Behind the Looking Glass

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.(June 2008)

This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page. This article has been tagged since June 2008.

This article may not meet the general notability guideline or one of the following specific guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines. If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand or rewrite the article to establish its notability. The best way to address this concern is to reference published, third-party sources about the subject. If notability cannot be established, the article is more likely to be considered for redirection, merge or ultimately deletion, per Wikipedia:Guide to deletion. This article has been tagged since June 2008.

Behind the Looking Glass (ISBN 978-1847184863) [1](Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing), by Dr. Sherry L. Ackerman [2], offers a fresh perspective in the ongoing, contemporary deconstruction of the Carroll Myth [3]. Ackerman exposes a Carroll who, having lost belief in the theological and mythological master plots of earlier eras, turned toward the imaginative fiction of wonderlands rife with philosophical content in response to his instinctive hunger for cosmic coherence and existential order. The image of Carroll as a dreary Victorian conservative gives way to that of a man with wide intellectual parameters, an inquiring mind and bold, far-sighted vision. The book offers a thorough examination of the nineteenth century Neoplatonic Revival in Great Britain, with special emphasis upon its influence on the writings of Lewis Carroll. Conciliatory points between revived Neoplatonism, theosophy and spiritualism are identified.

Dr. Ackerman sponsors a Blog [4]that maintains a thread dedicated to a discussion of the Neoplatonic Revival in nineteenth century Great Britain, especially as it pertained to the work of Lewis Carroll and other writers and authors during that period. The discussion, naturally, widens into an exploration of Neoplatonism in all of its forms, as well as the writings of Plotinus and the philosophia perennis.