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Roald Dahl's Reception in America: The Tall Tale, Humour and The Gothic Connection by Schobe

This document consists of citations from various sources related to Roald Dahl's book "The BFG". It discusses how the exceptional language used by the BFG and other giants is important in depicting their characters. While the BFG's creative language shows him to be witty, the speech of the other giants emphasizes their arrogant nature through the verbs used to describe their shouting and cursing. The document also mentions two Romanian translations of insults used by one of the mean giants in the book.

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Helen-Sabina Apatrasoaie
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74 views2 pages

Roald Dahl's Reception in America: The Tall Tale, Humour and The Gothic Connection by Schobe

This document consists of citations from various sources related to Roald Dahl's book "The BFG". It discusses how the exceptional language used by the BFG and other giants is important in depicting their characters. While the BFG's creative language shows him to be witty, the speech of the other giants emphasizes their arrogant nature through the verbs used to describe their shouting and cursing. The document also mentions two Romanian translations of insults used by one of the mean giants in the book.

Uploaded by

Helen-Sabina Apatrasoaie
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Silvey, Anita, The essential guide to children's books and their creators, p.

115
Concise Oxford English Dictionary, tenth edition revised, edited by Pearsall Judy, Oxford University
Press, 2002, pp. 443
Idioms, Transparency and Pragmatic Inference*, Rosa Elena Vega Moreno, p.423
Roald Dahls Reception in America: The Tall Tale, Humour and the Gothic Connection by Schobe,
Adrian, p.34
Abrams, H, M. A Glossary of Literary Terms/ Seventh Edition, Edited by Thomson Learning, Inc., 1999,
p.253
Dahl,Roald, Uriaul ce Prietenos, traducere din limba englez de Badea, Mdlina, Monica, ilustraii de
Quentin Blake, Editura Rao, Editura Rao, 2008, cap. UCP, pp.34-35
Baker, Mona, In Other Words a Course Book on Translation, published by Routledge, 1992, p.24
Dahl, Roald, The BFG, Illustrations by Quentin Blake, Published by the Penguin Group, 1997,p.28, 173
Dahl Roald, Uriaul Bun i Prietenos,traducere din limba englez de Rdoi, Leontina, ilustraii de Quentin
Blake, Editura Patricia, Bucureti, 1993, cap. U.B.P, pp.24-26
The exceptional language used both by The BFG and the giants is an important device in the depiction
of their characters. They are the only ones who use language in the peculiar way that has been described
in the present study. Anomalous features do not appear in the narrative or in the speech of other
characters such as the orphan Sophie or the Queen and her husband- a fact that emphasizes the special
qualities of the giants as compared to the others. His language also seems to connect the BFG with the
other giants despite their mutual differences so it might be seen as a typical feature of the giants.
Anomalous language works differently in the depiction of the BFG than the other giants, though. The
good character, the BFG, is eager to read and write and he suffers from his lack of education: "I cannot be
helping it if I sometimes is saying things a little squiggly. I is trying my very best all the time" (BFG 50).
The BFG's exceptional language leads the reader to think that he is witty, creative and imaginative. In
contrast, the stupidity and lack of talent (which in this work, as in many other works by Dahl, are
equivalent to wickedness) of the other giants is expressed by the choice of verbs used in the narration.
Their speech is almost never described using simply the verb to say, but the verb has been chosen to
emphasize their arrogant nature. Among the verbs used are to shout, to scream, to boom, to roar, to
screech and to bellow. The wicked giants also curse constantly in their own peculiar manner. For
example, the Bloodbottler (Strnge Snge), one of the mean characters calls the BFG swinebuggler,
pigswiller(BFG 60). Mdlina Monica Badea has translated this as ticorcitule and porcran while
Leontina Rdoi has translated it as gndac porcesc and porc rmtor.

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