Critical Posthumanist Readings of Contemporary Screen Reimaginings of Lewis Carroll’s Alice

Becoming Alice

Irene Stoukou

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040751862
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism for Comparative Literature
• Index: Literature

Journey through the rabbit hole into unexplored theoretical territory as Lewis Carroll's beloved Alice navigates the boundaries between human and nonhuman across literature and film. This ground-breaking study examines how Carroll's Victorian masterpieces and six major screen adaptations (1966–2016) anticipate today's critical posthuman thought. From Victorian scientific debates to contemporary concerns about ecological collapse and algorithmic governance, Alice emerges as a revolutionary figure constantly in flux—relational, affective, and materially embedded. Each chapter pairs a different Alice adaptation with illuminating theoretical frameworks—from Braidotti's affirmative ethics to vital materialism—revealing how these reimaginings address shifting configurations of humanity across time. This volume will be of interest to scholars and readers of literary and film studies, Victorian literature, feminist theory, and environmental humanities, offering a fresh perspective on childhood, trauma, embodiment, and Anthropocene politics through the looking glass of Carroll's enduring creation. Alice's adventures were never just about Wonderland—they were always about reimagining what it means to be human.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Alice through the Posthuman Glass
• 3 Childhood through the Looking Glass and Becoming-Minoritarian in Jonathan Miller’s Alice in Wonderland (1966)
• 4 Posthumanous Alice: Death as Becoming-Imperceptible in Claude Chabrol’s Alice ou la Dernière Fugue (1977)
• 5 Entangled Materialities, Vibrant Becomings, and the Agency of Assemblages in Jan Švankmajer’s Alice (1988)
• 6 Becoming-Heroine and the Technological Posthuman in Nick Willing’s Alice (2009)
• 7 Becoming-Alice in Underland and Greta’s Muchness in the Anthropocene: Disney Reimaginings of Alice (2010, 2016)
• 8 Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Filmography
• Index