From A to Z: Anthropomorphism and Zoomorphism in Victorian and Edwardian Children’s Literature

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3463440

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Literary Studies (MA)

Want, Mark van der (2022)

From A to Z: Anthropomorphism and Zoomorphism in Victorian and Edwardian Children’s Literature

Master thesis | Literary Studies (MA)

This thesis takes three works of prose fiction from the Victorian and Edwardian period that contain animal characters that interact with the human world. The fantastic narratives that will be explored are: Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865); Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books (1894-5); and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows (1908). Furthermore, it argues that anthropomorphism and zoomorphism act as core elements in these narratives to describe the complex formation of identity in Victorian Britain and to provide an opportunity covertly to criticize issues in the Victorian social class system. Furthermore, the thesis analyses these magical worlds as places where children’s imagination can play with the animal-human divide.

Children's Literature