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Roald Dahl and philosophy : a little nonsense now and then / edited by Jacob M. Held

Published
Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, [2014]
Physical Description
ix, 249 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Additional Creators
Held, Jacob M., 1977-

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Contents
Introduction: Roald Dahl and absurdity: children's literature and the divorce between the mind that desires and the world that disappoints / Jacob M. Held -- Epicurus and the chocolate factory / Benjamin A. Rider -- On getting our just desserts: Willy Wonka, Immanuel Kant, and the summum bonum / Jacob M. Held -- Matilda, existentialist superhero / Elizabeth Butterfield -- The existential journey of James Henry Trotter: Kierkegaard, freedom, and despair in James and the giant peach / Matthew Bokma and Adam Barkman -- Of mice and (posthu)man: Roald Dahl's The witches and ethics beyond humanism / Taine Duncan -- "Who is this crazy man?": Willy Wonka's uneasy predicament / Cam Cobb -- "He will be altered quite a bit:" discipline and punishment in Willy Wonka's factory / Marc Napolitano -- Matilda and the philosophy of education, or what's an education for? / John V. Karavitis -- Shattering the glass elevator: authenticity and social order in the works of Roald Dahl / Joseph J. Foy and Timothy M. Dale -- The fantastically just Mr. Fox: property and distributive justice according to foxes and other diggers / Jacob M. Held -- Willy Wonka and the imperial chocolate factory / Ron Novy -- George's marvelous medicine, or: what should we do about global hunger? / Janelle Pötzsch -- Crodswoggle, flushbunking, and all things friendship in the BFG / Chad Kleist -- Charlie and the nightmare factory: the art of children's horror fiction / Greg Littmann -- Brimful of buzzburgers: a human bean's wild possibilities / Miranda Nell -- Dewey's marvelous medicine: negative capability, and the wonder of Roald Dahl / Tanya Jeffcoat.
Summary
Classics like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, and The BFG may initially appear to be yarns spun for the amusement of the adolescent mind. However, upon digging deeper, one uncovers a treasure trove of philosophical richness that is anything but childish, and which reveals the true existential weight, and multi-layered meaning of some of our favorite children s stories.
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ISBN
9781442222526 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1442222522 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-238) and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 13851249