Postmodern Parody in Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes (1982)

Abstract

In an attempt to underscore how the British poet Roald Dahl (1916-90) has challenged the gender paradigms and the happily-ever-after motif in traditional fairy tales in his volume of poetry Revolting Rhymes (1982), this thesis applies the six parodic techniques introduced by the American theorist Dan Harries (1963- ) in his book Film Parody (2000) to selected poems from Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes (1982). Dahl presents a new kind of fairy tales where maidens save themselves and where noble princes turn out to be cruel villains. Dahl parodies several traditional fairy tales in Revolting Rhymes (1982) in order to deconstruct certain prevalent notions in traditional fairy tales: female passivity, male superiority, the belief in magic, the happily-ever-after motif, etc. This thesis explores three of Dahl’s poems through the lens of postmodern parody: “Cinderella,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” and “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.” The thesis also compares and contrasts the aforementioned poems with other parodic adaptations in poetry. Each comparison explores new themes and brings about fruitful findings in this thesis. The thesis falls into a preface, four chapters, and a conclusion. The preface outlines the division of the thesis and its theoretical background briefly. Chapter One which is entitled “The Concept of Postmodern Parody and the Parodic Adaptations of Fairy Tales” is divided into two sections: “Postmodern Parody” and “Retelling Fairytales.” The first section of the chapter introduces the theoretical framework of the thesis through discussing the concept of parody. The chapter traces the roots of postmodern parody as it introduces the theories that have helped pave the way to the development of postmodern parody. For instance, it explains Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1895-1975) dialogism and Gérard Genette’s (1930- ) concept of transtextuality. Moreover, the chapter offers a detailed review of Linda Hutcheon’s (1947- ) A Theory of Parody (1985)—the most comprehensive book to trace the etymology, definition, and development of the theory of postmodern parody. The chapter also briefly analyzes