MATILDA AND THE WITCHES - The Heteronormative Illustrated in Dahl
Abstract
This essay explores the view on gender in Roald Dahl’s Matilda and The Witches.
From a queer perspective, the essay examines the message residing in the intermedial space of
the text-image relationship. Analysing several character’s gender performances from both
books, the conclusion found that Dahl, in these books, favours assigning queer descriptors to
bad characters, and heteronormative descriptors to good characters. Furthermore, the analysis
points out several examples of the illustrations and text contradicting as well as amplifying each
other.
Degree
Student essay
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Date
2021-12-29Author
Nyman Järhult, Matilda
Keywords
English
Roald Dahl
Quentin Blake
Matilda
The Witches
gender
intermediality
children’s literature
illustrations
Series/Report no.
SPL kandidatuppsats, engelska
SPL 2021-019
Language
eng