Roald Dahl’s Reception in America: The Tall Tale, Humour and the Gothic Connection

Authors

  • Adrian Schober Australian Catholic University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2009vol19no1art1155

Keywords:

Roald Dahl, Gothicism, humour, United States, caricature, tall tales

Abstract

Dahl's hyperbolic children's fantasies appeal to the American love of overstatement, a hallmark of that most American of storytelling forms: the tall tale. Humour is an essential element of the tall tale; one of its most famous practitioners was Mark Twain. Dahl's brand of humour clearly profits from this national literary form. His employment of grotesque caricature also has links with the Gothic, a mode in which Dahl excels, as does America. However, as Petzold notes, the question of whether 'there are national differences in the use of the grotesque is... yet to be investigated' (2006, p.183). It may be that American culture is more willing to embrace a particular form of the grotesque.

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Author Biography

  • Adrian Schober, Australian Catholic University

    Adrian Schober has a PhD in literature and film from Monash University, Australia. His research interests include science fiction,fantasy, horror, Hitchcock, Kubrick, as well as children’s literature. His book, Possessed Child Narratives in Literature and Film, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2004. He teaches children’s and popular literature at Australian Catholic University.

References

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Published

2009-01-01

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How to Cite

“Roald Dahl’s Reception in America: The Tall Tale, Humour and the Gothic Connection” (2009) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 19(1), pp. 30–39. doi:10.21153/pecl2009vol19no1art1155.

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