2024-03-29T04:58:14Zhttps://keep.lib.asu.edu/oai/requestoai:keep.lib.asu.edu:node-1521212021-08-30T18:38:08Zoai_pmh:all152121
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.18788
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
All Rights Reserved
2013
2017-08-01T01:32:53
ii, 53 p
Masters Thesis
Academic theses
Text
eng
Roy, Sohinee
Blasingame, James
Goggin, Maureen Daly
Moulton, Ian F.
Arizona State University
Partial requirement for: M.A., Arizona State University, 2013
Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-53)
Field of study: English
Roald Dahl's books for children have often been characterized as deviating from "normal" plots in books for children because they feature elements and themes (e.g., violence, crude/rude behavior and humor, inversions of authority) that make representatives of the dominant culture (parents, school officials, teachers, librarians, etcetera) uncomfortable. Rather than view the stories holistically, challengers are quick to latch on to the specific incidents within these texts that cause discomfort, and use the particular as grounds to object to the whole. A deeper, and more critical, look reveals that instead of straying from established elements and themes in children's stories, Dahl's works have much in common with fairy tales--narratives that have endured in multiple iterations and over millennia. As with fairy tales, Dahl's stories for children offer readers ways to interpret--to make sense of and derive meaning from--their lives, while reflecting and reinforcing the ideological structures (family, appropriate behavior, capitalism) within which we find ourselves.
Rhetoric
literature
Children's Literature
Critical Theory
fairy tales
Hegemony
Roald Dahl
Social norms in literature
Children's literature, English--History and criticism.
Scrumdiddlyumptious stories: reflections and reinforcements of ideological structures in Roald Dahl's books for children