ENGLAND 108P

SPRING SEMESTER 2018

INSTRUCTOR: DR. ANDREW DEMAN
Office: SH 2107, OH: TTh 11:30-12:50

Introduction – 01 May 2018 5

Setting the Wizarding World – May 3 5

High-mimetic vs low mimetic fantasy 5
Mythopoesis 6
Imaginative satisfaction 6
Balance 7
High Fantasy Conventions 7
Subgenres of fantasy 7
Hogwarts as a Fantasy Setting 8

The Philosopher's Stone – May 8 8

Background 9
Thoughts? 9
Narrative burden 9
Prose 10
Structural components 11

Harry Potter & the Hero's Journey – May 10 11

Narrative Structure 11
The Monomyth 12
Superimposed 13
Conclusion 14

Genre: Conventions & Creations – May 15 14

Genre - Background 15
Genre in HP 16

The Chamber of Secrets – May 17 17

Background 17
Narrative Structure 18

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 Gilderoy Lockhart 19
Dobby 19

The Mystery Structure – May 24 20

History 20
Knox’s Rules of Fair Play 20
Conventions 20
In HP 21
Harry Potter, detective 21
Quest for knowledge 22
Space and Positioning 22
Conclusion 23

Publishing, Demographics, & Market – May 31 23

Origins of YA 23
YA market prior to HP 24
YA & HP 24

The Prisoner of Azkaban – Jun 5 25

Background 26
Context 26
Thoughts? 26
Adult forces 27
Harry's Dark Side 27
The Dementors 27
Father-figures 28
Institutional failures 29
Other 29

Character Dynamics – Jun 7 29

Protagonist 29
Viewpoint character 30
Gestalt protagonist 30
E.M. Forster theory of good characters 30
Flat vs. round characters 31
Character Arc 31
Character beats 31

The Goblet of Fire – Jun 12 32

Background 32

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 Thoughts? 32
Harry's Vulnerability 33
Cedric Diggory 33
Portkey plan 34
Sexual awakening 34
SPEW 34

Author & Autobiography – Jun 19 34

J.K. Rowling 35
Religious upbringing 36
Transmediation 36
Potter films 36

Symbolism & Allegory – Jun 21 37

Identifying symbolism 37
Value of symbolism 37
Father-Figures 38
Lack of mother-figures 38
Other symbols 38

The Order of the Phoenix – Jun 26 39

Background 39
Major points 39
PTSD 41
Thestrals 41
Luna Lovegood 41
Dolores Umbridge 42

The Half-Blood Prince - Jul 3 43

Background 43
Draco Malfoy 44
Slughorn 45
Death of Dumbledore 46
Half-blood Prince 46

Themes of Mortality & Maturation - Jul 5 46

Theme 47
Death & Maturation 47
Death function in story 47
Details 48

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 Voldemort 48
Metatextuality 48
Epic Hero 49

The Deathly Hallows - Jul 10 49

Background 49
Thoughts? 49
The Dead 50
Snape 50
Hedwig 50
Dobby 50
Fred 51
Lupin 51
Harry 51
The Trio Alive 51
Salvation 51
Plot 52
Is Snape redeemed? 52
Train station made of light 52

Potter Wars & Fan-Culture - Jul 12 52

Participation 53

Hermione Granger & the Goddamn Patriarchy - Jul 19 53

Glossary 55

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Introduction – 01 May 2018

What did those 12 publishers miss?

● Religious concerns

● Considered ‘behind the curve’

● Failing YA market

● Female author: YA mostly targeted to boys

● Jargon and complexity

● Childish (juvenilia)

● Slow start to plot (~120 pages in PS)

● Thematic depth (doesn’t get fully fleshed out until COS)

Setting the Wizarding World – May 3

High-mimetic vs low mimetic fantasy

● Mimesis = art of imitation

○ all we're looking at is a simulation of the real world

○ Plato criticizes mimesis because he feels memesis is an inferior form

○ Other scholars believe it can be valuable

○ things that we are lacking in our world can be got through simulation

● High-mimetic = immersion in a supernatural world

○ Sometimes referred to as high fantasy

○ Requires insane detail

○ Requires high attention span (e.g: LOTR, Chronicles of Narnia after wardrobe)

● Low-mimetic = supernatural intrusion upon your world

○ More relatable

● How does Rowling build a high-mimetic world without boring you?

○ Ties setting to plot

○ Multiple goals

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 ○ Avatar character (can do exposition)

○ Perspective

○ Prose

○ Imagery

○ Relatable

○ Borrowed mythology (Norse, Celtic, classical)

Mythopoesis

● the creation of a fictional mythology

● Adds texture (world feels real, dimensional quality) and immersion

● Iceberg theory: mentions of mythology (e.g.: war which led to HP being orphaned, Grindelwald &

Dumbledore backstory, etc.)

● Intangible quality surrounding good myths: perfected over centuries/millennia

● Simulation of mythology

○ Joseph Campbell: We don’t actually have myths anymore, except in hindsight, thus

mythopoesis is useful

Imaginative satisfaction

● Can be thought of as wish fulfillment, specifically towards something you don’t already have

● You like to read about subjects, settings which don’t exist

● Eg: Narnia, about security

● What are we missing that the Wizarding World provides?

○ Good rewarded, evil punished

○ Text exists in different political and cultural contexts

○ Exclusivity/specialness

○ Technophobic (nostalgia in age of high technological change)

○ Magic

○ Stability

○ Friendship

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 ○ Heroism

○ Escapism (fundamental in fantasy)

Balance

How does Rowling keep you grounded?

● Humility

● Child: vulnerable

● Bullied, struggling socially

● Brutality/responsibility (constantly)

● Lone wolf (envious of support system, e.g.: Sirius Black, Ron)

● Average

● Underdog

High Fantasy Conventions

● Good vs. evil

● Anthropomorphism (“human” + “change”, giving human attributes to something that isn’t human)

● Hidden world behind a platform

● World of prophecy (fate)

● World altering stakes

● Nostalgia (specifically, medievalism)

● Myths brought to life

● Messiah complex (belief that you are secretly the Savior/God/spiritual something)

● Empowered children

Subgenres of fantasy

Farah Mendlesohn “Rhetorics of Fantasy”

1. Intrusion fantasy

○ Eg: how do I get this ghost outside of my life, how do the Dursleys keep their quiet normal life

2. Portal fantasy

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 ○ Elaborate fantasy descriptions

○ Continual new imagings -> travel literature (look at this cool thing)

○ Author becomes tour guide

○ Like CS Lewis’ Narnia, however Narnia is a separate world, while HP has the magic world

hidden

Hogwarts as a Fantasy Setting

● Most iconic setting

a. Castle (medievalist)

b. Boarding school, potential friction with typical use of castles

■ The “school days genre”: British genre of literature set in boarding schools

c. Center of Wizarding World

d. Place of transformation

■ To magic

■ To adulthood

● Setting becomes a character

a. Hogwarts becomes a vulnerable character, never more so when Dumbledore dies

b. Hogwarts creates tension through vulnerability

c. Hogwarts represents a safe space, intrude upon it; Voldemort intrudes or gets Harry out

d. Characters fight to preserve it, literally (Battle of Hogwarts), figuratively (against Umbridge)

e. Harry moves further and further away as he maturest

The Philosopher's Stone – May 8

In one glorious sentence, encapsulate what Harry Potter is as a story?

● A boy raised by the most normal family learns about his extraordinary abilities and luck.

● “Coming-of-age story for someone introduced to the magical world”

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 ● “In a magical world, a young boy wizard’s coming-of-age quest with his friends to defeat the dark

forces of magic, specifically the dark lord”

● “A young protagonist, not only battles the evils of a magic world, but discovers the good and bad in

himself and the greater world, through escapades with his friends”

Background

● 1990, came up with idea on delayed train

○ Invocatio: invocation of the muse (author’s story comes to them ‘fully-formed’ in a dream)

● 1995 Manuscript (6 year average for author’s first book)

● Got an agent (impressive)

● 12 publishers reject, 13th accepts

● First print run of 1000 copies ( small)

● 500 million copies (120 million for Philosopher’s Stone)

● 8 films, highest grossing film series ever

Thoughts?

● US changes ‘Philosopher’s Stone (an actual mythological thing)’ to ‘Sorcerer Stone’

● Intricate foreshadowing

● Classics background

● Dursley, or an alternate perspective to open

● Target audience is clearly children

○ Theory that books are targeted at the age of Harry, however inconsistent jumps (e.g. 4 to 5)

● Plot is largely absent

● Exposition

● Integrated magic

Narrative burden

● Establish setting

○ High fantasy after the platform, requires significant exposition

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 ○ Avatar character is uninitiated

○ Guides

■ Hagrid -> Ron -> Professors -> Dumbledore

■ Convention from Dante’s Inferno, LOTR.

○ 48 pages to establish Harry might be a wizard

○ 50 pages to establish what a wizard student is (mostly Hagrid section)

○ 120 pages (of 223) before the plot

● Why are you still reading by 119?

○ Setting is delightful

○ Desire to occupy escapist fantasy

○ Pace of reveal

○ Hint of plot established (Voldemort threat established)

○ Prophecy - JJ Abrams’ mystery box

Prose

e.g. sorting hat scene

● Poetic prose

○ Alliteration

○ Hyperbole

○ Visual imagery

● Builds to a climax

● Historial lore

● Showing vs telling

● Conflicting thoughts and emotions through protagonist’s head

● Complex interaction of components

● Attention on Harry

● Free agency

● Emotionally charged

● Suspense draws it out

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 ● In Harry’s head

○ Character traits typically revealed through trials and/or suffering

Structural components

● Must have a complete story in the first book, and extend the story in a sequel

What’s Completed What’s Dangling?

● Freshman year ● Voldemort

● Neville’s courage ○ Why he tried to kill Harry
● Friend group ● Dumbledore
● House Cap (Gryffindor dominance) ○ Who he is, what he wants from
● Harry’s courage Harry
● Threat is defeated ● Snape’s problem
● Flamel’s story ● Rest of his education, life
● Social resolution ● His past, specifically the night Voldemort
● Wizard in training killed his parents
● Sense of belonging ● Dursleys
● Truth about parents (to some degree)

● Final sentences emphasize the end of the school year, friendships and their social support, his

agency and competency

Harry Potter & the Hero's Journey – May 10

Narrative Structure

As identified by Plato, most stories that humans tell obey a basic 3-act structure:

1. Setup: introduces the setting, characters, themes, tone, and circumstances that will lead to the

conflict.

2. Conflict: the bigger piece. Explores the obstacles at hand, and how those obstacles are approached

and dealt with.

3. Resolution: addresses and resolves the primary conflict, usually followed by a return to a new status

quo.

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The Monomyth

● Joseph Campbell outlined it in an essay called “Hero with a Thousand Faces” in 1949.

● Campbell describes the basic idea as such:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there

encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to

bestow boons on his fellow man

● Campbell wasn’t creating a template, but identifying one that seems to occur naturally in human

storytelling. However, by charting the monomyth, he created a template that writers have been

abiding by ever since, sometimes directly.

● Predictably Harry Potter is Monomyth.

○ Note we can apply this map to either individual HP texts or to the overarching series as a

whole.

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Superimposed

● Note that the monomyth and the 3 act structure actually work perfectly well together.

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 ● A direct superimposition of a simplified monomyth onto the 3 act structure.

Conclusion

● Harry Potter is tightly structured thanks to its allegiance to the monomyth.

● Concurrently, the structure of Harry Potter is based upon what is believed to be a natural, intuitive

form of storytelling, thus connecting it to a deeply rooted human tradition.

● Finally, as long as we’re being fair, we have to note the monomyth can be regarded as somewhat lazy

for a storytelling structure, and this is indeed something that Rowling has been criticized for – her

story structure is not ground-breaking or novel or unique. There’s a trade-off that we have to keep in

mind.

Genre: Conventions & Creations – May 15

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Genre - Background

● Essentially two genres:

○ Comedy:

■ created by the Greeks as a palate cleanser, first in the form of satire

● Usually involved farmers, satyrs, sex farces

■ Cultivated by the Romans

■ Then subdivided (romantic comedy, social satire, etc.)

○ Tragedy: valued by the Greeks

■ Usually involved kings, gods

● Why separate by genre?

○ Presumption of personal interest

○ Priming (response)

○ Caters to mood

○ Intertextuality

○ Metatextuality (e.g. Deadpool, Cabin in the Woods)

○ Play off expectation (genre subversion)

○ Expectation can create shorthand storytelling (e.g. Rowling using existing creatures from the

fantasy genre); used for efficiency

● Anne Miller: Genre criticism tends to put critical value on things critical to the genre. Thus, genre

conventions = quality (e.g. good movie? No, good action movie)

● Fisher’s 4 levels of genre constitution

○ Context

○ Motive: what the genre is trying to accomplish, linked to emotional reaction

○ Conventions of form: packaging (e.g. action movies have fast-paced shaky-cammed action

scenes)

○ Style: ways we like to tell a story

● Derrida, French-Algerian philosopher

○ Can’t deviate from genre (break genre; must conform)

○ Exemplarity

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 ○ Have symbols

○ No such thing as a genre-less text

○ Genres are finite

Genre in HP

● 3 big ones

○ Fantasy (hybrid of low-mimetic and high-mimetic)

○ School story

■ Begins in Thomas Hughes’ “Tom Brown’s School Days” (1857)

■ Popularized the sport of Rugby, invented at the homonymous school => analogous to

Quidditch in HP

■ Lethality of Hogwarts does not fit the school story genre

● Danger is mellowed, normalized

● Adult validation (e.g. Dumbledore, Hagrid)

■ School is a societal microcosm => Hogwarts is contained:

● Hogwarts has social conflict, Slytherin House, etc.

● Hogwarts is a center of knowledge

■ Rowling builds tensions by threatening microcosm

● Hogwarts is safe place for Harry

● Making Hogwarts vulnerable makes Harry vulnerable: Voldemort constantly

attacks the school days story

● Mucks around with school days genre by adding Voldemort prior to exams

(supposed to be relief)

■ Inscrutable headmaster has best interests at heart

■ Direct instructor who inspires protagonist to follow their dreams (e.g. Lupin, Moody,

Dumbledore)

■ The bully character

● Elitist (highest class standing)

● Physically violent, often through subordinates

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 ● Exemplifies the “path not taken” => Draco is evil Harry (until book 6 HBP)

■ Competing school

● House system fulfills this with Slytherin

● Also in book 4 GOF

○ Bildungsroman: “novel of self-cultivation”

■ Coming-of-age story

■ Protagonist, usually young, faces challenges discovering their true place within the

world

■ Trivia: Kunstlerroman is similar, but about an artist finding place within art world

● If Harry Potter is a genre, what are its conventions?

○ Witch or wizards

○ Sub-urban fantasy

○ Harry Potter, the character, is unnecessary to the story

○ Mythology (slightly more dangerous)

○ Character trying to find his place in the world

○ Character trying to learn about his past

○ Character trying to find his role model

The Chamber of Secrets – May 17

Why are horror movie protagonists so often kids/teens?

● Vulnerability, easy targets

● Forgivably unintelligent

● Desire for agency

● Innocent vs. antagonist

● Naivety

Background

● First published in June 1998, 3 years after PS

● Had trouble finishing novel

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 ● Challenge of establishing as a series

● Fleshing out the world

○ Establishing Voldemort as villain

○ Hagrid, Dumbledore, Hogwarts, Ginny

Narrative Structure

Distinctive (new) Repetition of PS things

● Harry has resolve ● Muggle start, denial

● Wizarding household (Weaslys) ● Core friend groups
● Dobby ● Identity crises
● New DADA teacher

● Harry’s dark side

● Faulty protagonist (can’t tell if protagonist is protagonist), narrator

○ Sympathy for Harry’s confusion

● Book ages

● Smaller level darkness, including prose

● Basilisk fight is an escalation

● Corresponds to Aristotle’s theory for creating fear: erosion of things that bring you comfort so as to

create vulnerability

○ Hermione being petrified early

○ Ron staying back due to the avalanche

○ Father-figures (Lockhart)

○ Protector-figure (Hagrid) sends Harry and Ron to the Forbidden Forest

○ Dumbledore being gone

○ Moaning Myrtle – establishes Hogwarts is unsafe for children

○ Tom Riddle not helping, disarming Harry

● Harry killing the Basilisk is classic epic hero, chosen warrior, slaying the dragon with a sword brought

by an old mythological creature

● Why free Dobby so late (after the climax)?

○ Humanize Harry

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 ○ Harry asserts moral authority

○ Gets his comeuppance over Lucius

○ Wraps up social element (history and mystery elements are resolved with the basilisk)

Gilderoy Lockhart

● Father-figure

● Harry looking for male role models, Lockhart looking to be Harry’s role model

● Reflects danger of fame

● Mirrors Harry’s challenge with fame

○ As a foil character, provides contrast with Harry

○ Lockhart = path not taken

○ Dumbledore = path taken

○ Self-interest vs. moral obligation

● Colin Creevey

○ Provides moral challenge by subjecting Harry to adulation

○ Annoying but sympathetic

● Metatextual effect with respect to Rowling’s rise to fame after PS

○ Lockhart can be an author analogue; (crappy version)

● Fridging = throwing a female character under the bus to motivate a male character

Dobby

● Wildcard, powerful, character of last resort

● Exposes us to racism/elitism of wizarding world

● Creates tension by being a prophet

● Adds class mobility element

○ In British society, high importance is attached to wealth and name

● Harry’s fame inspires Dobby to try and lead a revolution (highlights good aspect of the consequences

of fame)

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The Mystery Structure – May 24

History

● Mystery fiction -> crime fiction -> detective fiction (cozy, hard-boiled, procedural)

● Origins in 1749 (Bow Street Runners)

● Detective origin in 1841 (Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue)

● Formation of Detective Department of the Metropolitan police (London) in 1842

● Sherlock Holmes first appears in 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet

○ About being impressed with Holmes rather than figuring it out along with the detective

(whodunits)

● Crime in cozy fiction (“ripples in a pond”) vs crime in hard-boiled detective fiction (gritty realism,

usually containing sex, violence, and corruption)

● Rise of police procedurals in the 1940s

Knox’s Rules of Fair Play

1. The criminal must be mentioned near the beginning of the story

2. Then solution cannot be supernatural or preternatural

3. Only one secret room or passage can be involved

4. The detective cannot commit the crime

5. The detective cannot keep clues from the reader

6. If applicable, the detective’s sidekick must not conceal any thoughts from the reader

7. Twins must not be part of the solution to the mystery unless the reader has been made aware of

them

8. No undiscovered poisons or devices can be used

9. The mystery must not be solved through intuition or accident

10. The murderer cannot be a clichéd foreign stereotype

Conventions

● Clue-puzzle

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 ○ Chekhov's Gun: if a gun is introduced in the first act of a play, it must be used by act 5

○ “Hagrid help up the limp roster. ‘Second one killed this term’, he explained.”

● Red herrings

● Bumbling authorities

○ Lockhart, Fudge (eg. Fudge not caring about framing Hagrid)

● Silencing of witnesses

○ Petrification

● Summation

○ Story inside of a story

○ “'I can show you, if you like,’ came Riddle's reply…’ I can take you inside my memory of the

night when I caught him.’”

○ “It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in his brain.”

● Enclosed space/locked room

○ Chamber of Secrets

○ Hogwarts

● Isolated detective

○ Someone famous or rich, socially isolated

○ Useful to outline that detective is outside scene

○ Harry

In HP

Harry Potter, detective

● Hard-boiled

○ Isolated

■ Muggle world

■ Absent friends

○ Connections to the underworld and the downtrodden

■ These people are a source of information (homeless people in Holmes, Dobby, Ron, &

Hermione in HP)

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 ○ Criminal/detective

■ The same or two sides of the same coin

■ Detective will sometimes break rules

● Young sleuth

○ Eg: Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Mystery, Inc.

○ Privileging a young voice

○ Knowledge as rebellious and explorative

● Gentleman detective

○ Eg: Lord Peter Wimsey, Albert Champion

○ Wealth

○ Access to elites

○ Slughorn, Lockhart

Quest for knowledge

● Need to experience things in depth to put clues together

● Focalized through ignorant character (Harry)

● Importance of the library

○ “Because that’s what Hermione does,’ said Ron, shrugging. ‘When in doubt, go to the library’”

● Distrust of innate knowledge

○ Harry surprised at his ability to speak parseltongue

● Self-directed study

○ "‘Hogwarts’ learning culture… favors the annihilation of direct instruction in preference for

practical life experience"

Space and Positioning

● Placement of the body (Mrs. Norris, Colin, Justin, Hermione, and Penelope)

○ Ghosts haunting particular spaces (Moaning Myrtle)

○ Eg Colin: clues about suspect being able to be photographed

● Enclosed spaces and limited pool of suspects

○ Hermetically sealed chamber

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Conclusion

Why is this important?

● Popularity of the series

● Relationship to other genres and narrative structure

○ Bildungsroman

○ Horror

○ History

● Detective genre is transgressive; similarly, HP is about finding the line between conformity and

transgression while growing up

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT GD1– May 29

Publishing, Demographics, & Market – May 31

Become your haters: why is it wrong/good for you to take a university course on Harry Potter?

● Juvenile

● Not serious literature

○ Novels in 1700s were considered escapist

● Practicality

● Filler

● Popularity

○ Symbolic cultural capital (= snobbery)

Origins of YA

● Demo

○ Has disposable income (no expenses)

○ Time to read (few responsibilities)

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 ○ Teenager

● Technically 14-21 years old

● HP creates resurgence of YA publishing

● E.g.: The Hobbit (Tolkien), Huck Finn (Twain), Tom Brown's Schooldays

● Catcher in the Rye (1951) & Lord of the Flies (1954)

○ Show darker nature of YA

● 70s and 80s: YA departments in libraries & bookstores

● 1990s: collapse of YA

● HP saves YA

○ Creation of generation of readers

YA market prior to HP

● Salacious books, lurid, seduction

● Hyper-realism

○ Tough-sell?

● Is this the case?

○ Dangers can be contained through responsible parenting

○ Media effects us

○ Isolation is problematic

○ Children's intelligence

○ Safe space

○ Question of rhetoric

○ Good vs. evil

● YA market implodes shortly before HP

○ Pandering, cashing in, lame covers (Chris Crowe)?

○ YAs in effect skip YA and go straight to adult lit

● 1990s referred to as “extreme era”

○ Sex & violence

YA & HP

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 ● HP was

○ Novel

○ Good story, characters, great fantasy setting

○ Supernatural

○ Parental comfort

○ Down to earth

● Contemporary YA is still bleak and dark

● Top critic Anthony Holden freaked out when HP was nominated for a British literary award, facing off

a (good) translation of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney

○ Parker – YA is too young to be taken seriously, classical literature is often used because it is

old and not for any innate quality

○ Open text theory: semiotic constructivist theory that each individual reader is active in

creating a work

● The Adulthood Paradox

○ YAs don’t want to be YAs (want to be treated like adults), at least in 90s

○ YA texts have to empower their readers to make them feel like adults but simultaneously

speak to their non-adult experiences

■ Adult incompetence

■ Actual power (e.g. magic)

■ Specialness

■ Setting (e.g. boarding school)

■ Perspective

■ Pushing characters further out of the nest

■ Social culture (e.g. Hogwarts as a high-school)

■ Kept in the dark by adults

The Prisoner of Azkaban – Jun 5

AC: Why don't we talk about depression?

● Mental illness

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 ● Depression = laziness

● Medication = failure

● Pressure to medicate

● Character flaw

● Uncomfortable subject

● Hard to discuss

● Don't deserve to feel X way

● Attention-seeking thing

● Sadness

● Insufficient understanding

● Hard to separate from life experience

Background

● First published in July 1999, 1 year after COS

● Easy to write for Rowling

● 68,000 sales in 3 days, the fastest selling book in British history at the time

● Released first in Britain, then elsewhere; later books are released simultaneously

● Very strong critical reception (perhaps first time)

Context

● First book sets up wizarding world, second defines series

● Significantly less burdened

● Voldemort absent, though get his character through followers and exposition

● Hermione benched in COS, Ron sits out in POA

Thoughts?

● Backstory is complicated

● Neville is characterized as weakling

● Appearances and illusion

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 ● Time-turner

● Ministry as villain

● Azkaban

● Class structure

● Diverse obstacles

● Grim (refers to mythological ghost of dog buried first in cemetery)

● Good vs. evil gets complicated (e.g. Snape)

Adult forces

● Past and present

○ Nature of Voldemort's rise to power, James and Lily's time at Hogwarts

● What's the effect?

○ Realism

○ Complexity

● More than Dumbledore

● Backstory (Voldemort)

○ Cycle/legacy

● Still limited

● Global problem

Harry's Dark Side

● In book 2, Harry has perceived flaws but ends up being an epic hero (dragon slayer, freer of slaves)

● In POA, Harry shown to have a temper/anger

○ Involuntary inflation of Marge

○ Hermione and Ron staging an intervention about Harry's intent on revenge (killing Sirius)

● Werewolves

○ Lupin symbolic parallel to Harry's dark side

The Dementors

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 ● Allegorical representation of depression

● Rowling was particularly suffering from postpartum depression

● Debilitation (notion that Harry is overmatched)

● Vivid imagery

● Chocolate helps

● Patronus as a shield of happy memories

○ Memories of friendship & community

○ Lupin as a guide and provider of intervention

○ Many adults can't execute it

● Comes in waves

● Can't break cycle of thought

● Need for agency, responsibility

○ Harry understands no one will rescue himself (at the Lake)

○ Needed to know it's possible

● Arguably the best monster as a symbol for fearful reality

○ Werewolf as challenges with id

○ Vampires as sexual desire = death

○ Godzilla as the fear of nuclear annihilation

○ Frankenstein's monster as fear of replacement by technology

○ Jaws as fear of insufficient environmental control

Father-figures

● Sirius Black as an ideal father-substitute

○ Harry’s rapid relationship evolution: want to kill, want to live with him forever, can’t

● Sees himself as his father at the lake

● “You are truly your father's son" Sirius to Harry

○ Snape tells Harry something similar, but means it as an insult

● Snape, a hidden father-figure

○ Humanized due to being victimized

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Institutional failures

● Azkaban fails

○ Lets Sirius Black escape

○ Emprisons heroic Sirius Black

○ Employs Dementors

○ Utilizes torture

Other

● Value of mischief

● Trelawny: importance of prophecy

● Hermione’s subplot with the time-turner, trusted by Dumbledore

Character Dynamics – Jun 7

AC: Our obsession with character typology? (e.g. Buzzfeed quizzes, Myers-Briggs)

● Assumed identification

● Categorizing

● Understanding self

● Genres–of people

● Identification of similarity

● Groups of 4 characters often replicate same structure - 4 humors (e.g. TMNT)

○ http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourTemperamentEnsemble

Protagonist

● Identification figure

● Central focus

● Agency

● Opposes antagonist

● Harry

29
 ○ Most choices go through Harry

○ But, is often enacting advice or guidance of others, often father-figures; but also, Hermione

○ Identification with him is limited in that his character is often underdeveloped and not always

well-defined (esp. compared to Ron & Hermione)

○ Thin stand-in for Hermione?

○ Neutral mask: a broadly defined character is more easily to identify with

○ He is given character flaws in book 4 and PTSD in book 5

Viewpoint character

● E.g. Dr. Watson

○ Enhances focal character

● Harry is both the focal character and the viewpoint character

○ Story is told through Harry’s–limited–perspective almost all the time

Gestalt protagonist

● “An organized whole which is perceived as more than the sum of its parts”

● Potentially, Harry, Ron, Hermione are one

○ More relatable

● Ron = intuitive, Hermione = logical

● Ron = family-oriented, Harry = detached

● Ron = afraid, Harry = brave

● Enhance each other in specific scenes

○ Ron is sometimes brave, Hermione sometimes acts non-logically

● Characterization is communication the character’s identity to the audience

E.M. Forster theory of good characters

● Characters are ideally human, but humans are defined by a hidden existence

● Character is an exaggerated person

● Homo sapiens vs. homo fictus (heightened emotions)

30
 ● Sense of depth of complexity vs. how transparent they seem

● Ron leans more towards transparent, is predictable

● Hermione leans more towards complex/inscrutable side, has depth and is more unpredictable

Flat vs. round characters

● Flat characters serve the plot, can be expressed by a single sentence, are 2-dimensional

● Round characters cannot be easily defined, are constantly changing, are 3-dimensional

● E.g. Draco starts out flat (“I hate that Harry Potter” then later becomes round)

● Need both; flat ones serve to move the plot and are stable and static; round characters are more

engaging

● Main character needs to be round

Character Arc

● Pioneered by Shakespeare

● Character changes of the course of the narrative

● Journey a character goes through internally

● Enhances significance of plot because it changes character

● Harry’s character arc

○ Becomes worldly, confident, controlled

○ Not significant change

○ Prepubescent anger by book 3

○ Ego by book 4

○ Leadership abilities by book 5

○ Complex sympathy by book 6

○ Sense of responsibility, duty, and a deeper appreciation for those around him by book 7

Character beats

● Using character actions or reactions to drive the plot

● Feeling results in action on part of the plot; the feeling is the character beat

31
 ● E.g. Ron is feeling insecure about his poor performance in class

○ Hermione feeling out of place and is compensating by being a keener

○ Hermione’s keenness makes Ron feel embarrassed and angry

○ Ron says something mean about Hermione; Hermione hears, gets upset and cries

○ Ron feels guilty and goes to find her to apologize

○ Ron saves Hermione, Hermione feels grateful

○ Hermione and Ron feel accepted by each other

The Goblet of Fire – Jun 12

AC: Young love: ultimate romance or adorable delusion in Romeo & Juliet?

1. We've been misinterpreting Romeo & Juliet; OR

2. The love between these two idiots doesn't make their lusty relationship less romantic

Background

● First in the series to be simultaneously released in US and UK

● Only to win the Hugo award

● Published in 2001, one year after PA; much longer

● More challenging to write than PA

○ ⅓ to ½ was rewritten when Rowling discovered a series plot hole

● Macguffin: unnatural object-based contrivance

● Soccer = Quidditch

○ 1998 - mapping to World Cup in France

Thoughts?

● Magic in everyday life

● Diminishes the importance of Hogwarts / international feel

● Non-gryffindor characters

● More background on 1st war

● Harry gets more agency

32
 ● Competition

● Internal division in the trio

● Media commentary (The Daily Prophet)

● Anti-Harry sentiment becomes bigger, starts to affect plot

● Vulnerability

● Pensieve

● Darkness

● Voldemort/Harry codependency

● Dumbledore's plan

Harry's Vulnerability

● Diminution: emphasizing character's childlike characteristics

○ Opposite of empowerment

○ Big in the fantasy genre

● Insecure, overwhelmed, afraid

● Why?

○ Perspective

○ As Voldemort gets stronger, Harry gets weaker

○ Allows for character development; nowhere to go from Harry, the dragon-slayer

○ Universal

Cedric Diggory

● Foil character diminished Harry

● What does his death accomplish?

○ Lost potential

○ Brutality of child-murder

○ Harry feels a sense of responsibility

○ Canary in a coal mine / plot armor (feeling that a character can't be harmed b/c they're too

important)

33
 ○ Useful for creation of Dumbledore's Army

Portkey plan

● Ages Harry

● Harry's childhood being constantly threatened and attacked

Sexual awakening

● All three characters gets romantic pairings from external sources

○ Cho Chang is from a different house and older

■ Moderate in gender

○ Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour are from different schools, countries, and older

■ Hyper-gendered

■ Explores the concept of gender identity

■ Metaphor for awareness of gender

● Harry vs. Cedric takes place on two fronts (stereotypical athletic and romantic rivalry)

● Social acceptance = athletic prowess; typical of school days genre

● Harry is also competing with Ron and Hermione's love interests

SPEW

● Dobby is a symbol for the underclass

● Harry is a freer of slaves in book 2

● Hermione creates SPEW, a house elf union

● Criticism of Rowling's class metaphor

○ Hermione has an important mission, but treated as silly by other characters

○ Hermione is diminished

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT MIDTERM TEST – Jun 14

Author & Autobiography – Jun 19

34
AC: Not counting writing the books in any way, what makes J.K. Rowling a good author?

● Extra material & fan response

● Built a brand and create multiple revenue streams

● Protects property and exerts control

● Authentic about personal struggles

● Face is out there

● Passion for characters

● Philanthropic

● “The author is dead” - Foucault, AKA “New criticism”

● Reader-response theory

● Open text (“The dog is a late warm shade of lipstick glistening in the November sun”) vs. closed text

(“The dog is a beagle.”)

J.K. Rowling

● http://www.thisisinsider.com/jk-rowling-harry-potter-author-biography-2017-7

● Born in 1965 outside of Bristol, England

● Joanne, K=Kathleen (fabrication)

● Attended St. Michael’s Primary school, inspiration for Hogwarts

○ Alfred Dunn, headmaster = Dumbledore

● Hermione = Rowling

● Ron is based on a childhood friend, Harry isn’t

● Estranged from father

● BA in French and Classics

● 1990: delayed train

● Mother died of MS 6 months after starting to write: informed sense of tragedy for Harry

● Moved to Portugal for 3 years, married a journalist, had a child, divorced, returned

● Clinical depression

35
 ● HP first released in 1995, got an agent

Religious upbringing

● Books top list of most banned books, often for being too religious

● Rowling went to Catholic school

● Harry is “wizard Jesus”, a Messiah figure

● Value of humility

● Voldemort as Satan, a fallen angel

○ Lapsarian: pertaining to the fall of man

● Unicorn is a Christian symbol for Jesus

● Rich YA tradition of using religious allegory

Transmediation

● Transmedia = “across media”

● Transmedia studies refers to the how intellectual property operates across multiple media platforms

● Transmediation = adaptation studies originated in France

○ Adaptation is not about fidelity

○ The kernel is key

■ Core element of the story, not narrative wise, but in terms of what it represents

■ What is it about?

● Transmedia storytelling

○ Synchronized media platforms

○ Need to experience multiple media platforms to experience full story

○ E.g. Pottermore

Potter films

● 8 films, $7.7 billion, $1 billion budget

● Nominated for 12 academy awards, won none

● Third film studied

36
 ● Steve Kloves wrote all screenplays except for OP

● How does it handle the kernel of the series?

○ Magic and magical world

○ A lot of data

○ Does less well with symbolism

○ Solid casting

Symbolism & Allegory – Jun 21

● Symbolism = indirect projection

○ Engaging with a potentially controversial subject without evoking prejudice

● Allegory = very direct symbolism

○ Mapping to something specific unambiguously

○ E.g. 1984 is about totalitarianism, surveillance; Animal Farm is about communism

○ Pretty much non existent in HP, except perhaps Fudge as Neville Chamberlain, Quidditch as

Rugby until GF

● Text can be wholly symbolic or have a symbolic layer or be purely literal (no metaphors, no symbols)

● Elements of text can be purely symbolic, literal, or both

Identifying symbolism

● Repeated imagery

● Conflict with reality (e.g. Joker breaking own neck in The Dark Knight)

● Authorial infatuation: author repeatedly or extensively talking about something

● Convenient parallel

● Spidey sense

Value of symbolism

● Show don’t tell

● Mnemonic

● Less rigid; less condescending

37
 ● Puzzle-solving = gamification

● Relatable

● Natural resistance to talking about topic directly

Father-Figures

● Voldemort = bad dad

○ End Harry’s dad

○ Passes on orphan legacy

○ Gives Harry bad stuff (e.g. anger, parseltongue)

○ Anti-giving tree (sacrifices the child for the sake of himself)

○ Kills Harry

● Dumbledore = good dad

● Note the phonetics similarity

Lack of mother-figures

● McGonagall

● Molly

● Lily’s protection as a persistent presence

● Lily as sacred

● Autobiographical?

Other symbols

● Eyes

○ identify Harry as his mother

■ Harry has his mother’s perspective

■ Window to the soul

■ Symbolize Snape’s sense of guilt

○ Moody’s eye = surveillance

38
 ● Harry’s scar

○ Marked as the chosen one

○ Lightning = ominous

○ Zeus & Thor

○ Power

● Neville = the meek

○ Weaker

○ Path not chosen

○ Becomes Harry

○ Anti-Pettigrew

● Forbidden forest

○ Id

○ Knowledge hidden world

○ Death

○ Stone

○ Hagrid

○ Purgatory

The Order of the Phoenix – Jun 26

Background

● 3 years to write - June 2003

● 1.7 million 1st day copies

● Half-point inversion

● Harry transitions from pupil to teacher

● Death of C = crossing the threshold

● Belly of the whale section

● Delay of anticipation

Major points

39
 ● Moving away from Hogwarts

○ First time the climax happens outside

● Fudge is in denial

○ Very much based on Neville Chamberlain, and his appeasement policies towards Hitler

○ Historical allegory for the build-up to WWII

○ Return of the villain

○ Delusion based on insecurity: he feels threatened by Dumbledore (much more powerful, and

only thing protecting Fudge is that Dumbledore doesn't desire power)

● Institutional corruption

○ Denial

○ Infiltration

○ Disappearances

○ Control of the narrative (media)

● Themes of the visible unseen

○ Dementors

○ Thestrals

○ Voldemort

● Denial is a common symptom of domestic abuse

○ Fudge’s denial is really personal but really illogical in face of the evidence

○ Cultural denial

● What is the effect of all-around denial?

○ Dramatic irony (reader knows something the characters don't)

○ Harry’s angst “nobody understands me”

○ Undermining adults

○ Positions Harry against authorities

○ Harry's irrationality when faced with a trap (over his head)

■ Lack of father-figure fuels this

○ Delays final battle

○ New villain

○ Aggrandizes Voldemort

40
 ○ Casts Harry as a prophet, this provides some value to his trauma (his pain is a form of truth =>

noble)

○ Convenient way to re-establish status quo (‘everyone hates Harry’)

○ Curse of Cassandra

● Slow pacing

PTSD

● “Don't think about that, Harry told himself….***

● Harry is diagnosable, but portrayal not as realistic as can be

● Lookup in DSM 5

● Dementors = depression, which is a symptom of PTSD

● Keeps Cho and Harry apart

● Death (of Cedric) lends to (Harry's) transformation

Thestrals

● “The coaches were no longer horses. There were…****

● Symbol of mortal consciousness

● Grim perception

● Disconnection

● Associative trauma, prior who have seen death firsthand

● Self-doubt

○ Could cause his to doubt his correct view about Voldemort’s return

● Unlucky

● Painful wisdom of experience

Luna Lovegood

● Luna = lunar = lunacy (madness)

● Also has curse of Cassandra

● Source of faith later in the text

41
 ○ An old feeling rose in Harry…****

● Providing Harry with comfort and community

○ Removed from the feast at the end

○ Shared bond and experience over having seen death

○ Provides hope to move past

○ Harry is in a new state of being, being able to live with rather than getting rid of

● Comfort with things beyond the veil

● Gestalt protagonist theory

○ Can be seen as the first addition to the trio

○ Luna = trauma, faith, death

○ Deadpan comic relief

■ Coping mechanism

● Foil character to Hermione: rationality vs. belief

Dolores Umbridge

● Infiltrated the system

● Relatable villain

● Bureaucracy

● Teaching through mnemonics

● Ruins Harry's home (Hogwarts)

● Artifice and appearance

● Undermining hero

● Happy monster

● Weaponized passive-aggression

● Bitch archetype

○ Wicked stepmother

● Takes out Harry's vent (Quidditch)

● Anti-Dumbledore

● Privileged

42
 ● Contrasts McGonagall

● Self-motivated

● Racist

● Sanitary violence

Death of Sirius

● Why?

○ Steer reliances towards Dumbledore

○ Escalating deaths (progression throughout the series)

○ Diminishes Harry, need Harry to become an adult

○ Loses connection to the past

○ Voldemort takes away Harry's planned future

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT GD2 – Jun 28

The Half-Blood Prince - Jul 3

AC: Is it ethical to teach persuasion?

● Important

● Doubles-down on an imbalance

● Natural

○ Need universal access

● Perspective

● However, difficult to separate persuasion from manipulation

Background

● Published in 2005; less than two years to write

● Expressed concern that audiences/fans would be angered

43
 ● Critics divided; found change of tone jarring

● 9 million first-day sales

● Character-driven text

○ Character-altering magic (luck, love & ‘please kill me’ potions)

Draco Malfoy

● “Dragon of bad faith”

● Goes from flat character to round

● Highly enthusiastic about villain role in books 1 - 5; not anymore

○ Makes him sympathetic

● Feels remorse

Umbridge Voldemort Snape Harry

● No redeeming ● Significantly ● Dickish, but ● Hero

characteristics more evil, but redeemable
can identify character
with him elements
(sympathetic) ● Arguably closest
to Draco

● How does Rowling accomplish this turn?

○ Threaten his mom’s life

○ Feelings

○ Motivation

○ Recontextualization of past wrongs

○ Diminution (=> scared child, crying)

■ Previously always certain

○ Relatable through family dynamic

○ Dumbledore atones

○ Take things away from him (increased loneliness, Snape distance)

○ Lack of friendships

○ Agency & choices

44
 ○ Inheritance

○ More Harry-like

○ Victimization

■ Unjustly, because of his father

○ Killing Dumbledore

■ Harry perceives Malfoy’s hesitation

■ Dumbledore’s calm and confidence

■ Malfoy trying to convince himself

■ Physical reactions

■ Dumbledore uses “Draco”, whereas Rowling & Harry say “Malfoy”

● Creates distance between Draco and his father/family

● Establishes sympathetic relationship

● Contrast: maintains tension

○ Why?

■ Sets up mystery, tension, moral struggle

■ Reflects hope for redemption

■ Aggrandizes Harry (develops virtue of forgiveness in book 7)

■ Enhances and complicates the setting

■ Reflects maturation

■ Escalates stakes

Slughorn

● Neither good nor bad

○ Sympathetic, nurturing, has a conscience

○ Cowardly, status-oriented, bigoted

● Why the duality?

○ Slytherin

○ Harry’s ethics in manipulating and intellectually bullying Slughorn

■ Example of character manipulation (Harry changes temporarily)

45
 ■ Sees Voldemort do the same unethical thing in the memory he gets from Slughorn

○ Shades of grey

○ Complicates Draco (third path)

○ Status theme

● Poser-prof

○ Main symbolic function: critique of academic culture

○ Cultivates and objectifies students

○ Derives associative greatness from successful students

○ Undermines education

Death of Dumbledore

● Monomyth

○ Series’ atonement with father

■ Dumbledore’s final lesson

■ Dumbledore’s death frees Harry from the paralysis curse => symbolic

○ Apostasis

■ Dumbledore seems divine, has no mortal concerns

Half-blood Prince

● Snape is a wonderful teacher (possibly father figure) to Harry through the textbook

● Barrier enables relationship

Themes of Mortality & Maturation - Jul 5

AC: How badly do we fear death?

● Faith, religion and belief alter how we think of death

● Anxious

● Altered by circumstance (e.g. people dying around you)

46
 ● Life as contrast

https://www.salon.com/2018/02/26/harry-potter-and-the-surprisingly-poignant-literary-theme_partner/

Theme

● Motif: pattern of recurrence (that, in itself, is not a theme)

● A theme is a pattern of recurrence that forms a comprehensive viewpoint emerging from it

○ It’s saying something

○ E.g. Breaking Bad had a color theme

● Disagreement about whether the author has to have intended the theme

Death & Maturation

● Death is a major element of fantasy genre

● Tolkien’s “On Faerie Stories“

○ Originator of english-language fantasy is George MacDonald with “Phantastes”, death was a

major theme

○ Consolation from death, imaginative satisfaction for fear of death

■ Being immortal in fantasy sucks, always

Death function in story

● Initiates the conflict

● Escalates in each text, death is getting closer to Harry as he ages (so does the reader)

○ Parents (initial setting)

○ Quirrell

○ Moaning Myrtle & background characters

○ Diggory

○ Sirius

○ Dumbledore

○ Harry

● Monomyth: Ultimate boon (Harry has to die to kill Voldemort)

47
 ● Ends the conflict

Details

● Voldemort’s servants are called Death-eaters

○ Servants of a mass murderer

○ Wear black robes and sometimes skull masks

● The Philosopher’s Stone

○ Immortality artifact

● Horcruxes

○ Tools of immortality that have to be destroyed

○ Murder as a tool for immortality

● Plot driven by death

Voldemort

● ‘Flight from death’, though contentious and never confirmed

● His defining characteristic is fear of death

● Harry’s life is defined by defeating the flight from death

● Accepts death in order to defeat Voldemort

● Harry’s battle is against his fear of death, Voldemort’s is against death

● Voldemort symbolizes our own fear of death and our desire to overcome it

Metatextuality

● Aka “meta” or “going meta”

● Douglas Hofstadter’s “Godel, Escher, Bach” (1979)

○ Defined and popularized the term

● Self-referentiality

● Meta means extending beyond the text itself in order to comment upon processes of creation or

reception

● Book draws on aspects of your world to enhance or alter meaning

48
 ● Umberto Eco

○ Final consumption: we don’t like characters to age because they remind us of our own

mortality

Epic Hero

● Typical trait in metaphorically (sometimes physically) escape/defeat death

● Casts Harry in a mythical light

● Aggrandizes Harry by associating him with an older form of storytelling

The Deathly Hallows - Jul 10

How does a book (or show or movie) achieve a satisfying ending?

● Progress

● Tie up loose ends

● Pay-off - consistency

● No dismissive ending

○ Deus ex machina (“god from the machine”)

○ Journey vs ending

● Leave it open (hope)

Background

● July 2007

● 11 million copies

● No advanced reviews

Thoughts?

● Atypical setting

● Adult wizards, pushed from nest

49
 ● Dark & creepy magic

● Deathly Hallows

● Lots of killing

● Neville’s arc is resolved

● Communication and reunion

● Romance is resolved

● Elder Wand

● Hints of cycle (e.g. Lupin and Tonks child being an orphan)

● Characters get redemption

The Dead

Snape

● Dies looking at Harry => Lily’s eyes

● Needs redemption

● Him or draco

● Plot armour

● Exposition an important mechanic

● Closure

Hedwig

● Innocence

● Dies protecting Harry

● Tone-setter

● Connection to the Wizarding World

● Symbol of communication

● No quarter sparred

● Practicality

Dobby

50
 ● OP

● Breaks cycle of abuse, shows a better choice

● Fridging

● HP vulnerability

Fred

● Weasley family gets a cost

● Loss of humor -> comic relief

● James/Sirius cycle

Lupin

● Teddy cycle of orphans

● Connection to the past lost (symbolic of how the future is what matters most)

Harry

● Jesus metaphor

● Explores options

● Apostasis through closure with Dumbledore

The Trio Alive

● Metaphorical trio death through Ron leaving

Salvation

● Perceives the good

● Harry’s non-violence

● Chooses Dumbledore

● Sees Voldemort as a person

● Makes it personal

● Maybe manipulative

● Infantilizes Voldemort

51
Plot

● Structure is a fetch-quest

● Lose the school days genre

○ Final battle occurs at hogwarts

Is Snape redeemed?

● Demonstrates courage

● Is an incel

● Focused on the past

● Arguably, Dumbledore is worse?

Train station made of light

● Death as a train station

● Epilogue setting

● Dumbledore is controlling

● Choice

● Repetition

● Train station = purgatory, symbol of rebirth

● Life and death in between

● Recontextualizes 1st train station

○ Nod to the first book

Potter Wars & Fan-Culture - Jul 12

AC: Is Dumbledore gay (7Y, 21N)

● You have to read for it

● Left ambiguous

● Question of value of Rowling’s agency

● Question of depth of reading

52
Participation

● Henry Jenkins

○ Governs convergence

■ Convergence = merge of old media and new media

○ New media is participatory

○ Symmetrical (conversation) vs. asymmetrical (one-way communication) media

○ Suggests HP is co-authored and co-marketed

● What are the limits of participation?

● Laws are outdated

● Defamation & profit

● Consume media

○ Role-playing

● New media literacy

● Attack on participation is an attack on literacy

● Mimesis

○ Kress: feel the meaning by imitating gestures (e.g. wand gestures in HP video games)

Dangers

● HP & the occult

● Consistency

● Framing = headcanon

Pottermore

● 2011 Rowling partnered with Sony

● 2015 Rowling-only

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT GD3 – Jul 17

Hermione Granger & the Goddamn Patriarchy - Jul 19

53
AC: What is Harry Potter’s legacy in Western Culture?

● generation of readers

● Lovemarks = community of participation

● Recontextualized magic

● Sales records

● Female author

● role-models

● Pastiche: building new stuff out of other people’s stuff

○ Genre (e.g.: fantasy x school days), mythology

● Cultural capital: coined by Pierre Bourdieu

○ “Non-financial social assets which promote social mobility beyond economic means”

○ Harry Potter has this => can discuss; almost required to be in touch with modern culture

Harry Potter as cultural foundation

● Jenkins

○ Deep familiarity with original work

○ Can explore new territory

● Can cultivate our understanding of the original, illuminate

○ E.g. Harry x Draco fanfic underscored by sexual tension

● If Hermione Were the Main Character in “Harry Potter”

○ Hermione overshadowed

○ Draws on our love of HP

○ Male exclusivity

○ Biased

● Wizard People, Dear Reader

○ Aggressive narrating

○ Recontextualizing Harry

54
 ■ Epic Hero

○ Wordplay

○ Makes the world more adult (using cursing)

● Replace ‘wand’ with ‘dick’ reddit thread

○ Rowling has created an asexual world

○ Incongruity with sexual component

○ Brings sexuality aggressively to the forefront

○ Subversive sexuality

■ Wands are phallic

■ Men in the novel are the only ones after the biggest wand (Elder wand)

● My Immortal

○ Pastiche

○ Twilight goth Harry Potter

○ Online dialect

○ Contemporary

○ Tropey

○ Teenager

○ Metatextual

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT FINAL TEST – Jul 24

Glossary

● PS or SS: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (British version), or Harry Potter and the

Sorcerer's Stone (American version)- 1st book

● COS: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets- 2nd book

● POA: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban- 3rd book

● GOF: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire- 4th book

55
 ● OOTP, OTP, OP: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- 5th book

● HBP: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- 6th book

● DH: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- 7th book

● FB or FBAWTFT: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them- textbook derived from the HP books

● QTA or QTTA: Quidditch Through the Ages- textbook derived from the HP books

56