Confronting Child Abuse through Magical Realism in Roald Dahl's Matilda

Abstract

Abstract

Fantasy and reality are combined in a prominent postmodern literary theory known as magical realism. In magical realism, fantastical events are portrayed in a realistic manner, and the setting is a normal world populated by genuine characters. Not everything is fantastic or unreal. In fact, there is no singular definition of magical realism. Critics define Magical Realism in their own way, as Magical Realism is defined differently by each critic. This paper seeks to examine magical realism in children's literature by analyzing its fundamentals in Roald Dahl's "Matilda". This paper is divided into two sections. The first section is an introduction. It addresses magical realism, its characteristics, and its connection to children's literature. Section two examines how child abuse damages the lives of children and how children who get abused from adults confronting these abusive behaviours through magical realism that Dahl used in order to make his child protagonist have the brave to confront.