Льюис Кэрролл и его "Алиса в стране чудес"

Министерство образования РФ

МОУ гимназия 8 г.о. Коломны Московской области

Исследовательский проект на тему «Льюис Кэрролл и его «Алиса в стране чудес»

Выполнил

Купцов Даниил

 Ученик 9 «Б» класса

МБОУ гимназия 8

Руководитель

Гришечкина Виктория Ростиславовна

Учитель английского языка

МБОУ гимназия 8

Коломна

2012

Contents

1. Introduction.
2. Biography.
3. “Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland”.
4. Word play, pun, nonsense and difficulties in translation.
5. Conclusion.

Appendix

1.Introduction.

A Victorian Englishman paced the world in the bright sunlight as a symbol of solidity with his silk hat and whiskers, with his business-like suitcase and a practical umbrella. But at night something happened to him: some outer terrible wind rushed into his soul and subconsciousness, pulled him out of bed and threw into the window – to the world of wind and moonshine, and he flew, leaving land behind, his silk hat flew high above the roofs, his umbrella blew up like a balloon or flew into sky like a broom and his whiskers waved like a bird’s wings.

My research paper is about an English author, photographer, mathematician, logician and philosopher of the 19th century Lewis Carroll. He wrote famous fairy tales “Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found there”.

These books are not quite fairy tales for children. One shouldn`t forget that it was written by the author who had nothing in common with the literature for children but was witty and smart and had rich imagination. Not every adult person can understand numerous parodies and irony about inert traditions of Victorian society. At the same time, strange as it seems, the book is intereting to children who gladly follow Carroll`s imagination. I think the secret of this book is that it was written for a child as if he is grown up.

“Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland” left behind its epoch. Carroll was a real master of nonsense. His lexical games were so witty, kind and brilliant that we can`t but admire his fairy tales.

2.Biography.

Lewis Carroll (real name is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was an English author, mathematician, philosopher, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer.

He was born on 27 January 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire. His family had 7 girls and 4 boys. He began learning at home and shown himself clever and smart. He was left-handed; according to unstated data, he was forbidden to write by the left hand, which hurt a child’s psychology (it apparently led to stammer). At age 12 he enrolled in private school near Richmond, but in 1845 he had to enter Rugby school

In 1851 he moved to Oxford, where he enrolled in Christ Church, one of the the most aristocratic colleges of Oxford University. He didn’t learn very well, but thanks to outstanding mathematical abilities after getting the Bachelor degree he won a math lectures competition in Christ Church. He has given these lectures for the next 26 years, they gave a good salary, although they were boring.

He began his writing career in the college. Charles wrote poems and short stories, sending them to various magazines under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. He became successful. Since 1854 his works had begun to appear in serious English periodicals such as “The Comic Times” and “The Train”

Lewis Carroll died on 14 January 1898. It was an attack of bronchitis that turned out to be fatal.

3.“Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland”

“Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland” tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world (Wonderland) populated by peculiar creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.

In 1856 college had a new Dean - Henry Liddell. 6 years later Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and his friend Robinson Darkworth went boating up the Thames together with three Henry Liddell’s daughters: Lorine, Alice and Edith.

The walk began from Folly Bridge near Oxford and finished 5 miles later in  Godstow Village. During the walk Dodgson told his friends stories about little girl Alice, who had a lot of adventures. The Girls liked this story, and Alice asked Dodgson to write this story for her. Dodgson agreed and on 26 November 1864 he presented to Alice Liddell a manuscript entitled “Alice's adventures under ground”, with subtitle — “A Christmas gift to a Dear Child in a Memory of a Summer Day” of 4 parts with Carroll’s drawings. Some biographers of Carroll think that it was the first version of Alice destroyed by Dodgson himself, but there are no facts proving it.

According to Dodgson’s diaries, in spring 1863 he shown unfinished story under the title “Alice’s adventures under ground” to his friend George McDonald, whose children liked it very much.

McDonald advised to publish this manuscript. Before completing the manuscript for Alice Liddell Dodgson increased the volume of work from 18 to 35 thousand words, adding to the product the episodes about the Cheshire Cat and a Mad Tea-Party. In 1865 the word of Dodgson was printed under the title “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by «Lewis Carroll» with John Tenniel’s illustrations. Because of the printing problems 2000 copies were burnt. Nowadays we know only 23 copies of the first edition. 18 copies are in the libraries and archives, 5 copies belong to personal collections. The second edition was printed in December 1865. It was sold very soon. The book was translated into 125 languages. In 1871 Lewis Carroll wrote the book “Through the Looking-Glass” which continued “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

4.World play, nonsense and difficulties in translation.

Now I’d like to tell you about a special literary style of Carroll and the difficulties in translation of his books.

Carroll always plays with words, uses nonsense and world specially made up.

It had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast. – It’s a good example of joining uncombinabled which is one of the main characteristics of nonsense.

If a translator translates poetry, he is called the author’s rival, if he translates prose, he is his servant. You may argue with this statement if you speak about the pun’s translation, when the translator becomes the author’s colleague. The pun is a withy joke, based on the play of words which sound alike but of different meaning.

 “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass” are amony the most difficult books for translation. For Example, March Hare and the Hatter are the characters of English proverbs and we don’t have such proverbs in Russian. It’s also difficult to translate specially made up words and nonsense. This play of words becomes a headache for translators who must interpret not only the meaning but also the style of books.

 The meaning of original words often make it very difficult to make up a pun, as with words “not” and “knot”

`I had NOT!' cried the Mouse, sharply and very angrily.

  `A knot!' said Alice, always ready to make herself useful.

In Russian the negative particle “нет” and the word “узел” have nothing in common.

In such cases the translator has to think of his own variant.

– Глупости! – рассердилась Мышь. – Вечно всякие глупости! Как я от них устала! Этого

просто не вынести!

– А что нужно вынести? – спросила Алиса. (Она всегда готова была услужить.) –

Разрешите, я помогу!

Such as a pun made up of words “axis” and “axes”.

-You see the earth takes twenty-four hours to turn

round on its axis--'

`Talking of axes,' said the Duchess, `chop off her head!'

To keep the word play the translator used and idiom:

Ведь земля совершает

оборот за двадцать четыре часа…

– Оборот? – повторила Герцогиня задумчиво.

И, повернувшись к кухарке, прибавила:

– Возьми-ка ее в оборот! Для начала оттяпай ей голову!

But sometimes translators are lucky and the pun sounds better when translated. Such as an extract about the influence of different food on the mood of the eaters.

-Maybe it's always pepper that makes people hot-tempered,' she went on, very much pleased at having found out a new kind of rule, `and vinegar that makes them sour--and camomile that makes them bitter--and--and barley-sugar and such things that make children sweet-tempered. 

-От перца, верно, и начинают всем

перечить…

Алиса очень обрадовалась, что открыла новое правило.

– От уксуса – куксятся, – продолжала она задумчиво, – от горчицы – огорчаются, от лука –

лукавят, от вина – винятся, а от сдобы – добреют.

5.Conclusion.

The wonderful world of Lewis Carroll has charmed both children and grown ups for more than 150 years. Books about Alice are read all over the world. Numerous films and cartoons are based on them.

“Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland had a great influence on culture. Created on the spot, the world of Alice amazed the real world. I think no other book has so many fans, imitators and enemies.

“Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland” is among the twelve “the most English” objects and phenomena. This list was made by the British Ministry of Culture, Sport and Mass Media. And really, when reading the book you feel in Britain. This fairy tale has English gentleness which leaves its flavor.

Even in psychology there is a phenomenon called “the Alice`s syndrome”.

During the 20th century “Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland” has been the subject of numerous philosophical, psychological and satirical variations. One can have a lot of discussions and debates but don`t understand the secret idea of the book completely.

Carroll`s contribution to world`s literature and philosophy is great. He brought up generations and they gave him fame.