"Visual Culture and the 'Alice' Books"

Another important strategy that Tenniel used to imbue his work with meaning was appropriation. Appropriation is the “act of borrowing, stealing, or taking over others’ meanings to one’s own ends. Cultural appropriation is the process of ‘borrowing’ and changing the meaning of commodities, cultural products, slogans, images, or elements of fashion. In addition, appropriation is one of the primary forms of oppositional production and reading, when, for instance, viewers take cultural products and re-edit, rewrite, or change them in some way” (Sturken and Cartwright 350). Tenniel made use of cultural appropriation, and here is just one example. The image on top is “The Wolf and the Dog” by French artist J.J. Grandville, a contemporary of Tenniel’s. The image on bottom is the famous Frog Footman from the “Pig and pepper chapter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It’s fairly obvious upon looking at these two images that Tenniel drew upon Grandville’s work in his production of these characters. However, some critics have suggested that there is more to it than that. Based on the depiction of the Frog Footman, the character at left in Tenniel’s illustration, critics have suggested that Tenniel’s work is a commentary on French culture. The Frog Footman’s dress and posture appear to be somewhat arrogant or pompous, perhaps conveying Tenniel’s opinion of the French. If this is the case, then Tenniel drew a piece of art from a French artist and turned it back on itself, using it to poke fun at the nationality of the original artist.