La Trobe

Appearing Otherwise: Alice is Now The Woman in Wonderland

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posted on 2025-06-30, 05:54 authored by Emily R. Aguilo-Perez
The Alice books are among the most adapted texts in history; yet, despite the myriad of interpretations offered by critics for the Alice stories, discussions of their film adaptations have been largely overlooked. It is evident that the character Alice has been transformed into many different persons, each of them reflecting what the particular creator thinks she is, and also how the character of Alice can be seen through the popular culture of the time. This paper explores the growth and changes of the Alice character in two film adaptations of the Alice books - Alice (2009) directed by Nick Willing and Alice in Wonderland (2010) directed by Tim Burton. It argues that the new adult Alice of these adaptations is the result of the images created by audiences, filmmakers, interpreters of Carroll's work, biographers, and anyone who has constructed their own version of the character and her background story. As a result, Alice is not who she was anymore, but popular culture's idea...

History

Journal

The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature

ISSN

1551-5680

Volume

18

Issue

1

Publisher

La Trobe University

Section Title

Emerging Voices

Author Biography

Emily R. Aguilo-Perez is currently a doctoral candidate (ABD) at The Pennsylvania State University. She specializes in Children's Literature with a minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and teaches a course on children's literature directed at pre-service teachers. Her research interests include girlhood studies, children's literature, ESL, and cultural studies. Her past work examines various adaptations of the Alice books into film, while her current research engages in memory-work with adult women to explore the social and cultural implications of Barbie in Puerto Rican girlhoods.

Date Created

2015-09-23

Rights Statement

Essays and articles published in The Looking Glass may be reproduced for non-profit use by any educational or public institution; letters to the editor and on-site comments made by our readers may not be used without the expressed permission of that individual. Any commercial use of this journal, in whole or in part, by any means, is prohibited. Authors of accepted articles assign to The Looking Glass the right to publish and distribute their text electronically and to archive and make it permanently available electronically. They retain the copyright and, 90 days after initial publication, may republish it in any form they wish as long as The Looking Glass is acknowledged as the original source.

Data source

OJS data migration 2025: https://ojs.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg/article/view/595

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