The Grotesque concept and its representation in English Literature:"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll and "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift

The present thesis is an analysis of the grotesque concept and its representation in English literature, namely in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is approached as a journey to a fantasy world that is created by the protagonist, Alice's imagination. The reader is traveling to Wonderland as a world with no obvious reality. This world is ruled by nonsense and incoherence. At the same time, many elements of the novel express the ideas of the writer's time, Victorian England. The purpose here is to argue that the basic intentions of Lewis Carroll were to satirize the Victorian society and to show the absurd characters by using the grotesque concept. Here, my thesis presents historical, cultural and social background of Victorian period, as well as the theoretical frameworks of the grotesque, carnivalesque and satire as to finally reveal, Alice's inability to comprehend that Wonderland has its own rules and values over the grotesque elements. Carroll satirizes the British judicial system and Victorian society through the authority characters of Wonderland such as the Queen of the Hearts. The novel's satire encompasses bizarre figures, traditions, conversations, and situations with Wonderland creatures by using grotesque and carnivalesque elements. The novel Gulliver's Travels is about four different voyages. These voyages are symbolic, representative and important. Jonathan Swift focuses his satire on English society using grotesque realism and grotesque bodily elements. Gulliver's first voyage is to Lilliput, where Swift satirizes the littleness of people; the second one is to Brobdingnag, where he satirizes the poorness of the mankind; the third one is to Laputa, where he satirizes science and philosophy and last one is to Houyhnhnms, where he satirizes the human condition, in general, and promotes the condemnation of human beings. These four voyages reflect Swift's satire as criticism on his own time and the future of mankind. The thesis also reveals the ways in which Lewis Carroll and Jonathan Swift construct their protagonists, Alice and Gulliver in order to satirize the English society by using grotesque elements such as bizarre figures, absurd conventions and ridiculous conversations. Keywords: carnivalesque, grotesque bodily elements, grotesque realism, irony, satire