Topic Proposal (again)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aVzuXIx2CwS29z3-mYZ5UDct187v-X9nMcWbz0leXCk/edit

Trying this again!

I've still got some things to work on, namely the intro/conclusion, and I'm still doing research, but this is what I've got so far.

Topic Proposal

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19JlQw4YI0JpLmrsnPVV6gcilZY8XsPhinoqdcTNN01U/edit

This is my VERY rough topic proposal. I'm going to edit it so that it makes sense, but for now, this is what I've got. 

Annotated Bibliography

The characteristics that make Alice a female role model and helped her survive Wonderland are the same characteristics that make the story an influential one, and helped it survive many years, and many different forms of media.

 

Books - Most of these books are just different versions of the original story - I will be looking at each of them and comparing the characteristics of Alice to see if they change at all. My guess is that most of the characteristics will stay the same, but certain ones will change slightly, just to fit the time period in which the story was written. Just as Alice is able to accept the strangeness of Wonderland and adapt to survive while still staying true to herself and her basic characteristics, the stories will most likely also adapt to survive new societies while still holding on to the basics.

Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll: Carroll, Lewis, and Donald J. Gray. Alice in Wonderland. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1992. Print.

This one is the original. I will base everything in my paper on this particular piece of literature. 

 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories – Lewis Carroll: Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble, 2010. Print.

This is a larger volume that includes the original story, but also includes other poems and things by Lewis Carroll that were not in the original, and also has some things written about Alice by the author, so it will be useful for quotes and such. 

 

Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser -  William Irwin; Richard Brian Davis: Davis, Richard Brian. Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print.

This particular book will be one of the most helpful to me, as it includes an article about Alice as a female role model, and the different characteristics that make her so. 

 

Alice in Zombieland – Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook: Cook, Nickolas, and Lewis Carroll. Alice in Zombieland. Naperville, IL: Source, 2011. Print.

This book is essentially the original story, but with different words/phrases thrown in to make it about Zombies. I will use this to show how the story adapts to new media and society (the Zombie Craze that's happening right now) while still holding on to its roots and staying true to the original story (again, the actual book is almost exact to the original). 

 

Alice I have Been – Melanie Benjamin: Benjamin, Melanie. Alice I Have Been: a Novel. New York: Bantam Trade Paperbacks, 2011. Print.

This is a book about Alice Liddell. It's fiction, but it's written as non-fiction. Alice Liddell is the little girl whom "Alice" is based on. This book will be used to show how influential "Alice" really is. 

 

Film - The films will be compared to the original book, and used as a way to show how the story has adapted to different societies (each of the films was created in a different time period, thus a different social time), yet still kept much of the original characteristics of the original.

Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland: The Masterpiece Edition: Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland: The Masterpiece Edition. Walt Disney, 2004. DVD.

 The Disney version of "Alice" is the one that most people know.

 

Alice in Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland. Dir. Nick Willing. Prod. Dyson Lovell. Perf. Robbie Coltrane, Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lloyd, Miranda Richardson, Martin Short, Peter Ustinov, George Wendt, Gene Wilder and Tina Majorino as Alice. Hallmark Entertainment, 1990. DVD.

This is a live action film version which is a little bit closer to the book than the Disney one. 

 

 

Alice in Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland. Dir. Tim Burton. Perf. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, with the Voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, and Timothy Spall. Disney, 2010. DVD.

The new Tim Burton film which is not necessarily based on the original story, but takes the original characters and brings Alice BACK to Wonderland after she's grown up. 

 

Television

Alice: Willing, Nick, dir. "Alice." Alice. SyFy. 2009. Television.

This SyFy mini-series (directed by the same man who directed the 1990 film) brings Alice as an adult into Wonderland, where she has many adventures that are sort of "nods" to the original, but a completely new spin on them. 

 

Music

Alice: Waits, Tom. Alice. Tom Waits. Epitaph Records, 2002. CD. 

This entire CD includes songs written for a play called "Alice" directed by Robert Wilson. Every track is about "Alice in Wonderland" so I will use the music to show, yet again, how influential the story has been, and how it has adapted to all different forms while still keeping its roots.

 

 

I will also be showing paintings, photographs, graphics, etc, to show that Alice is still influencing people, and that often, her original characteristics do shine through, even as she adapts to new forms of media and societies.

A few sources...

I figure I should probably get down the sources I already have on hand.

Books

Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll: Carroll, Lewis, and Donald J. Gray. Alice in Wonderland. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1992. Print.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories – Lewis Carroll: Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble, 2010. Print.

Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser -  William Irwin; Richard Brian Davis: Davis, Richard Brian. Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print.

Alice in Zombieland – Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook: Cook, Nickolas, and Lewis Carroll. Alice in Zombieland. Naperville, IL: Source, 2011. Print.

Alice I have Been – Melanie Benjamin: Benjamin, Melanie. Alice I Have Been: a Novel. New York: Bantam Trade Paperbacks, 2011. Print.

Film

Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland: The Masterpiece Edition: Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland: The Masterpiece Edition. Walt Disney, 2004. DVD.

Alice in Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland. Dir. Nick Willing. Prod. Dyson Lovell. Perf. Robbie Coltrane, Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lloyd, Miranda Richardson, Martin Short, Peter Ustinov, George Wendt, Gene Wilder and Tina Majorino as Alice. Hallmark Entertainment, 1990. DVD.

Alice in Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland. Dir. Tim Burton. Perf. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, with the Voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, and Timothy Spall. Disney, 2010. DVD.

Television

Alice: Willing, Nick, dir. "Alice." Alice. SyFy. 2009. Television.

I find it really interesting that Nick Willing first directed the Hallmark Entertainment version of Alice, and then came back to direct SyFy's mini-series, "Alice". 

These are just the books and DVDs that I own, I'll be adding many more sources as I actually begin my research.  

Alice in Wonderland Capstone

Growing up, I hated Alice in Wonderland. I mean, I really hated it. I thought it was trippy and scary and all about drugs, and I refused to watch it. This probably had something to do with the fact that I watched the live action version when I was very young (it's a creepy, very trippy version).
Needless to say, when I decided to write a comparison paper using multiple versions of Alice in Wonderland (Book, movies, TV series), I surprised myself. I found that I actually loved the story, and that there was so much more to it than I'd realized. I found myself becoming more and more enthralled and obsessed, even, with Alice and her adventures. Then, Alice began to follow me. She would poke her little blonde head through the pages of my books or in various scenes in movies or television shows I was watching. She even managed to creep into some of my music. I realized that somehow, she was everywhere, and that this simple story that Lewis Carroll had written so long ago, was still very prevalent in today's society.
For my capstone, I want to look a little bit more deeply into this. I want to figure out why Alice is so popular - what is it that makes her so interesting? Why are there so many versions of this story? Also, I want to write my own version, but with a darker spin. In my story, Alice isn't napping in a meadow while her sister reads a boring book with no pictures, she's in a mental institution, and her mind is collapsing. And Alice isn't going to wake up at the end of her adventure with the realization that "You're all just a bunch of cards!" No, Alice is stuck in Wonderland, and it's collapsing around her, just like her mind, but she can't get out.
So anyway. That's my capstone. We'll see how this goes.