The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Resistance and Complicity in Matilda

While Roald Dahl's Matilda offers a critique of oppressive, colonizing adult practices, it also makes clear the difficulty posed by the tyranny of gendered social scripts. Focusing both on historical and fictional parallels suggested by the text, this paper outlines the limited choices Matilda...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Children's Literature Association Quarterly 2008-10, Vol.33 (3), p.246-257
Main Author: Guest, Kristen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
British & Irish literature
Children
Childrens novels
Dahl, Roald
Literary criticism
Mass media
Stereotypes
Welsh literature
Women
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Summary:While Roald Dahl's Matilda offers a critique of oppressive, colonizing adult practices, it also makes clear the difficulty posed by the tyranny of gendered social scripts. Focusing both on historical and fictional parallels suggested by the text, this paper outlines the limited choices Matilda is offered as role models, highlighting in particular the way she is positioned as a double for Miss Trunchbull.
ISSN:0885-0429
1553-1201
1553-1201
DOI:10.1353/chq.0.0027