Racism, Stereotyping and Censorship: Textual and Visual Revisions in Children's Illustrated Books.

This article analyses the significance of illustrations in illustrated books for children with regard to their role in promoting imperialist stereotypes by focusing on Roald Dahl's immensely popular Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964). It looks more closely at the depiction of Willy Wonka's foreign factory workers, the Oompa-Loompas, on both the visual and textual levels and the repeated attempts to eliminate its racist, offensive, and discriminatory contents through revision and rewriting. Looking at the visual material provided by four British and American illustrators and the textual changes undertaken by Dahl in 1973 and the Roald Dahl Story Company (in collaboration with Puffin Books and Inclusive Minds) in 2023, this article highlights the scope of such revisions, including their limits and the problems attached to altering the story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]