THE WORLD OF
HARRY POTTER
Who/What is:
Harry Potter
Dumbledore
Muggles
Quidditch
Dementors
A Pensieve
What is ’Harry Potter’?
•
•
•
•
•
•
The books and
The films and
The fanware and
The games and
The websites and
Etc, etc, etc…
• OR?
How to study Harry Potter
1. Analysing a novel, or series of novels
2. Analysing all forms of cultural text
Approaches
1. Analysing a novel, or series of novels
Literary approaches (theory and
methodology) such as formalist,
reader-response, genre theory,
feminist
Approaches
2. Analysing all forms of cultural text
Cultural approaches, theories and
methods (cultural theory, sociolology,
feminism)
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
• Pulp fiction
• Series books
• Mystery
– detective fiction
• Buildungsroman
• School stories
– Sports stories
•
•
•
•
Realism
Fantasy
Adventure tales
Quest romance and myth
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
Pulp fiction
• popular or sensational writing (poor
quality)
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
Series books
• titles: Harry Potter and…
• The same group of characters
• structure of plot repeated
Titles: Harry Potter and:
• The Sorcerer’s Stone: fantasy, magic, myth
• The Chambers of Secrets: mystery, thriller
fiction, horror
• The Prisoner of Azkaban: crime thriller,
gothic tale
• The Goblets of Fire: adventure, fantasy,
mysticism
• The Order of the Phoenix: thriller fiction,
mysticism
• The half-blood Prince: fantasy, myth
• Book 7: ????
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
Mystery
– detective fiction
• Main mystery: who is HP? Who is
Voldemort? Why can V not kill H?
• Specific mysteries in each book:
Prisoner: the identity of Sirius Black
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
Buildungsroman
• Focus on physical, intellectual, moral and
spiritual development of main character from
childhood to adulthood
• Main character goes through various
situations and crises, which lead to maturity
and recognition of his identity and place in
the world.
• Genre motifs such as: loss of father, conflict
between past ideals and present struggle,
the search for and discovery of love
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
School stories
– Sports stories
• Hogwarts and its houses
• “schooldays as they should be” (practical jokes,
sports, studying).
• Dumbledore as headmaster (kind, charismatic,
powerful, knowledgable, high moral
• McGonagall as role model teacher
• Snape as anti-role model
– (Quidditch) – to teach values as loyalty, courage, leadership,
etc
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
Realism
• Takes place in the real world (England
of today)
• Realist aspects: students go to class,
do homework, and have the same
experiences as at any British public
school
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
Fantasy
• Fantasy aspects: in the detail: owl post,
live photographs, magical creatures
• What they learn at Hogwarts: magic
and the history of magic, etc
• other fairy tale elements: dragons,
unicorns, trolls, giants, and
• settings such as castles, huts, towers,
woods
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
Fantasy and realism
•
•
Blending the familiar with the unexpected
(for the reader comfort and excitement at
the same time)
The wizard world has
–
–
–
–
–
its own financial system
its own political system
its own transportation system
its own educational system
its own candy.
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
Adventure tales
involves a quest
• noble-natured hero forced to face dangers
• with faithful companions
• and helpers who know more than he does
• The plot climaxes in the final battle against
the main opponent
Harry Potter
as a mosaic of genres
Quest romance and myth
Three stages of quest romance:
agon (conflict) pathos (death-struggle)
anagnorisis (discovery)
Myth: forces of good and evil, mythical
elements
Topics for project work
(emnestudier) – literary
approaches
• Pick one or more genre(s) and examine what roles they play in
one (or more) Harry Potter book(s) – for example for plot or
character construction
• The Harry Potter books have been described as ”Kidlit” – what
is that and is it important for how we, as ’literature scholars’
approach the books? Can we use the same literary
methodologies we use for adult literature?
• Pick a theme that you think is interesting and analyse one or
more book(s) in the light of that (how is gender thematized,
how are female characters constructed, how should we read
Hermione’s character? What is her role for the plot? etc)
• Compare Harry Potter (books or films) to other examples of
fantasy (books or films) – for exampe The Chronicles of Narnia
and analyse how they ’use’ the fantasy genre
Book 7
• What do you think
will happen in Book
7?
• People guess!
• http://www.mugglen
et.com/books/future
books/book7/index.
shtml
• On the basis of what
do you/they guess?
Cultural approaches
HP as a consumer craze or fashion
• Sales figures
• The books:
–
–
–
–
Third on the all-time bestsellers list:
The Bible (2.5 billion copies sold)
The Thoughts of Chairman Mao (800 million)
HP (300 million) (2005)
• The Films:
– The three first films: 1.6 billion USD, DVD, video and
broadcasting rights: 750 million USD (2004)
• Merchandise:
• The HP brand:
?
– estimated value 4 billion USD
Cultural effects
• The appearance of innumerable similar children’s books
(including two by Rowlings herself (using pseudonym))
• Children’s books have changed from short, realist tales
(until the mid 1990s)
• increase in applications to boarding schools
• National Health style glasses back in fashion
• Owls are increasingly popular as household pets
• New words are now part of the vernacular (quidditch,
muggles, Gryffindor, Hogwarts)
• HP as Britain’s biggest cultural export since the
Beatles and James Bond.
Cultural consumption of HP
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reading the books
Watching the films
Buying the merchandise
http://harrypotter.wbshop.com/?referral_id=WBWIZSHOP (official HP shop)
Staging the stories unofficially as school plays
Music played by amateur orchestras
HP theme parties
Fan mail (two anthologies are published: We Love Harry Potter!(Moore,
2001) and Kids’ Letters to Harry Potter (Adler 2001)
Official websites http://www.jkrowling.com/
http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/index.html
http://harrypotter.dk.warnerbros.com/site/index.html
Tribute websites (www.mugglenet.com, www.hpana.com, www.hplexicon.org)
Fanfiction: 263.941 additions to the HP corpus! (www.fanfiction.net)
http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/ lists 35.157 stories and 115.778
chapters
Consumer research
• 60% of American teenagers like HP
• 25% of adults (2003)
• 50% of all UK households own at least
one HP novel (2002)
Consumer research
An analysis of message-board postings
on the web showed:
• 2/3 of Potter posters are under the age
of 18 (most between 12-16)
• Of those between 12 and 16, 2/3 are
female, though male participation is
much greater in film-related message
boards.
What will end the HP as a
consumer craze /What
challenges the HP brand?
• When it becomes too familiar?
• When everybody has it?
• When there is too much ‘here-we-goagain’ marketing?
Topics for project work
(emnestudier) – cultural
approaches
• What is about the HP books that has made them so
popular?
• What is it about our culture that embraces the HP
books and have turned HP into such a
phenomenon?
• Look at the reception of HP – why has HP been
banned (for examples by groups in the US)?
• Examine the concept of ‘fanfiction’ and look at some
HP stories – for example focusing on how and what
genres they rely on and emphasize
• Examine some of the tribute websites
• Examine the target audience of the books/films – do
they grow up with Harry?
Topics for project work
(emnestudier) –other approaches
• Examine the develment in children’s books since
1995 – can the development been seen as a
consequence of HP, or is HP itself part of a general
change with children’s books?
• Discuss the translations of HP into another language
in the light of translation theory.