatever is going on in their heads
at any given time, there’s a great deal to be said for remaining silent. It’s even more important to
do so when you’re feeling upset or angry. When we act on impulse, we often regret our actions
later, especially since clarity only really comes with retrospection… and then we feel like proper
idiots. Heightened emotions cloud our thoughts and judgment, so when tempers flare, it’s best to
shush.

11. “It would have made a dreadfully ugly child; but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.”
Lesson: To thine own self be true, and you can’t help but shine for the magical creature you are.
Wearing masks and pretending to be something you’re not: you won’t feel comfortable in your
own skin. People are inevitably happier and more fulfilled when they’re following their own
authentic heart’s path.

12. “Hold your tongue!’ said the Queen, turning purple. ‘I won’t!’ said Alice.” Lesson: Even
when Alice was at risk of getting decapitated by that overly eager and highly-strung Queen of
Hearts, she still stood up for herself. How many of us remain quiet in situations where we’re
being mistreated because we don’t want to disturb the peace, or upset those around us? You are
strong, and fierce, and worthy of respect, so if you find yourself in a position where you’re being
treated badly, remember your voice, and speak up.

13. “Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.” Lesson:
Achieving a goal or life dream may seem daunting at first, but there’s really very little that can’t
be achieved with dedication and hard work. Sure, you may have to overcome obstacles, and it
may take monumental effort at times, but with dedication and determination, you’d be amazed at
what you can achieve.

14. “That’s the reason they’re called lessons,’ the Gryphon remarked: ‘because they lessen from
day to day.” Lesson: We often learn a great deal in the moment, but then those epiphanies fade
over time. This is generally why people who have a spiritual practice tend to revisit teachings,
meditations, etc. on a regular basis: unless we remind ourselves of the lessons we’ve learned,
they can fade away or get replaced by the onslaught of info we’re constantly subjected to.

15. "Be a Wildflower Rather Than a Wallflower". Lesson: If Alice were okay with being a
wallflower, she would have never made it to Wonderland. Instead, of simply existing, Alice set
out to be who she wanted to be and accomplished impossible things. With this in mind, if you are
ever given the chance to be a wildflower do it! Remember, in a room full of wallflowers,
everyone that enters is sure to remember the wildflower.

16. "Dream of Impossible Things". Lesson: While some things will always be absurd or simply
intangible, dreaming of impracticable things isn’t a fault. Setting high goals and striving to meet
them is something anyone could and should do. It’s important never to let anyone else in your
life define what is impossible for you!
17. "Wandering Doesn't Mean You're Lost". Lesson: Sometimes there are just things you need to
do or see before you get to where you need to be. Or there isn’t just one way to get to a goal or
destination.

18. "My Reality Is Different Than Yours". Lesson: When people judge others as “weird” because
they aren’t “normal,” remind them that normal is a relative term, and that your reality is just
different than theirs. As individuals, it’s our responsibility to create our reality, and not worry
about whether other people think they are normal or not.

Alice in Wonderland as reflection to the real world:

Introduction: The adventures of Alice in Wonderland happen, as is explained at the end of the
book, in her dream. Inevitably, they are full of strange and fabulous events; still, there is more
reality than one would expect from a book that has become a synonym for dream and
imagination. This paper attempts to focus on the realistic elements in this book. Throughout the
whole story Alice is involved in everyday activities, familiar to children: swimming, running,
listening to tales and poems, playing games, dancing, having a tea party, meeting new people and
expressing judgements about them, making friends; she observes cooking, discusses school and
lessons, revises some pieces of school knowledge, recites poems. Except for the numerous
sudden changes of her size, there is nothing that goes beyond children’s experience of real life
and their second-hand experience from fairy tales with speaking animals. Most of the animals,
birds and insects that appear in the story are those that live in England – rabbit, mouse, lizard,
caterpillar, hare, dormouse, to name just some of them – and thus familiar to children.

Alice and Victorian Era: What must have made the story topical for Victorians are the allusions
to concrete things that were a part of life in the 19th century, such as the mock turtle soup or
Cheshire cheese, or to commonly used sayings like ‘Mad as a hatter.’ Nevertheless, since Carroll
originally told the story to the three daughters of his superior, Henry George Liddell, Dean of
Christ Church, there are many specific allusions to the girls themselves, their friends and pets:
Alice’s cat’s name Dinah is identical with the name of the real Liddells’ cat; when at the
beginning Alice is bored as her sister’s book is without pictures or conversation, it may reflect
the fact that Alice was two years younger than Lorina Charlotte, the eldest daughter of the
Liddells. Needless to say, unlike the sister’s book, Alice’s Adventures has numerous illustrations
and consists predominantly of conversations; many analysts maintain that the mention of the
book was made for the sake of contrast – Carroll’s book was meant to be different, in order to
please Alice. The story also refers to events the Liddell girls experienced together with Charles
Dodgson, or Lewis Carroll, to use his pen name.

Another example of allusions to the Victorian reality are Carroll’s paraphrases or rather parodies
of then well-known poems, through which he mocked the overly didactic children's literature of
the period. The first of them is Alice’s recitation of “How Doth the Little Crocodile” in Chapter
II, a parody of theologian and hymn-writer Isaac Watts’ poem, “Against Idleness and Mischief,”
which begins “How doth the little busy bee”. Unlike the busy bee that gathers pollen all the day
and labours hard to store wax and honey and thus improves itself, the crocodile only takes care
of improving his shining tail and catches little fishes by merely opening his smiling jaws.
Another Isaac Watt poem, “The Sluggard,” is paraphrased in Chapter X, The Lobster Quadrille.
Its opening lines “‘Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain, / You have wak'd me too
soon, I must slumber again.'” are changed into “‘Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him
declare, / You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair.” Instead of the criticism of a lazy
person from the Watt poems, Carroll lets Alice recite a funny poem about the lobster. The parent-
son relationship also appears in the parody of the poem “Speak Gently” in Chapter VI which is
called conversely – Speak roughly. This time the parent is the Duchess nursing her babyboy.
While in the original poem (credited to either G.V. Langford or David Bates in various sources)
the readers were advised to speak gently to the little child for “it is better far to rule by love than
fear”, the Duchess in her unusual lullaby not only recommends “Speak roughly to your little
boy / And beat him when he sneezes” since “He only does it to annoy, / Because he knows it
teases” (Carroll 1992:53), but she claims that this is what she herself does. The absurdity is

in the fact that the room is full of pepper from the soup in a large cauldron on the fire which is
being stirred by the cook, and apart from the baby who is “sneezing and howling alternately
without a moment’s pause” (Carroll 1992:51) also the Duchess and Alice have to sneeze
occasionally. Hudson suggests that Carroll “did not send Alice down the rabbit-hole on a
summer’s afternoon for the benefit of a future generation of Freudians but for the present
pleasure of three small Victorians”, who – as argued above – had the privilege of listening and
then reading a book that was to a large extent inspired by their reality .

Conclusion: Although Lewis Carrol was poking fun at Victorian society and its values, Alice
speaks to those of us who never really fit in anywhere, those who are the wrong size, color,
gender and mindset. While we may not actually be stuffed into a teapot, it sometimes feels like
we’re being stuffed into a cookie cutter version of what a woman, or perhaps any person, is
supposed to be.

Whether you’re being chided for not wearing your stays, or told that it might be best to
keep your thoughts to yourself so as not to draw attention to just how weird you are, there
are always pressures to conform to a mold that may not fit comfortably. In Alice’s world,
as well as today, we as a society still destroy anything that is different. Be it people or
even just thoughts.

Have a skewed perception of women. While they can vote and work and own property,
they are still at some core level considered property or objects; still expected to put on a
pretty face and keep the men folk pleased

Blame the victims. They brought it on themselves. Somehow they weren’t smart enough,
fast enough, or just wearing the wrong thing at the wrong time.
 Behind all these fun adventures, Carroll manages to slip in a large amount of social
commentary. Some characters represent types of people, such as the overzealous
monarch, to display in an exaggerated sense the foolishness of such extremes. His many
poems throughout the book often have larger meanings as well: The Walrus and the
Carpenter are clearly a condemnation of modern religion. Even the wild effects of
drinking and eating can be interpreted as a moral on temperence.

Humorous elements in Alice:

Fairy tales were often distrusted in the nineteenth century and Alice in Wonderland was no
exception. Many people have pondered whether their children would be able to distinguish the
fictitious would of Wonderland from the reality of the real world (Avery 321). Alice in
Wonderland has proven that fiction and reality can be separated and has become a renowned
piece of literature not only loved by children but also by adults. The fiction incorporated in Alice
in Wonderland also portrays a sense of humor as shown in no other fairy tale. Humor in
Wonderland is balanced between the animation of animals, Alice's thoughts, and the fluctuating
differences between the worlds of reality and fiction. The animation of animals becomes
humorous from the very beginning of the story when Alice encounters a white rabbit. Alice finds
that the rabbit is not ordinary "when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket,
and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that
she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of
it, ..."(Carroll 7-8). Even the mouse becomes humorous as he recites "historical facts about the
Anglo-Saxons..." "...which are the driest things he knows, to restore Alice and the other creatures
after their involuntary swim in the Pool of Tears"(Avery 325). After the Caucus-race in which
everyone wins, the Dodo solemnly performs a humorous ceremony for Alice saying "We beg
your acceptance of this elegant thimble"(Carroll 23). They presented the thimble to Alice as a
prize for the race which nobody wins and nobody loses...

Examples:

1. Rabbit's character (looking at his watch frequently / always in hurry )

2. Caucus Race.

3. Mad Tea Party.

4. Queen's character ( her dialogue: "off the head")

5. Duchess's character ( her spiny chin, searching for morals in everything)

Explain yourself �