Wonderland is often used as a synonym for nonsense, but is there something more complex and logical functioning beneath the surface? Lewis Carroll’s fiction novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland presents the most remarkable synergy of sense and nonsense; logic and fallacies. With Deleuze’s Logic of Sense being utilised to illuminate the key fields of logic in the novel, appropriate fields of geometry and algebra will be utilised under the scope of mathematics to elevate an establishment of logic.
A conservative mathematician, Carroll disputed the pivotal change that was being introduced in the 19th century. With preceding mathematics emphasising logical Euclidean methods, the 1800’s saw mathematical theories introduce more abstract principles which extended mathematics beyond the isolation of arithmetic and numbers. Deeming this absurd, Carroll thus utilised the nonsense fiction in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to subtly mock the contemporary mathematical climate.
Having always possessed an interest in how fiction literature can re-orientate the mechanics of our perceived reality, highlighting the logic in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland will enable a platform to project my passion for mathematics in a qualitatively fiction context. By illuminating the masked logic and mathematics throughout the novel, this project will ultimately aim to convey how this nonsense fiction literature often anchors itself in a sound and consistent logic.