Alice and the Others: Reflecting on Intercultural Communication Through Literature

This essay explores the deep connections between culture, language and identity, and how such relationships influence communication. This study works at the intersection of linguistic education, literary education, intercultural education, and intercultural communication. As far as culture and identity are concerned, since the individual belongs simultaneously to different cultural groups (national, regional, linguistic, professional, etc.), we can consider identity as a complex and plural construction, in which multiple cultures coexist and must continuously dynamically negotiate their meanings. As such, we propose an intercultural perspective of the individual. Furthermore, this study highlights the link between culture and language and the possible reflections on communication, pushing towards a reflection on how we use our language(s). Considering communication as a system and the differences that come into play in multicultural encounters, the study underlines the necessity to develop an intercultural communicative competence (which implies the use of specific abilities). Such abilities are specifically analyzed with reference to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Carroll’s masterpiece – showing how it is possible to approach and include a literary text in a more general reflection and training in terms of intercultural communication.