Andreea-maria Sâncelean

Femininity Between Fantasy and Reality: Escaping to Wonderland Andreea-maria Sâncelean

Enchanted by tales of wonderlands where dreams may come true and where the impossible becomes possible, giving the feeling that everything is filled with magic and the unexpected, femininity tries to escape from reality in the world of fantasy as the social rules of the Victorian age suffocate its impulses towards adventure and discovery from very young ages. Starting from this premise, "Femininity Between Fantasy and Reality. Escaping to Wonderland" focuses on two of the most famous children?s stories ever written - Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit". Having as a basis the rules and principles specific to the Victorian age, moving on to the need for the fantasy genre and its rules, and the identity crisis that the two authors dealt with, the present thesis aims at decoding the path (with its experiences and characters) that the feminine principle follows in the fantasy worlds created by the two stories, not only from the perspective of the literary texts, but also the one of illustrations, cartoons and films.