Sneaking Out After Dark: Resistance, Agency, and the Postmodern Child in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter Series

JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels situate their child protagonists in a fantastical world side by side with present day British society. Through the characters’ choices and realizations, young readers are introduced to the complexities and ambiguities of the contemporary world. Harry and his friends embrace these qualities of postmodern childhood and question injustices established by and through the adult wizarding world. The characters’ resistance occurs in relation to control of their minds and bodies, the hegemony of wizarding bloodlines, and efforts to frame children as in need of protection. Rowling’s novels imagine a culture in which such child agency is possible, where young people become builders of context, awakening to the network of relationships and institutions that frame their lives.     

What has <Emphasis Type="Italic">Harry Potter</Emphasis> Done for Me? Children’s Reflections on their ‘<Emphasis Type="Italic">Potter</Emphasis> Experience’

This article reports findings from a small-scale focus-group study funded by the British Academy. Drawing on Herbert Marsh and Richard Shavelson’s notion of “Academic Self-Concept” and David Barton and Mary Hamilton’s view of literacy as context-specific social practices, the authors examine what young British Harry Potter enthusiasts perceive as the influence of the novels on their subsequent reading behaviour and academic development. Specifically, they consider whether these children feel that Harry Potter has helped improve their literacy skills and whether they think the books have changed their attitudes to reading. Moreover, the article sheds light on the role of the films and the possible effect of gender. The authors conclude that the Potter enthusiasts they have interviewed see the series as formative in terms of their literacy. However, regarding gender, intra-group variation (differences among individual readers in a group of either boys or girls) is far more significant than inter-group variation (differences between single-sex groups of boys and girls).     

The Magic of Harry Potter: Symbols and Heroes of Fantasy

This article suggests that the worldwide, multiage appeal of Harry Potter may lie in the way these stories of magic meet the needs of readers to find meaning in today's unmagical contexts. The imaginative appeal and symbolic efficacy of the books for children are examined in terms of Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment. The development of Harry Potter as a hero in the mythic/fantasy tradition, which allows young adults to grasp a sense of hope for meaning and triumph, are explored in terms of Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces. Case studies are included to illustrate.     

Alcatraz and Iser: Applying Wolfgang Iser’s Concepts of Implied Reader and Implied Author and Reality to the Metafictive Alcatraz Smedry Series

As a narrative series, Brandon Sanderson’s humorous, middle grade, Alcatraz Smedry novels display some of the arguably vague concepts of Reader Response theorist Wolfgang Iser as accessible themes that encourage a critical understanding of the stories. Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (2007), Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones (2008) and Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia (2009) are the supposed autobiographies of 13-year-old Alcatraz Smedry, who regularly pauses the narrative to comment on the nature of reality and fantasy and on his state as a hero. As the implied author, Alcatraz directly addresses the reader to describe characteristics of the implied readers and to note gaps in the narrative and aspects of the story’s structure. The metafictive techniques incorporated throughout Sanderson’s fantasy parodies guide readers to ask critical questions of the books, the fantasy genre, reality and Alcatraz’s characterization of himself. Examining the Alcatraz series with the lens of Iser’s concepts displays their use in children’s literature and demonstrates how issues of the implied author and implied reader may stretch beyond the scope of an individual narrative into questions and critiques of genre, parody, metafiction, reality and the reliability of a narrator.     

Embracing the Abject Other: The Carnival Imagery of Harry Potter

In Rabelais and His World Mikhail Bakhtin traces the history of laughter and the specific impact of Francois Rabelais upon that history, but more important it is the most definitive example of the carnivalesque available to Western scholars to date. By carnivalesque he refers to the traditional language and spectacle associated with folk culture within the carnival season, language and images that represent the universal truths of life, death, and renewal through the grotesque body. Bakhtin’s theories of the characteristics of unbridled freedom illustrate the universality and dissident effects of laughter. The revolutionary or subversive, carnival spirit displayed by the clash between official and unofficial culture bear particular significance upon the Harry Potter series. At the heart of carnival imagery is what Bakhtin defines as the three elements of laughter: “universalism, freedom, and… [their] relation to the people’s unofficial truth” (p. 90). These are the elements of laughter that most adequately characterize Harry Potter’s subjective view of what is good and right. He is at the most basic level an initiate of change who works within the realm of the carnivalesque to illustrate the subversive qualities of laughter in opposition to the official culture the muggle world represents with regards to race. The carnivalesque and grotesque in Harry Potter illustrates an appeal to social transformation through the power of laughter and the reversal of the dominant order of race and racial difference.     

Understanding Harry Potter: parallels to the deaf world

Every so often there are stories that take the world by storm and make such an impact that they become part of our everyday world. These stories, characters, and themes become established elements of cultural literacy. This is exactly what has happened with J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Harry and his cohort of wizards, witches, and their adventures have become an indispensable part of popular literature and popular culture. We have developed an innovative way to ensure that Deaf children, their families, and anyone studying literature (Deaf or general) gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. In fact, we go further by demonstrating how using a Deaf Lens provides the greatest insight into the fascinating world of Harry Potter. Utilizing a Deaf Studies Template and a Deaf Lens, we capitalize on the experiences of Deaf people everywhere while celebrating the valuable role American Sign Language has in academic programming.     

The Survival of Engaged Reading in the Internet Age: New Media, Old Media, and the Book

This article explores questions of paratext and spin-off text through an investigation of websites and other forms of satellite texts relating to three series of novels for young people: the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, and the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett. Much of this material, which is often perceived as competition to the book, actually trades on a powerful assumption that the reader has already read the books in question. Extended reading is supported rather than undermined by many of these associated texts.     

心灵之旅——探索《纳尼亚传奇》的“第二世界”

近些年来,很多奇幻电影引进中国,例如:《哈利波特》《指环王》《纳尼亚传奇》等等。这些作品都受到中国观众的欢迎,而且越来越多的读者开始关注这些作品的原著。《纳尼亚传奇》是C.S.路易斯创作的有名的系列作品。本文将在"第二世界"理论下探索这部作品,这部系列作品也回答了人类心灵的三大疑问。     

哈利·波特文化现象透析

《哈利·波特》系列小说在20世纪末出版,风靡全球。作者对传统魔幻小说的创新不仅仅不在于题材和语言革新,更多的是在于对真实情感的回归,对文学多元性的吸收和应用。读者能够深刻地感觉到《哈利·波特》既亲切又新奇,有怀旧味道的同时又不乏时代的气息。总之,《哈利·波特》受到市场与学术界的热切关注,本文从哈利·波特系列作品的特点入手,全面分析哈利·波特作品背后的文化现象及其深刻内涵。     

Harry Potter and the Border Crossing Analogy: An Exploration of the Instructional Use of Analogy in a TESOL Methods Course

ABSTRACT

The following exploratory study examines the effects of a Harry Potter–inspired “border crossing” analogy (HPBCA) on preservice teachers' (n = 25) Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) content knowledge and disposition toward English language learners (ELLs). The analogy capitalizes on the prior and shared background knowledge many preservice teachers have of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, the related films, and discourses that surround the Harry Potter phenomenon. Study results suggest mild agreement among participants of the perceived positive impact of the HPBCA on their TESOL content knowledge, although a slightly less than neutral response toward the perceived impact on their disposition toward ELLs. The results hold implications for the pedagogical use of analogy in teacher education beyond mathematics and science, as well as the role of prior/shared knowledge in teaching and learning.     

Foucault at School: Discipline,Education and Agency in Harry Potter

The formative power of children's literature is both great and suspicious. As a resource of socialization, the construction and experience of children's literature can be seen as modes of disciplinary coercion such as Michel Foucault has anatomized. Harry Potter, as a “craze” phenomenon, has attracted particular controversy due to its intense commercialization and dissemination, raising questions about its socializing roles. Here I argue that Harry Potter itself addresses, represents, and reflects on socializing disciplines as both psychological and socio-historical processes, with special focus on and implications for educational scenes and methods. Discipline is shown to be inevitable and necessary, but not only in the coercive ways of Foucault. It is no less important for constructing the self in positive senses. Hogwarts, as the central site of action, becomes a stage for a wide variety of educational models and disciplinary modes and goals. These range from Dolores Umbridge, whose classroom is coercively disciplinary in full Foucauldian sense; through Snape's abuses of power, Albus Dumbledore's modelling of educational and moral values, and Harry's own role as student-teacher exemplifying educational principles which Jerome Bruner and others have called a “community of learning.” This variety of educational experiences explores the possibilities through which discipline emerges not only as coercive, but also as formative in ways that are maturing, strengthening, and rewarding: a possibility with strong implications for questions of socialization and creativity in general. Harry Potter concludes with a reconstitution of self and society, in a way that endorses discipline even as it suspects its coercive abuses. This becomes not only a personal project but an explicitly social and political one, requiring both critique and investment in culture. Socialization then is shown to be a process of formation that is not merely coercive but creative.     

Transformative Readings: Harry Potter Fan Fiction,Trans/Queer Reader Response,and J. K. Rowling

The politics of children’s literature and the actors surrounding it have never been more visible than they are now, in the digital age. As one of the first children’s series to gain widespread popularity concurrently with the spread of the internet, the Harry Potter septet arrived on the global stage at the perfect moment to develop an avid, connected fandom. But the fandom has laid bare the many conflicting ideologies of the fans themselves and of the actors surrounding the texts. This article examines the contentious issue of gender nonnormativity and its relation to the Harry Potter texts, the queer/trans reading practices and political resistance common to the fandom, and the ongoing disagreements over gender, made visible on social media, between Rowling and the fans of her series. The article discusses the Harry Potter novels’ varied and conflicting ideologies; queer/trans readings of the Potter septet, including both invitations and resistances to queer/trans reading by Rowling herself; how gender is queered and queried in and through fan fiction; and finally, the recent hostilities between Rowling and her fans. It concludes by discussing the worsening relationship between Rowling and her fans and highlighting how fans are using their collective power to undermine Rowling’s gender politics through fan fiction. By doing so, the article traces the complex politics of the reception of books for young people in the digital age, demonstrating that authors’ powerful voices continue to shape readers’ responses to texts long after their publication but showing, too, that readers often resist authors’ attempts to influence not only their textual interpretations but their politics.

     

Havighurst's Developmental Tasks,Young Adolescents,and Diversity

The Harry Potter series furnishes many instances of both good and bad teaching. From them, we can learn more about three principles outlined in How People Learn (National Research Council 2000a). (1) Teachers should question students about their prior knowledge, as Professor Lupin does before his lessons; (2) we should encourage students to develop theoretical contexts in which to organize facts, perhaps through Socratic dialogue such as Professor Dumbledore uses with Harry; and (3) we should promote metacognition, as Harry, Ron and Hermione use when they discuss their successes and failures.     

THE EMBODIMENT OF BRITISH WITCHCRAFT CULTURE IN HARRY POTTER

The series novel Harry Potter was created by English woman writer J.K.Rowling.It contains the rich mythical factor,the witchcraft fantasy component and the folk cultural factor.It has inherited England traditional culture,fantastic novel and children literature.This essay mainly discuss the reason of Harry Potter regarded with great favor in the west from the perspective of traditional culture of British and Europe.It started from the witchcraft culture and Christian Culture.These two points are expounded the western culture details by means of the analyzing on culture background.Both of them layed the culture foundations for the success of the series.At last,the depiction of the heroism of nobody is in sharp contrast with the traditional heroism,thereby refl ected the commendable,which makes people realised to carish the worth of peaceful life.     

《哈利·波特》的成功对中国儿童文学的启示

《哈利·波特》是一个经典,他已经成为了一种现象,一种力量。这种力量可以唤醒所有人尘封已久的想象力和阅读的兴趣,从而让越来越多的人为他着迷。而《哈利·波特》成功的秘密,不仅在于作者的大胆的想象;还在于她让真实的世界和魔法世界之间的转化显得如此真实;在于作者高超的写作技巧和丰富的人生阅历;在于作品的深层的思想内涵、丰富的人物情感。一部作品带给人的不能只是吸引,还应该有思考和感动。《哈利·波特》不仅仅是一部小说,更是一种商品和文化。这对打破中国儿童文学狭隘的题材视野和单一的表现手法,起到启示作用。并为这个时代的儿童文学和奇幻文学竖起了一面旗帜,流行并且经典。     

Harry Potter and the Terrors of the Toilet

The Harry Potter series focuses upon the toilet as a site for heroic action and a threshold between worlds as well as a more traditional place for boys to be bullied and girls to weep. This article offers a Kristevan reading of the toilets as abject in Harry Potter, and shows how this concept helps us make sense of wider issues within the series, especially Harry’s uneasy relation to the maternal. Alice Mills is associate professor of literature and children’s literature at the University of Ballarat. She has edited two collections of scholarly essays, on the grotesque and the unspeakable, and a number of anthologies of children’s literature. Her research interests lie mainly in the psychoanalytic and Jungian interpretation of fantasy and the picture story book. Briggs, Fungus the Bogeyman Holzwarth and Erlbruch, The story of the little mole who knew it was none of his business Griffiths, The Day My Bum Went Psycho Griffiths, Zombie Bums of Uranus     

Paradise Lost and Found: Obedience, Disobedience, and Storytelling in C. S. Lewis and Philip Pullman

In the fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia and His Dark Materials, by C. S. Lewis and Philip Pullman respectively, the authors use symbols and themes from Paradise Lost. Each author's narrative choice uses his view of cosmic order to persuade readers that obedience should be understood as central to coming of age. At stake is the proper role of human agency in the world. Can children become narrators of their own lives, or are they fated simply to occupy narratives already written for them? Obedience and disobedience are inextricably connected with narratives of origin, of development, and of maturation. Both Lewis and Pullman model and problematize the process of independent storytelling in order to arrive at truth; their treatments of obedience and disobedience explore each writer's sense of the nature of authority, storytelling, and the creative process.     

‘You Never Know,Things Might Have Once Existed’: Young Readers Engaging with Postmodern Texts that Blur the Boundaries between Fact and Fiction

This article considers children’s engagement with the Ologies, a series of postmodern texts that blur the boundaries between fact and fiction. It follows on from a text-based analysis of the series published in this journal (22(3) 2015). Data collected from 9–12 year olds demonstrate how actual readers took up the invitation offered by the text and were able to identify the tension between realism and fantasy, oscillate between different genres, stop to play games and use the tactile to make meaning. In addition, they willingly brought their own knowledge of the world to the text and were able to tease out meanings through dialogic interaction. We argue that the meaningful discussion that ensued is due to the multi-layered nature of the books which offers agency to the pupils with little adult interference.     

基于目的论的归化与异化策略——评《哈利·波特》系列专有名词的翻译

自《哈利·波特与魔法石》问世以来,《哈利·波特》系列小说受到了读者的广泛青睐。《哈利·波特》系列小说有很多新词,这些新词以及新词翻译为研究者提供了一片新天地。既要翻译得原汁原味,又要能重现词汇的意境。文章从目的论的角度出发,探讨《哈利·波特》系列小说中专有名词翻译的归化与异化问题。