Lewis Carroll's writing significantly influenced modernist aesthetics and intellectual contexts through several key aspects:
Nonsense and Wordplay: Carroll's use of nonsense and wordplay, particularly in the Alice books, challenged traditional language and meaning, encouraging modernist writers to explore the limits of language and its representation.
Imaginative Worlds: The fantastical, surreal worlds of Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass inspired modernist authors to create complex, non-linear narratives that blurred the lines between reality and imagination.
Childhood and Identity: Carroll's focus on childhood experiences and the exploration of identity resonated with modernist writers, who often depicted the struggle for self-definition and the search for meaning in a rapidly changing world.
Language and Semantics: Carroll's work on language, including his exploration of etymology and the relationship between words and their referents, influenced modernist writers' interest in the nature of language and meaning.
Time and Space: The unconventional treatment of time and space in Carroll's stories, particularly the concept of timelessness and the fluidity of reality, provided modernist writers with new ways to think about narrative structure and the human experience.