Investigating Non-human Discourse: An Analysis of the language used to represent animals in Alice in Wonderland

Abstract

Anthropomorphism of animals is common in literature, particularly in children’s stories. It is pervasive and ingrained in human popular culture. Authors and illustrators of children’s literature use it to enter a child’s mind in order to tell a story or impart knowledge. They do this by using animals and other creatures to tell stories about their own humanity, giving children the impression that the tale is about the animal. The limits of this kind of domestication require careful consideration and research, since they may have a number of detrimental implications for the way kids perceive nature. Based on these suppositions, this study analyzes how language is used to portray animals in two different versions of Alice in Wonderland: the 1865 original and Tim Burton’s 2010 fantasy adaptation. Specifically, the paper explores how non-human thought, behavior, and subjectivity are represented by examining some language patterns used to depict them, such as verb and noun phrases, adjectives, and pronouns. The three-dimensional framework that forms the basis of Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (micro level, macro level, and discursive use) is the methodological reference used to emphasize hidden ideologies, power dynamics, and social hierarchies based on “human exceptionalism;” i.e. the idea that humans are not only fundamentally distinct from other creatures, but morally superior to them as well.