Violence in Children’s Literature: Intensification and Softening in Two Indonesian Translations of Matilda

Abstract

The translation of children’s literature often involves negotiating cultural values and ideological positions, particularly in the representation of sensitive issues such as violence. This study examines the translation of violence as social critique in Matilda by Roald Dahl and its two Indonesian translations published by Gramedia and Noura Books. Using a qualitative comparative approach, the study focuses on the representation of physical violence as a form of social critique in children’s literature, particularly in how such representations are linguistically constructed and ideologically framed. Drawing on John Stephens’s theory of social critique in children’s literature and Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis framework, the findings show that the Gramedia version tends to preserve or even intensify violence through more forceful and explicit lexical choices, while the Noura Books version tends to reduce its intensity through more neutral and softened expressions. At the discursive level, the presence of a translator’s note in the Gramedia version frames the text as purely fantastical, potentially limiting its critical dimension, whereas the absence of such framing in the Noura Books version allows for more open interpretation by readers. At the social level, these differences reflect a protective versus a reader-oriented approach to child readership and their interpretive capacity. Overall, the study highlights translation as a dynamic site of ideological negotiation in children’s literature, particularly in mediating sensitive themes such as violence and authority.

Keywords

• translation studies
• children’s literature
• retranslation
• critical discourse analysis
• ideological negotiation

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