New Times,
New Thinking.

  1. Culture
13 July 2015

Anarchy in Wonderland: Vivienne Westwood’s anti-capitalist take on Alice’s Adventures

Vivienne Westwood's 150th anniversary edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland calls for an end to capitalism, and captures the book in an age of political mistrust.

By Liv Constable-Maxwell

“Kids! Never become complacent. The world we think we know reflects the way we are conditioned to see it. Maybe it’s not like that at all”. This is the penultimate paragraph of Vivienne Westwood’s introduction to the Vintage Classics 150th edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Aside from her Alice-inspired Autumn/Winter 2011/2012 runway collection, her credentials differ from those who have written an introduction to the work in the past. Previously the book has been introduced by Michael Irwin, a professor of English literature at the University of Kent, and Hugh Haughton, a professor of English literature at York University, who tells me that he thinks Alice in Wonderland is, “the greatest text of dream realism ever written”.

Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
Artificial intelligence and energy security
Radioactive waste: Britain's challenge
Wayne Robertson: "The science is clear on the need for carbon capture"