SOURCE: "The Language of Nonsense in Alice," in Yale French Studies, No. 43, 1969, pp. 128-44.

In the following essay, Flescher provides a close analysis of the complex "nonsense language" of Alice, concluding that the work "can be read with the freshness of a child or the critical mind of an adult. "

Nonsense bears the stamp of paradox. The two terms of the paradox are order and disorder. Order is generally created by language, disorder by reference. But the essential factor is their peculiar interplay. Elizabeth Sewell, in a penetrating analysis of nonsense, stresses the idea of dialectic. Yet her analysis deals almost exclusively with the formal structure of order. Emile Cammaerts, on the other hand, defines nonsense poetry as "poetry run wild." This divergence clearly points to a danger: that of neglecting one dimension. An adequate definition must embrace both language and reference, order and disorder. The nature of...