Date of Award
Summer 8-2014
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
Committee Chair
Alexandra Valint
Committee Chair Department
English
Committee Member 2
Kate Cochran
Committee Member 2 Department
English
Committee Member 3
Kay Harris
Committee Member 3 Department
English
Abstract
This study of Lewis Carroll’s Phantasmagoria argues that the poem failed to achieve critical and popular success due to unmet reader expectations. The poem is a haunted house or ghost story and in many ways follows the familiar formula of the Victorian ghost story. However, Carroll’s political and generic satire alters various aspects of the anticipated structure, thereby creating a work that fails to satisfy readers on multiple levels. The failure of a work by a successful author writing within a popular genre is particularly significant for what it shows us about the relationship between genre, consumerism, and literary criticism.
Copyright
2014, Elissa Anne Graeser
Recommended Citation
Graeser, Elissa Anne, "Haunted to Death: Subverting Genre and Reader Expectations in Lewis Carroll's Phantasmagoria" (2014). Master's Theses. 47.
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/47