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.