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Abstract
This project investigates the impact of fantastic fiction on everyday life. Textual analysis and philosophical methods are employed in an analysis of the Harry Potter series which has been chosen as a representative of fantastic fiction. The series is investigated as a cultural phenomenon, focusing on its ability to succeed in appealing to a worldwide audience. It is concluded that the literary techniques employed, the depiction of universal themes, and the organization of the novels around an everyday structure increase the reader’s identification. Concerning the main problem of the project nothing general is stated as it is concluded that individuals extract the qualities from fantastic fiction that they find inspiring. Finally, it is speculated that the series has generated acknowledgement for fantastic fiction as an important literary genre.
Danish summary
Dette projekt undersøger hvordan fantastisk fiktion kan påvirke hverdagslivet. Harry Potter serien er valgt som en repræsentant for fantastisk fiktion og serien analyseres i et tekstanalytisk og filosofisk perspektiv. Serien undersøges som et kulturelt fænomen med fokus på dens evne til at appellere til et bredt publikum verden over. Det konkluderes at de anvendte litterære teknikker, fremstillingen af universelle temaer, og romanernes organisering omkring en hverdagsstruktur øger læserens identifikation. Der gives ikke et entydigt svar på projektets hovedproblemstilling, da det er en konkluderende pointe at individet selv udvinder de kvaliteter fra fantastisk fiktion som vedkommende finder inspirerende. Til sidst foreslås det at Harry Potter serien har været afgørende for den fantastiske fiktions anerkendelse som en betydningsfuld litterær genre.
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Foreword
The writing of this project would not have been possible without the insight and help of several individuals. We'd like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Professor Patrick Blackburn for his insight and philosophical contributions. We'd also like to thank Professor M.A Richardson, Jonathan Pye and Alice Lily of Durham University for their wonderful hospitality during our stay at Durham University, where some of the research for this project was conducted.
Lastly, in connection with our work on this project, we have created a blog on which we have gathered some of the theoretical and philosophical inspirations that have made this project what it has become. There are also pictures from our voyage to Durham University and other content that we have deemed relevant to the writing of this academic work. www.magicalgalapes.blogspot.com
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Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Problem Definition ................................................................................................................ 7 1.1.1 Research Questions: .................................................................................................. 7 1.2 Aim ........................................................................................................................................ 8 1.3 Motivation ............................................................................................................................. 8 1.4 Methodology.......................................................................................................................... 9 1.5 Dimensions .......................................................................................................................... 10 1.5.1 Text & Sign .............................................................................................................. 10 1.5.2 Philosophy & Science .............................................................................................. 10 1.5.3 Anchorage in English and Non-Nordic-Culture ...................................................... 11 1.6 Semester Theme................................................................................................................... 11 1.7 Delimitation ......................................................................................................................... 12 2.0 What is Fantasy? .......................................................................................................................... 14 2.1 Distinction between Fantasy and the Fantastic.................................................................... 14 2.2 Definition and History of the Fantastic Genre..................................................................... 15 2.3 Fantastic Fiction and its Detachment from Reality ............................................................. 17 2.4 The Functions of Fantastic Fiction ...................................................................................... 18 2.4.1 The Borderline between Fiction and Reality ........................................................... 18 2.4.2 The Narrative in the Everyday................................................................................. 21 2.4.3 The Function of Fantastic Fiction ............................................................................ 22 3.0 Philosophy in Fantastic Fiction ................................................................................................... 26 3.1 The Paradox of Fiction ........................................................................................................ 26 3.2 The Presence of Myth .......................................................................................................... 29 3.2.1 What is a Myth? ....................................................................................................... 29 3.2.2 The Need for Myth in Everyday Life ...................................................................... 30 3.2.3. Specific Depictions of Myth in Harry Potter .......................................................... 31 3.2.4 Sub-Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 34 4.0 Relation between Rowling and her own Fictional Universe ....................................................... 35 4.1 J.K. Rowling ........................................................................................................................ 35 4.2 The Success of the Potter Books ......................................................................................... 39 4.3 Literary Techniques ............................................................................................................. 42 4.3.3 Plot and Storyline .................................................................................................... 44 4.3.4 Character Scheme .................................................................................................... 45 4.3.5 Themes ..................................................................................................................... 46 4.3.6 Values ....................................................................................................................... 48 5.0 Analysis: Harry Potter and Everyday Life ................................................................................... 51 5.1 The English School Story and its Relation to the Harry Potter Series ................................ 51 5.1.1 Sub-Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 53 5.2 The Universal Appeal of the Harry Potter Series ................................................................ 54 5.2.1 Democracy and Human Rights in Harry Potter ....................................................... 55 5.2.2 Friendship and Loyalty ............................................................................................ 56 5.2.3 Love ......................................................................................................................... 58 5.2.4 Sub-Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 59 6.0 Analysis: The Paradox of Fiction in Everyday Life .................................................................... 60 7.0 Discussion: The Significance and Impact of Fantastic Fiction ................................................... 66 8.0 A Final Discussion – Philosophy in Literature ............................................................................ 73 9.0 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 77 10.0 Theories of Science.................................................................................................................... 83 4
10.1 Reflection of Theories and Methods ................................................................................. 83 10.2 Weaknesses ........................................................................................................................ 84 10.3 Source Criticism ................................................................................................................ 86 11.0 Further Research ........................................................................................................................ 93 12.0 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 95 12.1 Books ................................................................................................................................. 95 12.2 Internet Sites ...................................................................................................................... 96 12.3 Articles ............................................................................................................................... 97 12.4 Documentaries ................................................................................................................... 97 13.0 Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 98 13.1 Summaries of the Harry Potter Novels .............................................................................. 98 13.2 Educational Journey to Durham University .................................................................... 102
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1.0 Introduction
Harry Potter, “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?” Professor Albus Dumbledore, “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”1
Is fantasy only something that happens inside your head? And does this mean that it is not real or a significant part of your life? Only when we close our eyes and dream away can we imagine the borderline between reality and fantasy being dissolved. But is this really the case? Might it be that fantasy can have an actual influence on our lives or serve a particular function for us? This project represents an attempt to investigate these issues in order to establish an opinion of whether or not fantastic fiction is significant in our everyday lives and if we could imagine a world without it. These are just a few of the questions that inspired us to venture into the field of fantasy. One of the many functions of fantasy is to bring together two levels of reality, or worlds: one corresponds with the reader’s reality; the other is an anti-empiric world (Fenske 2000, 375). The clash between those two worlds inspired us to look into the case of The Harry Potter series, since this particular work of fiction has brought great discussion and focus to fantasy as a literary genre. Furthermore, many children and young adults have shown interest in this universe and connected with it on a higher level. This paper will attempt to investigate the philosophical dimensions connected to the notion of fantasy. Key focus will be on establishing whether fantasy inspires philosophical thoughts. Therefore this project will revolve around the paradox of fiction, discussing how humans connect to fantasy, and furthermore how fantasy might serve as intuition pumps of philosophical thinking. Literary techniques will also be accounted for in this paper. Using the example of The Harry Potter series we will try to explain why it has become such a global success and what literary techniques have been employed in order to capture the hearts and minds of its readership. This will also lead to focus on how everyday themes and values may be interwoven within a piece of work of fantastic faction, and work as a mediator between the real and the surreal. 1
IMDB.com, Memeroble Quotes from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201607/quotes
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1.1 Problem Definition This project aims to investigate the impact fantasy has on the everyday life, with particular emphasis on the fictional world of the Harry Potter books as an example of a piece of fantastic literature. We intend to explore the function of fantasy and how people relate themes of fantastic literature to their everyday lives. We also intend to explore how the world of fantasy and the world of people's everyday lives seem detached from one another. Moreover, we wish to focus on the representation of British and universal elements in the Harry Potter series with the intention of discussing the appeal of the books.
1.1.1 Research Questions: • What might the function and purpose of fantastic literature be? • In what ways is the connection between the Harry Potter universe and everyday life manifested? • How do the books succeed in appealing not only to a British audience but also to readers worldwide?
Quotes from chosen titles of the Harry Potter series will be analysed with the aim of shedding light on which specific elements in the books might be the key reasons for its wide appeal and for its successful relationship with the readers. In addition, values, moral issues and traditions will be examined to show how themes of universal appeal are connected to “ordinary” life. Our discussions will focus on how the novels succeed in generating such appeal and in garnering the global following that they have, despite their quite narrow culturally specific point of departure. Key emphasis will be placed on ascertaining what elements of British society are portrayed by the Harry Potter books and whether or not these elements have played a role in sculpting and affecting the course of everyday life. The British elements in this case will partially function as an example of the connection between a reality and a nonrealistic environment. Lastly, a discussion focusing on how literature and philosophy is combined in fantastic literature will also take place. This will be done in order to discuss the many possible functions of the fantastic. Therefore we ask the question: What is the impact of fantastic literature on everyday life? And could we imagine a world without it? 7
1.2 Aim In order to investigate what influence fiction might have on everyday life we have chosen to employ the Harry Potter series as a representation of fantastic literature. The reason for using the Harry Potter universe as an example of how this influence might manifest itself is mainly due to the fact that the books have become very popular and that this popularity appears to rest on a universal appeal. In addition, the series provides an example of how ordinary everyday life collides with imaginary worlds. By researching the influence of the books, we will analyse the need for fiction in a non-fictional world. This will lead us to discuss why humans have a need to create fiction, which will eventually lead us to a discussion of how fiction can give the mind a free space to venture into and furthermore how some traits of fantastic fiction resembles philosophy. Our aim with this project is not only to investigate the influence of fiction on everyday life, but also to look into the universal appeal of Harry Potter and how themes and values in the written text apply not only to British society, but to global culture on the whole. Hopefully this in-depth look into values and themes will also be of some use when analysing how and why people relate to the characters, morals and ambitions elicited in the Harry Potter novels. Lastly, we hope to be able to conclude on whether fiction can have a significant effect on everyday life and more importantly what might happen without the presence of fiction.
1.3 Motivation This semester we have been fortunate enough to be able to combine both work and interest in our project by investigating fantasy in everyday life. This topic is of common interest even though we have all been raised in different parts of the world. This has greatly motivated us into considering the impact of fantastic fiction in everyday life, since it is something we have all related to independent of our cultural backgrounds. We have chosen to focus on the Harry Potter books as a case study, with the intention of anchoring our project in philosophy and text analysis. This choice was based on the fact that the series has escalated to become a global phenomenon. The books are also something that has bound us together as a group, as some of the earliest experiences we had with literature was within this magical world. As a starting point we found ourselves asking: what is it about fiction that speaks to us? Whether it is books, movies, TV- shows or something else. We suddenly realized that it was a 8
peculiar thing to sink down into a fictional universe that stands in contrast to an otherwise mundane day- to-day existence. We also wondered what appeal the fantasy genre might have for adults as well as children. Children playing with dolls or having imaginary friends is something we can observe in almost every childhood, but why do some of us carry this need of play and escapism with us into adulthood? This is something that motivated us into reflecting on what impact fantasy has on the everyday lives of, not only for children, but in general the lives of all people living with fiction. As a further motivation during our research period, we became aware that there was an English professor named Martin Richardson who teaches a course entitled Harry Potter and the Age of Illusion, at the University of Durham in England, which seemed to be a perfect research opportunity for our project. We made contact with this professor, were granted a stipend from Roskilde University and left for England to meet not only the professor, but also several students of the course. Professor Richardson helped inspire us to find the complexity within the Harry Potter series and the magnificent impact its fiction has on us. He made it real.
1.4 Methodology Philosophical discussions are a key interest to us as far as the writing of the project is concerned. In order to collect sufficient information concerning this subject and the chosen theories, we will use various books and articles, written by chosen philosophers. Whilst philosophical theories will remain our main focus, literary theories on fiction (given that our project revolves around fantasy in everyday life) and researches into the field fantasy genre will be made using books on these subjects. Additionally, specific Harry Potter books and movies will be used in order to collect background knowledge for the later discussions. This project will therefore mainly be based on various theories and our own reflection. However, as mentioned in the previous section, we travelled to Durham University in order to set up an interview with Professor Richardson. This interview was never meant to become a core in the project, rather, it was an opportunity to reflect on this subject with an expert who also could shed new light on a work, that we all thought we knew so well.
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1.5 Dimensions This project intends to cover the dimensions of Text and Sign as well as the Science and Philosophy dimensions from the basic studies in humanities cycle. In this respect, the key notions under discussion in both fields are as follows:
1.5.1 Text & Sign Within the dimension of text & sign, we will be examining the means by which the Harry Potter novels transmit the intentions of the writer to the reader. The use of language as a means of expression constitutes a significant part of the text & sign dimension. In similar vein, writing styles and techniques and other more implicit components of writing are also central in our discussions within the frame of this dimension. A discussion of the Harry Potter novels and their relation to traits of fantastic fiction is also given, with the aim of understanding them in a broader literary frame.
1.5.2 Philosophy & Science Philosophical concerns as regards this project are hinged on an examination of the paradox of fiction, i.e. the imminent need to identify with fiction and fantasy in everyday life. Concurrently, the presence of myth in society will also be discussed as a means to exploring the paradox of fiction in greater depth. This discussion will feature citations of mythical depictions in the world of the Harry Potter novels and how they relate to our everyday lives. The concept of intuition pumps will be employed in a discussion of the similarity between fantastic fiction and philosophical methods.
We intend to unearth the need for the creation of fantasy worlds in our everyday lives. We will be working with the idea of childhood being a blend of the fictional and the real, and the adult longing or nostalgia if you like, for childhood fantasy. Aesop's fables, the parables of Christ, Alice and Wonderland and Lewis' Narnia are all examples of an adult weaving fantasy in order to make plain a point or concept. We are going to discuss the Paradox of Fiction: the paradox that people are able to respond emotionally to fiction as if it were real. How is it that we can be moved by what we know does not exist, namely the situations of people in fictional stories? 10
The work of Kendall Walton is pivotal in this respect. His theories concerning forms of representing ideals and ideas through the arts are of particular importance. The theories of Colin Radford will also be considered when examining the paradox of fiction. Another philosophical aspect of this paper is the concept of intuition pumps. This term is used by philosophers who employ extreme examples as a way of conveying a philosophical thought. As a small part of our discussions, the last section of this paper will revolve around the argument that fantasy might function as such intuition pump.
1.5.3 Anchorage in English and Non-Nordic-Culture In addition to our dimensions, our project is anchored in the discipline of English. This project deals with an investigation of English literature, the Harry Potter series, and its interaction with English culture. We have worked with textual analysis, literary techniques and as mentioned the impact on an individual, social and cultural level. Furthermore our writing about the investigation of norms of British culture and how this has been influenced by the Harry Potter series anchors our project in the non-Nordic-culture discipline.
1.6 Semester Theme The semester theme of everyday life inspired us to investigate the function and impact of fiction. The concept of everyday life seems to evade definition because of its embodiment in the familiar – it becomes invisible to us out of mere habit. Words such as the trivial, ordinary, routine and mundane are frequently used to describe the apparent circular and homogenous character and organization of our day-to-day lives, but what do these words actually denominate? They seem better described when put in relation to their antonyms. In this way we were inspired to look into fantastic literature: we expected that we might uncover and understand some aspects of everyday life as we investigated the fantastic. We wanted, so to speak, to view ordinary life through the mirror of fantastic literature.
Fiction and especially fantasy fiction portrays universes with fantastic characteristics and elements that stand in direct opposition to our familiar, ordinary universe in which we experience everyday life. What we find interesting is how it affects our everyday lives to 11
engage ourselves in these fictional universes. A tempting question to ask here is whether there exists some inherent quality of everyday life which makes us long for its exact opposite. The idea that human beings have a narrative consciousness, a tendency to create stories when trying to understand and explain the world (Gilbert 2008:421), seems to suggest that fiction does serve an important function to us and that we need fiction in our lives in some kind of form, even though we can only speculate about this.
1.7 Delimitation The question of what the impact of fiction has on everyday life can be interpreted and comprehended in a psychological way. One could, for example discuss how fiction in general and fantasy in particular might influence a person’s identity. Alternatively, one could go deeper into a psychological aspect of fiction in everyday life by discussing how growing up might be affected by fiction. However, by doing so the project’s aim would become too broad because of its variety of aspects and perspectives. Moreover, this process would add a third dimension - Subjectivity & Learning – which is not our object of study. The same issue might occur when discussing gender matters. The techniques related to the science of interviewing would also belong to the dimension of Subjectivity & Learning, therefore we preferred not to use our meeting and interview with Professor Richardson in Durham University as a method, but rather as a helpful tool for pinpointing core elements of the Harry Potter saga. Additionally, this meeting helped convince us of the importance of studying Harry Potter and fantastic literature and inspired us to continue with our project. These elements all contribute to initiate the relevant philosophical discussions needed to answer our problem definition. This is the reason why the project mainly lies in the dimensions of Philosophy and Text & Sign. The Harry Potter books will function as a case study and the series will be treated as one complete fictional work. Furthermore, the books will not be compared to other works of fantasy because we need to stay within the case study, both for the sake of the focus but also because we feel that we all relate well to the Harry Potter books. We are not going to do a cultural analysis of “Britishness” but merely point moral issues and values in the series that are believed to be connected to British culture. The worldwide success of the Potter books has led us to take a look into the way different 12
cultures perceive the books, but we would rather focus on Rowling's work of art with a universal/humanist approach. Due to broad subject matter on the history of fiction, our project does not present an in-depth study of this subject. However, a brief section about it is offered in the introduction of the project. It is also important to mention that the project will only be centred upon literary fantasy and not on actual occult cases in "the real world". Religious influences on every day practices will not be included in the main focus either, but it will be partially included through a discussion of the presence of myth.
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2.0 What is Fantasy? In order to fulfil our goal of making an in-depth investigation of the world of fantasy, we found it beneficial to define the meaning of the word fantasy. Therefore the following sections feature an account of the clarification of the concept fantasy, including a definition and an exploration of the history of fantasy. This will be done in order to differentiate between the ordinary and the extra ordinary and its detachment from reality that the genre of fantasy implies.
2.1 Distinction between Fantasy and the Fantastic It is important for one to understand the difference between fantasy and the fantastic in a literary context. With regard to literary works, The Fantastic has been defined by Franco-Bulgarian professor Tzvetan Todorov as being works within which a hesitation of characters and readers takes place as far as questions of reality are concerned (Todorov 1975). These hesitations can be anchored in what Todorov terms as the uncanny, wherein phenomena can be rationally explained. Alternatively, they can be explained in a more supernatural manner, whereby extraordinary events and ideas provide the explanations. Todorov calls this the marvellous (Todorov 1975). Fantasy is part and parcel of the genre of fiction and commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a key element of plot, theme and setting. Fantasy tends to make up its own rules that allow for the use of magic and other fantastic devices in the creation of the fictional universe that it sculpts and frequently draws inspiration from mythology and folklore (Wagganer 1978). The Harry Potter novels are hence works of fantastic literature that rely on the use of supernatural phenomena to provide explanations of the hesitation of characters and readers discussed previously. Whilst they are very much works of fantasy fiction, the books raise valid questions concerning reality, many of which will be discussed in this project. One can therefore classify them as being fantastic literature as opposed to strictly fantasy literature.
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2.2 Definition and History of the Fantastic Genre The fantastic genre is defined in such a way that something realistically impossible is made possible,”[Generally] fantasy is defined as text which portrays some obvious deviance from 'consensus reality'; whatever that could possibly be – usually a change in physical laws.” (Hunt 2001, In: Fenske 2008, 375). The literary tradition of fantasy has evolved from a genre of the folktale - the fairy tale, which “depicts magical or marvellous events or phenomena as a valid part of human experience.” (Jones 2002, 9). The evolution of the fairy tale into literary tradition (Jones 2002, chapter XV), started in the Renaissance with Boccacio's Decameron and continued with the collections of the Brothers Grimm, the stories of Charles Dickens, H.C. Andersen and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. All of these have used the fairy tale model to create original stories that imitate the oral genre of the fairy tale, where they, “employ in their narratives the generic characteristics of an ordinary hero or heroine who is engaged on a quest and who encounters marvellous or fantastic phenomena or events that are to be taken seriously, and who ultimately triumphs in his or her quest.” (33). Over the last century the genre of fantasy has become accepted as a serious part of literature. Some of the most famous among the old classics are works such as Peter Pan (1911) by J. M. Barry and Alice in Wonderland (1865) by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, portraying juvenile characters’ adventures into worlds beyond their own, into a fantastic reality. These two examples are prominent amongst adults as well as children around the world and though they remain in our heads as classic children literature, later works have been labelled as pop cultural literature and have in some sense been devalued because of this labelling. The work of Professor J. R. R. Tolkien contributed to the popularity of the genre with his achievements first with The Hobbit (1937) and later with his epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954-55) that appealed to a larger and older audience and evolved one of the genres greatest phenomena. ”At mid-century C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Mary Norton's The Borrowers, and E.B. White’s Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little were published and achieved considerable acclaim. They each depicted a protagonist's exploration of magical worlds and the spiritual and personal enlightenment that occurs from the enlarged sense of the world promoted by these explorations” (Jones 2002, 42-43)
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It was first in the 70's that fantastic literature wasn't considered trivial anymore, and therefore now worthy of detailed analysis (Harrison 2000, In: Fenske 2008, 375). In 1999 Colin Manlove defined six variants of the fantasy genre in his book The Fantasy Literature of England (London: Macmillan Press, 1999, 4): • secondary world fantasy • metaphysical fantasy • emotive fantasy • comic fantasy • subversive fantasy • children's fantasy This brings the chapter into a frame of relevance, in relation to the Harry Potter series. In 1997 the world was struck by a new series in the genre of fantastic literature. This time it was not situated in a secondary world as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings had introduced, but in a universe existing coherently and alongside our own. The Harry Potter series brought magic into our everyday life and continues to do so today; even though the final book in the series was released in 2007, the phenomena lives on. When relating Manlove's variants to Rowling's novels, they should be classified as a blend of the secondary world, comic and children's fantasy (Fenske 2008, 376).
”Secondary world fantasy introduces the reader to worlds not related to his own reality. These are ”full of pain, tedium, confinements of spirit, or fear; [...]” (Manlove 1999:37. In: Fenske 2008, 376).
As also used in the HP novels, comical aspects can often be the result of bringing the conventions of secondary world fantasy together with everyday life (Tolkien [1939] 1997, 115. In: Fenske 2008, 377). The success of the books prove Tolkien's theory, that if fantastic texts are meant for children, they are often also very successful with adults, because they tend to combine elements of comic, emotive and secondary world fantasy (Tolkien [1939] 1997, 6. In: Fenske 2008, 377-378).
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2.3 Fantastic Fiction and its Detachment from Reality When talking about a term like reality, the most “real” place we can look for its meaning is a dictionary. Oxford's definition of reality is:
”1. The state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them […] 2. A thing that is having existence or substance 3. The state or quality of that is absolute or objective and not subject to human decisions or conventions”.
These attributes are what our everyday day life evolves itself around. We are bound to the laws of physics. As proven by the evolution of early folktales into whole novels, such as the Harry Potter series, we find fiction attractive. Coincidentally, the Oxford English dictionary defines the word “fantasy” as: “the faculty or activity of imagining improbable things > a pleasant or desirable imaginary situation: the notion of being independent is a child's ultimate fantasy. […].” The notions of independence and freedom of mind speak to us because only our imagination sets the limit. Though there are some laws in the literary genre of fiction, when looking at secondary world fantasy; not everything is possible in the fantasy world. Tolkien states:
“What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful “sub-creator”. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is “true”: it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside.” (Tolkien [1939] 1997, 132. In: Fenske 2008, 377).
This reoccurs in the Harry Potter series, where a sort of real and magical world coexist (regular fiction alongside fantastic fiction). This is also true of other cultural successes such as Star Wars and of course Tolkien's The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The main point of this section is to prove that there is a need for fiction in human beings. The interesting question is why, which will be elaborated on in the following sections.
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2.4 The Functions of Fantastic Fiction In this section the concepts of fiction, fantastic fiction and fantasy in general will be explored, investigating their function and discussing the relation between fictional universes and the world “outside”. Concepts such as subjectivity and objectivity and how they seek to explain reality will be considered. In the section we will take as our point of departure the general concept of fiction and further on delimit ourselves to fantastic fiction, where the functions of the fictional universe and the mechanisms that fantastic fiction triggers in the reader will be explored.
2.4.1 The Borderline between Fiction and Reality "'Tell me one last thing,' said Harry. 'Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?'. Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry's ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure. 'Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?'." (Rowling 2007, 579)
How do we distinguish the fiction from reality?
At first glance concepts such as fiction, story, narrative and fantasy denote something which is not “real”. One might use the word “abstract” here in the sense that the signifiers2 typically have signified that are not of our physical everyday world. They refer to concepts within an alternate system of meaning. They oppose concepts such as the real, reality, factual etc., but how do we distinguish the real from the fictional? In our everyday lives questions of this character might seem self-evident but when thinking about what it means to exist they become relevant considerations that might help explore aspects of human perception and of how the mind are topics that have long been mysterious. In the human sciences concepts such as objectivity and subjectivity are often used draw up a distinction between what is commonly accepted as true and what is more dependent on the observer.
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Using Saussure’s concepts from his theories of semiotics as presented on p.47 in John Fiske’s “Introduction to Communication Studies”, 1982, London: Routledge.
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Furthermore something is more likely to be accepted as real immediately if it has a physical or in some way graspable presence. The philosopher René Descartes, however, questioned the trustworthiness of our senses. He raised questions of how we are able to know that what we experience is real and not a dream. How we are to know that we are not fooled by our senses (Appiah 2003, 45). For Descartes the fact that he could think was the only truly convincing proof that he existed, which he summed up in his famous argument: “I think, therefore I am”. (59). In fact the only proof we have that other minds exist depends of the evidence of our senses. So can we know anything about the world if we cannot trust our own senses? From a linguistic perspective one might explain the problem as being that when we perceive our reality we do so within the specific closed system of meaning in which we are embedded. As we have been raised in this specific cultural context we cannot withdraw or detach ourselves from this system and find external signifiers that verify our beliefs about the world. Our cultural systems of meaning are self-authenticating, but our signifiers will always relate to our given system or meaning, making them biased and therefore subjective - not objective. This appears to eliminate the possibility that we can ever have truly objective knowledge. Although this might be quite abstract, theoretically it makes it possible for us to consider our own realities to be fictional to some degree or on some level. This shows that the relation between the fictional and the everyday world that we know might be closer than we expect.
Narratives and coherent storyline structures pervade human communication and interaction. It seems that we have a tendency to organize our understanding and accounting of events in a familiar and recurrent pattern. Social research methods such as narrative analysis seek to investigate social life via the narratives that people employ in their everyday, building on the exact assumption that man has a narrative consciousness (Gilbert 2008, 421). The focus here is not so much on what we tell, the factual content, as much as on what we choose to tell, what we choose not to tell, and the way we choose to tell it.
“[…] accounts and descriptions cannot be treated as neutral representations of an objective social or psychological reality. Instead, language is examined as a dynamic, constructive and constitutive medium.” (Gilbert 2008, 441).
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This supports a more subjective or cultural relativist view that a social event doesn’t necessarily have one true meaning:
“[…] the ‘same’ circumstances can be described in a variety of ways to emphasize different features: events, social activities – anything we might describe – are repositories of multiple meanings.” (Gilbert 2008, 445).
Each individual account of an event has different value, meaning and perspective. This further diffuses the strong oppositions between the real and the fictional, for what is the difference between distinguishing the objective from the subjective and the real from the fictional? If it all comes down to how an event is presented and accounted for it is essentially about narrative devices and fictional elements. Theories of discourse analysis and social constructionism are based on the idea that we construct the world as we communicate our perceptions of it out in an interactive process with our surroundings (441). In our exchange of cultural codes with the world we constitute and co-create new cultural codes that define and shape the world as it shapes our perception and thereby our agency. E.g. how we decide to organize our everyday lives directs how we actually live. How we construct and design our buildings determines what we use them for and how we move on a given location. So the abstract idea of how we should act and move does actively affect how we do act, that is, in other words, it affects our agency. In this way we can see how something we can define as fictional directly affects what we perceive as real and physically present, and this is one way we might experience that interaction between the fictional and the physical everyday can take place. From this it follows that in our project it does not make sense to focus on strong distinctions between what is real and what is fictional but rather on what fiction can do to us. We still intend to use concepts such as the real (world), reality etc., when we wish to distinguish between the real and the fictional, but we keep the considerations above in mind not taking these distinctions for granted. Taking the aforementioned considerations further, it becomes relevant to discuss the presence of narratives, the function of fiction and how it can manifest its presence in the world via its ability to affect its surroundings.
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2.4.2 The Narrative in the Everyday Whether or not we are aware of it, we are surrounded by narratives in our everyday lives. We create stories about our own lives and how we got there. We chose a certain plot, a certain dominant perception or idea that we have about ourselves to make a red thread. These different features of our stories all depend very much on what has had an impact on us. What it is that we remember? This is man’s narrative consciousness in action. The tendency and ability to select and organize series of events, incidents, memories or emotions that we experience in a coherent pattern that makes up a story to tell to other people. It seems that people continually create some form of fiction on an everyday basis, whether it be stories about daily occurrences, recent experiences or about our entire lifespan.
“[…] the use of the terms is not meant to imply that people produce fictional accounts of their lives, rather it is to draw attention to three interrelated issues: the social production of accounts; some of the work performed by the use of stories or narratives; and finally, the narrative-like qualities that are often present in personal accounts of life.” (Gilbert 2008, 425).
We are accustomed to storytelling in various expressions. We seem disposed to tell stories that serve to create coherence in our perceptions of the world. We know that we have created stories and myths for thousands of years about our origins (see section 3.2). It is part of human interaction to tell stories. But one might wonder, in a chicken-egg question-like structure, whether it is our narrative consciousness that makes us disposed to telling and understanding the world via narratives or whether it is our upbringing in a specific cultural context (perhaps even a literary one) - that has made us susceptible to narrative structures. This can also fuel a discussion of whether we need fiction in our lives or whether it is just an aspect of enjoyment for some people. If we all employ some kind of narrative in our lives is it a sign that we need fiction or is it merely a tendency that we can ignore? And can we actually ignore it? We will return to these matters in the course of our discussion. As we can see that fiction definitely plays a part in shaping our understanding for the world, we will now investigate what fiction does for us and how it does it.
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2.4.3 The Function of Fantastic Fiction What purpose does fiction serve for us? The word fiction seems to imply something which does not exist outside of a literary universe and that the opportunities for fictional expression take place only in the outlined area of the story. However as we saw above, the fictional is not necessarily clear-cut nor restricted to the pages of a book. Fiction does something to us and it serves a function. So what exactly does it do? One of the most common and immediate assumptions often made about fantasy fiction is that it is escapist. This implies that when we read fantasy literature we do it to get away from the mundane and the ordinary in everyday life. This portrays fantasy as being dangerous if it seduces us into an imaginary world full of excitement and promise. Yet one cannot assume that when a reader decides to engage in a piece of fantasy literature it is for the purpose of being relieved from the monotony of his own life. Escapism is only one aspect of fantasy and it does not necessarily have to build on the assumption that life outside the fictional universe is boring.
“Many people consider fantasy an escape, which takes them for a while out of their dreary, frightening lives to a pleasant, impossible world […]. This is only one piece of the truth. Reading fantasy is not so much an escape from something as a liberation into something, into openness and possibility and coherence.” (O’Keefe 2003, 11).
Deborah O’Keefe, former professor at Vassar and Manhattan colleges and author of books on fiction and fantasy, calls it liberation into something. We can be perfectly happy with our reality as it is and still benefit from engaging in a fantastic universe. We learn when we engage ourselves in something with which we are not familiar.
“Readers get perspective on their own worlds by exploring a strange fictional place and by learning how its pieces fit together. The world of fantasy faction doesn’t pretend to be a real reality, so it doesn’t arouse the same expectations as most other fiction[…].” (11-12).
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In this respect fantasy literature appears to be a great resource as it supports the process of learning how to gain perspective on the world – indeed in gaining a nuanced view of reality. “[…] fantasy books […] can encourage readers on different levels to think more freely than usual about questions that connect to their daily experience but penetrate way beyond it and offer new perspectives on it.” (16). In the contrast between what we know and do not know, what we are used to is every day for us, but what is extraordinary and fantastic we learn for ourselves. So fantasy can be a tool that helps us discover our place in and relation to the world. O’Keefe here speaks of fantasy literature using the concept of transitional phenomena developed by psychologist D.W. Winnicott. Transitional phenomena are objects that help children develop an understanding of the relation between themselves and the world – what is “me” and what is “not-me” (33). An example of such a transitional phenomenon could for a small child be a teddy bear, or a ball, but later in development it can be any kind of cultural creation (33). “Transitional phenomena, including art, science, and religion, are valuable to all people all their lives. Fantasy fiction seems to be a particularly good kind of “transitional” experience, as it exists so clearly in regions that is neither Me nor the normal reality of the Not-Me.” (34). Hence fantasy fiction can be seen as a kind of transitional phenomenon that helps to develop human perception. As mentioned earlier (see the beginning of section 2.3.1) how the human mind functions and whether we can trust what we experience has been a mystery for many years. We have to accept the fact that when it comes down to it, our perception of the world is always subjective. This can be confusing and difficult as we cannot always know what to accept and what to discard. Literature can however help us to accept this and to gain a more nuanced view of the world through its depiction of contrasts.
“Reading these stories is a practice and example of making sense of a world – discovering interrelations of individual, community, and cosmos; past, present and future: feeling, though and action; the human, the natural and the supernatural. It’s the fact that there is a totality, a pattern, a network of connections in a fictional world that provides the satisfaction.” (18).
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Thus, when we read fantasy we practice making sense of the world. The Russian literary critic Viktor Borisovich Shlovskij developed the concept defamiliarization/estrangement (ostranenie in Russian), a literary device in art and literature that is supposed to heighten our perception and understanding or our surroundings,
“But exactly to give us back the feeling that we are alive, to make us feel things again, to make the stone a stone yet again, this is the reason why art exists. The purpose of art is to give us a feeling of the object, a feeling which is a perception and not merely recognition. The technique of art is the technique of defamiliarization and the technique of the complicated form, which increase the difficulty and the duration of the perception process, because in art the process of perception is an end in itself and it therefore must be prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the coming into being of things. That which has already come into being is in art insignificant.” (Stein Larsen 2009, 39)3.
Shlovskij talks about the fact that in everyday life once we have gotten to know an object we perceive it automatically. We stop seeing objects, noticing their features and considering their function. This can make us blind and uncritical towards our surroundings. Art, he argues, is supposed to reinforce our perception of our surroundings because only in this way can we come to understand them. To give a concrete example of how defamiliarization is employed in the Harry Potter books, the character of Arthur Weasley embodies the essence of the technique rather well. He is as fascinated with artefacts that come from the “Muggle”-world as we would probably be ourselves in an encounter with some form of magic.
“Fred laughed, "[...], Dad's crazy about everything to do with Muggles; our shed's full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it, and puts it back together again. If he raided our house he'd have to put himself under arrest. It drives Mum mad." (Rowling 1998, 27).
3
We have translated the Shlovskij-quote to English directly from a Danish article by Peter Stein Larsen, as we considered the concept of defamiliarization well explained in the article and trusted the quote to be an accurate translation from Russian. Consequently, Shlovskij’s name is spelled according to this article.
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The description of Mr.Weasley taking apart or changing objects from the non-magical world, for example a car, seems to serve as some kind of deconstruction of the things that we know, which seems to shed new light on them and on the possibilities that we associate with them.
“Mr. Weasley liked Harry to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard him with questions about life with Muggles, asking him to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked. "Fascinating." he would say as Harry talked him through using a telephone. "Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic." (Rowling 1998, 37).
We can see this device of “defamiliarization” in fantasy literature in the way that concepts that we already know of from our own world are combined with entirely new constructions of the fantastic universe, such as magic. The fact that we have aeroplanes that can fly is put into perspective by flying broomsticks or fairy tales – is technology such as flying machines not a form of magic in itself? Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke draws exactly this parallel between magic as it is described in literature and our modern days' technology, in his “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" as he states that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” (Clarke 1962, pp. 14, 21, 36).
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3.0 Philosophy in Fantastic Fiction In this chapter we shall see how philosophy and fantastic fiction are intertwined in a number of ways. Later on, in the final discussion, we will discuss the philosophical method of intuition pumps in relation to fantasy, but for now we will focus on two aspects of philosophical thought, the presence of myth and the paradox of fiction.
People tend to develop strong feelings towards fictional works and characters, but fiction deals with imaginary worlds and fictional characters that are not real. How then can people develop genuine feelings for things that do not exist? This is called the paradox of fiction and it has been widely discussed among philosophers and psychologists alike. Many find it bizarre that people develop feelings towards non-existent events and characters, claiming that in order to feel such emotions, one must believe that it is real; David B. Suits even claims that one cannot feel emotions to something that one does not understand to be real. When it comes to the presence of myth, we would like to explore the existence of myth in the Harry Potter novels. The presence of myth notion also brings existentialism into the frame, by showing that existentialist queries are present in the novels e.g. in the depiction of Harry growing from a child to a teenager and eventually into a young adult.
3.1 The Paradox of Fiction The Paradox of Fiction, first mentioned by Colin Radford in a 1975 article in the series of Replies to my Critics, received both criticism and applause. Radford's initial theory was that the ability to respond to fiction emotionally is “irrational, incoherent and inconsistent” (Radford, 1975:75). He argues, that “being moved by what one believes is really happening is not exactly the same as being moved by what one believes is happening to fictional characters, it is not wholly different.” (Radford 1975, 75). He mentions an example in his article “How can we be moved by the death of Anna Karenina?” from William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet about Mercutio and his death. Although we do feel emotions towards his death, it is still different from what we would feel if during the play the actor, playing Mercutio, would really have to die. While seeing the person die, we would possibly try to get some help and possibly call an ambulance, but if we reacted this way towards a piece of fiction we would probably be regarded as mentally unstable. 26
The make-believe theory, suggested by Kendall Walton in his 1990's book Mimesis as MakeBelieve: On Representational Arts, supports the Paradox of Fiction. In one of his sub-theories, Walton argues that people tend to respond to what they read or see with “quasi-emotions” and not with “regular” emotions. Quasi-emotions are best described with an example used in Walton's book:
“Charles is watching a horror movie about a terrible green slime. He cringes in his seat as the smile oozes slowly but relentlessly over the earth destroying everything in its path. Soon a greasy head emerges from the undulating mass, and two beady eyes roll around, finally fixing on the camera. The smile, picking up speed, oozes on a new course straight toward the viewers. Charles emits a shriek and clutches desperately at his chair. Afterwards, still shaken, Charles confesses that he was “terrified” of the slime.” (Walton 1978, 5)
Even though what Charles experienced was fear, it was not the same fear he would experience in reality. For example, if there were a tornado, Charles would possibly inform his family and friends and seek shelter, waiting for it to calm down. However, Charles did not hide when he saw the slime: he just sat in his chair expressing a different kind of fear, which could be referred to as a quasi-emotional response. Quasi-emotions, in other words, are partly-real emotions, as those usually experienced towards fictional happenings or characters. Fear and quasi-fear are two different emotions, and their examples were best described previously with green slime and tornado cases. However, some philosophers tend to disagree with Walton's make-belief theory. Noel Carroll argues that though the theory “[…] is ingenious, it does not seem descriptively accurate. When I am art-horrified by Dracula I am in a genuine emotional state, not a pretend state.” (Neill 1991, 49). Walton's theory does not work exactly like that. Whereas people tend to imagine or pretend that a character such as Dracula actually does exist while reading or watching a movie, they do not pretend about their emotions. This is where quasi-emotions can be used again. Carroll might not be pretending about his emotional state, but what he feels is still not real, as he is not truly horrified by Dracula. This example closely relates to Charles and the green slime example: although both Charles and Carroll are afraid, they are not truly afraid, as they are not taking any action to look for help, run or hide. Walton has stated that, “he is not suggesting that Charles's response to the green slime is merely pretend or feigned, nor denying that Charles is actually moved.” (Neill 1991, 50). 27
However, using the assertions written by David B. Suits in his article Really Believing in Fiction it could be claimed that not only quasi-emotions are important - we believe fictional works to be real in a certain sense.
Assertion 1: We often witness fictional works (novels, plays, films) Assertion 2: We believe (in fact we know it very well) that the works are fictional. Assertion 3: Yet we often respond emotionally to such works. Assertion 4: One cannot be moved by what one believes does not exist. (Suits 2006, 369)
Nonetheless, if relying on these four assertions, and, especially the fourth one, it could be claimed that even though individuals understand that most of the works are fictional, they develop emotions towards them (such as Charles fearing a slime that is only in the movie). Additionally, if a person develops emotions towards a work of fiction, he must believe that it actually exists. Thus, the main question concerning the paradox of fiction is: “How do we come to have emotional responses appropriate to some event, when we believe that there is no such event?” (Suits 2006, 371). The answers to this question may vary. Kendal Walton's make-believe theory could be applied in order to argue about these four assertions. One of the prime samples of the make-belief theory is children’s imagination. For example, children tend to make so-called mud pies; adults see them as pies made of mud that are not edible. Yet children play with the pies with the imagination that they are actual pies. In this way though they believe mud-pies to be real on some level, at the same time, they do not sit down and eat it; they also believe that mudpies are not those that their parents make at home from proper ingredients. In some sense, it could be said that by responding to a work of fiction people enter a game of make-believe and use the fiction they read as props. (Neill 1991,48). In order to explain this, take an example of a child playing with his father. The child and the father are playing a game where the father is a vicious monster and the child is running away from him. The child is not really afraid of his father but his make-believe inner child is terrified of the “monster” that the father is playing. (Neill 1991:48) Here their imagination works as the prop, giving them a chance to play in a make-belief world. Walton also mentions make-belief truths. Specific principles and rules are usually agreed on when the game of make-belief starts. In the example with mud-pies it is only necessary that the children believe from the very beginning that what they are making are actually mud-pies; it is also believed that if “Johnnie throws a glob at Mary, then make-believedly Johnnie 28
throws a pie at Mary.” (Walton 1978, 11) There is another way to explain the make-belief truths by the same mud-pies example: one child's mud-pie is bigger than the other child's. There are two truths established by that: a) the fact that one child's mud-pie is bigger than the other child's, and b) the existence of an accepted principle, or rule, of the game, according to which the size of globs of mud determines the sizes of pie. (Neill 1991, 48) This describes the make-belief theory: people tend to believe things to be real, but at the same time, they also realize that they are not real. The theory can be applied not only to children’s games: the same happens for adults, who get involved in movies, books and songs, and perhaps even more strongly in plays or operas. It seems easier for make-believe to come true during plays or operas, as people get to see actors playing roles: it gives a realistic angle to a work of fiction that might not possibly exist while just reading a book, that the opera or play is based on.
3.2 The Presence of Myth This section attempts to discern the need for myth in the course of everyday life. In this regard, a definition of what a myth is will be given. Examples of the mythical qualities of J.K Rowling's Harry Potter novels will also be provided.
3.2.1 What is a Myth? Within the context of folkloristics, a myth has been defined by Berkley Professor Alan Dundes as being “A sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form” (Rogerson & Dundes 1984, 47.) The word generally tends to be used in different ways however; a very general, over-arching definition of the word would be that of myth referring to any traditional story. In fact, the most widely accepted definition of myth in our day and age is that of myth as an “ill-founded belief, fabrication, an imagined story constructed in defiance of facts, fictitious; relates to the idea of myth in opposition to rationality, and to science, a view that we can trace to the Enlightenment theory of myth” (62-71)
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3.2.2 The Need for Myth in Everyday Life The word myth provokes thoughts and connotations that ally it with events or occurrences that are not scientifically sound. Myths do not necessarily present logical or believable truths and tenets, yet numerous cultures and societies around the world have come to incorporate myth as part of their everyday comprehension of the world around them. One might therefore ask why there is such a prevalent need for myth in everyday life. This section elaborates on this, identifying the need for myth as being anchored in the need for spiritual values and existentialist queries. Anthologist Donna Rosenberg sums up her two-tier position on myth by stating the following: “Myths symbolise human experience and embody the spiritual values of a culture”. “Some explain origins, natural phenomena, and death; others describe the nature and function of divinities; while still others provide models of virtuous behaviour by relating the adventures of the heroes or the misfortunes of arrogant humans” (Rosenberg 1994). The Harry Potter novels can be said to both adhere to and differ from this definition in certain respects. It is quite obvious that the Potter books steer clear of sculpting religious assumptions and connotations. In other words no depictions of the existence of a supreme deity are given with regard to attempting to quantify and classify natural phenomena. On the other hand, death is a theme that is frequently explored and addressed in the course of Rowling's writing. It is also apparent that the series is laden with characters who embody heroic properties, with Harry himself being the most obvious example of such a character. Arrogant personalities also make a frequent appearance in the Potter literature; Lord Voldemort, public enemy number one in the series epitomises numerous far less appealing qualities, arrogance being one of these. His downfall can in fact be said to have taken place due at least in part to his arrogance. The need for myth can also be comprehended as far as matters of existentialism are concerned. Rosenborg's position on myth extends to her stating that myths ask and attempt to answer many of the following questions: Who am I? What is the nature of the universe in which I live? How do I relate to that universe? How much control do I have over my own life? What must I do in order to survive? How can I lead a satisfying life? How can I balance my own desires with my responsibilities to my family and community? How can I reconcile myself to the inevitability of death? 30
These existentialist queries are represented throughout the Harry Potter septet. Harry's very quest for survival against seemingly insurmountable odds is part and parcel of the central theme of love and vouching for the right moral choice. Additionally, numerous questions concerning identity and control over one's life are taken up via prophetic allusions and the role of mythical creatures such as centaurs. Throughout Harry’s transformative process, he has to figure out how to control his own desires and reconcile them to his great responsibilities. This is exemplified by his behaviour in The Order of the Phoenix book compared with his willingness to give up his relationship with Ginny in The Half-Blood Prince novel. In similar vein, with regard to the acceptance of death as an inevitable occurrence, Harry Potter has to face the fact that death is always close by from the very first book in the series.
3.2.3. Specific Depictions of Myth in Harry Potter The Harry Potter novels are strewn with characters and indeed archetypes that can be compared to figures from mythology of times gone by. The author of The Sorcerer's Companion: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter Allan Zola Kronzek says:
"Most of the magic in Harry Potter comes out of the Western magical tradition, which really originated in the Middle East, in Babylonia and Mesopotamia," . "Greek, Roman and Egyptian sources all got mixed together in a kind of melting pot and formed what scholars called the Western magical tradition. That's where a lot of the magic spells, the potions and the curses come from.". (A. Kronzek & E. Kronzek 2001: The Sorcerer's Companion: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter).
Historian David Colbert has made several connections between several key characters in the Harry Potter books and some of the more well-known mythical personalities of our world. Harry, the hero of the series, a conqueror of seemingly insurmountable odds can be likened to the Roman demigod, Hercules whose story is also that of perennial struggle against daunting prospects. As a purveyor of the upright and indeed the saviour of many around him, Harry has also been likened to the likes of King Arthur and the old English hero, Beowulf. Similarly, the intelligent, witty and courageous Hermione Granger has been linked with the Greek goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, female arts,
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crafts, justice, and skill, Athena. One of the most obvious literary re-incarnations of a mythological character in Harry Potter is indeed that of the wizard Merlin in Albus Dumbledore. Both Merlin and Dumbledore are senior, wise, well-spoken wizards with an admirable acumen in magic, which is used for the defence of the upright and the moral. (Colbert, 2004) In fact, the depictions of and references to myth in Harry Potter are numerous, visible in very many different aspects of Rowling's writing. David Colbert has cited quite a few of these mythical references in the Harry Potter septet4:
• The Sorcerer's Stone: In the story, the stone is a treasured source of immortality that Harry and his pals try to keep out of the hands of an evil wizard. It is said to be discovered by Nicolas Flamel. There actually was such a thing in history as the Sorcerer's (or Philosopher's) Stone. And Flamel was a real-life alchemist who, in 1383, believed he discovered a substance that would turn ordinary metal into gold and also thought he had discovered the Elixir of Life, which offered immortality. In Sorcerer's Stone, Flamel and his wife, Pernelle, were still alive at age 660. The real Flamel was born in 1330. In 1990, when Rowling began writing the book, he would have been 660. • Magic wands: In the book, wands are required implements for all young wizards attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; one of the first lessons given to students involves the proper use of them. "The idea of wands goes way back, not just since magic tricks, but to ancient Egypt," Colbert says. "The Druids used to have different wands for different levels of learning and priesthood. Evil wizard Voldemort's wand is made of the yew tree. The yew tree has always been said to have supernatural power. It was one of the few evergreen trees in Britain at one time. So, it's a symbol of immortality. That's the immortality that Voldemort wants." • The Forbidden Forest: Hogwarts' students are warned about the dangers that lurk within the forest, which is replete with all kinds of monsters, some of which emerge from their shadows and meet up with Harry. This is a familiar construct in literature and fairy tales. It signifies nature run wild. It is a danger, yet also a sanctuary. The idea that there is special knowledge in natural places, as there is in the Forbidden Forest, draws upon the tradition of nature gods worshiped by the Druids. Julius Caesar wrote of travelers encountering horrific creatures in an ominous forest back in the first century B.C., according to The Sorcerer's Companion.
4
The section 3.2.3 and the following table is adapted from: http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/lore_of_harry_potter.htm - based on David Colbert, The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Facts, 2004
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Magical Creatures and Fantastic Beasts • Fluffy, the three-headed dog: Hagrid's pet dog and guardian of the Sorcerer's Stone was sold to Hagrid by "a Greek chappie I met in the pub." (Though in the movie, it has been changed to "an Irish chappie.") Fluffy is descended from Cerberus, a famous three-headed beast in Greek mythology. Cerberus was a sentry in mythology as well. He guarded the underworld, Hades. In Greek mythology, Orpheus played his lyre to tame Cerberus. In the movie, Fluffy is rendered calm and drowsy by the music of an enchanted harp. • Hedwig, Harry Potter's snowy owl: Hedwig was a German saint who lived in the 13th century. An order of nuns dedicated to caring for orphans was established under the patronage of St. Hedwig. And, of course, Harry is an orphan. Also, owls have long been connected with magic and wisdom in folklore. The emblem of Athens was an owl. Knowledge and owls have long been connected, because of Athens. • Unicorns: In a climactic moment in Sorcerer's Stone, a hooded man drinks the blood of the unicorn, hoping it will give him longer life or, possibly, immortality. "It's long been a part of legend that unicorns are sacred and so innocent as to be divine," Colbert says. "As a result, their horns or their blood were thought to have magical healing powers." A "single-horned creature" was first described 2,000 years ago by Greek physician Ctesias, who believed the animal was native to India. Over the next centuries, a belief in the elusive creature expanded, according to The Sorcerer's Companion. By the Middle Ages, images of the graceful horselike creatures with a white horn were depicted in paintings and tapestries. It later became part of the royal coat of arms of England and Scotland.
Hogwarts' Faculty and Students
• Rubeus Hagrid: The first name of the gentle giant, who collects dangerous animals and is the groundskeeper at the school, derives from the red gem, and he is ruddy-faced. "There's a whole British history of gargantua, gentle giants and the giants of Stonehenge," Colbert says. • Draco Malfoy: Harry's cruel nemesis at Hogwarts has a last name that has been tied to witchcraft. "Malfoy" derives from the Latin maleficus, meaning evildoing. A pair of witch hunters published a book in 1486 called Malleus Maleficarum, which instructed readers on how to catch witches. "Draco" has a double meaning in Latin: dragon and snake. And the boy is in the house of Slytherin, which also is an allusion to a snake. Draco's equally villainous father is named Lucius, which is a derivative of Lucifer. Rowling, Colbert says, "is having great fun with language." 33
• Argus Filch: The caretaker who keeps a constant watch over Hogwarts is particularly keen on catching students in off-limits places. Argus in Greek mythology was a watchman with 1,000 eyes on his body. "If you've got 1,000 eyes," Colbert says, "you're going to see if somebody will filch something." • Alberic Grunion: Harry and his pal Ron Weasley (and most of the other students) collect Famous Witches and Wizards trading cards. Grunion is on one such card. Alberich is a powerful wizard in a German epic poem that has been the basis of many modern works, most importantly the 19th century Wagnerian opera The Ring Cycle. One of the heroes in the poem is given an invisibility cloak by Alberich. Harry also is given an invisibility cloak by Dumbledore.
3.2.4 Sub-Conclusion One might hence be inclined to pose the question, why do so many people of today's day and age identify so wholeheartedly with the world of dragons, magical folk and particular creatures depicted in the Harry Potter novels? Indeed, it would be prudent to extend this query to asking what these elements signify insofar as them reflecting themes from everyday life in concerned. In the polarised society within which we live, there seems to be a universal crosscultural need for myth and indeed for fantasy literature as far as synthesising themes such as love, respect, wisdom, truth, courage and hope. Myth is the foreground through which these and many other virtues and morals and symbolically and implicitly are communicated from the author to the readers of works of fantasy. Furthermore, the creation of an alternative reality, indeed an alternative universe in Harry Potter opens the door for escapism from the defined world of rules and norms that characterise the essence of everyday life. This in turn sculpts an urge for wonder, astonishment and indeed bewilderment in the minds of readers of Harry Potter, whose imagination is triggered into gear through mythical depictions and other features of good fantasy literature. One can hence conclude that the depiction of an alternative reality offers children the chance to be distinct if not standout personages within the societies in which they live, much like Harry and other characters in the Harry Potter novels.
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4.0 Relation between Rowling and her own Fictional Universe When investigating the relation between fiction and non-fiction, between a literary and a nonliterary universe, it is interesting to look into not only how fantasy literature can affect the real world but also the other way around; that is how the real world gives inspiration and helps to sculpt and create the fictional universe. Authors sometimes use inspiration, varying from character traits, names or events from their own experiences, and they incorporate these elements actively in their writing. J.K. Rowling is certainly not an exception when it comes to collecting elements from her own life and framing these within a fictional context. The way she uses elements that we know from real life and combine these with things that are more alien to us could be one of the reasons why she has managed to establish such a vivid image of the magical world as being close to our own everyday lives. This will be elaborated on later in the project. J.K. Rowling also uses elements that are primarily familiar to only herself, and not necessarily a larger group of readers. This is where we can see a strong connection between Rowling’s own everyday life and the fictional universe that she has created.
4.1 J.K. Rowling Joanne Rowling, better known as Joanne Kathleen Rowling, was born to Peter James and Anne Rowling family on 31st July, 1965. Her parents met on a train travelling from King's Cross to Scotland. Peter and Anne were barely twenty years old when Anne announced that she was pregnant and they got married. (Smith 2001, 13) Looking for a peaceful and nice place for their new family to live in, the Rowlings moved to Yates, England (15). Nearly two years after Joanne's birth, the Rowlings welcomed another child into their family: Dianne was born. Soon after that, the family moved to Winterbourne- a city that was bigger and warmer to them than Yates was. Joanne remembers her mother sacrificing her career for the family. She said, “Mother gave herself completely for the family: raised us, took care of the house and I never came to think that mother was regretting her decision not to enjoy the freedom from family.” (20). Anne used to read a lot to her daughters- she believed that “tales were important to a child's development” (21). Due to this Joanne started to read a lot at early age; however, she was not interested in tales written by Enid Blyton, who was also known as Mary Pollock. She preferred tales by Richard Scarry, where animals would explain world's wisdom to kids in an 35
easy way; most of the tales also had trains in it. Trains were important in Joanne's life: that is where her parents first met, and it is also where she first got an idea of Harry Potter. Joanne wrote her first story called Rabbit when she was six years old, inspired by Scarry's stories. The story is about a rabbit, who is sick with measles and who gets happy when his friends visits him- one of them being a big bee named Miss Bee. (22) Joanne and her sister Dianne (who was usually called Di) became close friends with their neighbours son Ian Potter. However, they soon became distant when the Rowlings moved to another place: a small house in a village Tutshill across the Severn Bridge. (31) Tutshill's elementary school was Joanne's first school; even nowadays Joanne claims that she was more like Hermione Granger, one of the Harry Potter series characters- especially when she was around 11 years old. She says, “I always felt that I have to achieve every goal that I have set for myself. My hand was always the first one to be raised; I always had to be right.” (47). A book, called The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, became the main model and made the most inspiration for Harry Potter books. Joanne's mother gave her this book when Joanne was only nine (48). The main character in these books, Maria Merryweather, just like Harry, is an orphan, who suddenly gets thrown into a new, magical world. Just like in The Little White Horse, animals play a big role in Harry Potter books. Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, first mentioned in the third book The Prisoner of Azkaban is the only one to realize that Sirius Black is the big black dog that often pays a visit to Harry during his third year. Then there is Ron's rat Scabbers, who is actually one of Harry's father's friends, Peter Pettigrew, one of Lord Voldemort's servants. (49) And of course there is Harry's own pet- a white owl named Hedwig, who defends Harry in the final book by taking the Killing Curse that was meant for him. A lot of inspiration for characters and events from the books came from Joanne's childhood: the Sorting Hat ceremony, first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is reminiscent of the “sorting test” that Mrs. Morgan, Joanne's first teacher, gave to children in order to see which ones had a harder time studying and which were “smarter”. The experience may have helped Rowling to write a chapter about it, seeing how Harry was frightened that the Sorting Hat ceremony was a “test” and that he has not studied any spells or tricks, just like Joanne did not know how to use fractions and they were already required to calculate everything in their heads (36). The Head of Wyedean School Ken Smith, according to some, slightly represents the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, as both of them did not “show off their powers”. “Ken Smith was a very shy person and would usually let his colleagues do what they think is the best”, says Mr. Nettleship, the Chemistry teacher of 36
Wyedean School (55). However, Joanne's friends tend to disagree with it; Joanne herself claims that Dumbledore is based on at least a few persons she used to know, one of them also being Joanne's father Peter, who is described as a “very smart man” (55). Another character, who is loosely based on real life individuals, is Hogwarts' potion teacher Severus Snape. His cold and nasty nature resembles Joanne's Chemistry teacher Mr. Nettleship, who was often described by his students as “Sting” (55). Just as Professor Snape used to oppress Harry by picking him to answer the questions most of the time, Mr. Nettleship did the same to Joanne, as he viewed her as a “very smart student”. (55). Joanne herself also resembles a lot of her own characters. In addition to the already mentioned likeness to Harry and Hermione, Joanne also bears resemblance to Ron Weasley, one of Harry's best friends that he first met on a train to Hogwarts. Ron's famous fear for spiders is what connects Joanne with him: even as a child, she was extremely afraid of spiders. Her friend Ian Potter's mother, Ruby Potter remembers Joanne being afraid of them. Some jokingly say that Joanne's Boggart (a creature that turns into whatever the person, that it has targeted, fears the most) would be a spider. Another person who gave inspiration to Ron's character was Jo's best friend Sean Harris. Just like Ron and his family, Sean had Ford Anglia; a car that would help Joanne and Sean escape from grey, mundane reality. The same happened with Ron and Harry: Ron and his twin brothers, Fred and George, helped Harry escape the Dursleys during his second year. As such, Joanne later dedicated the second book Chamber of Secrets to Sean and his Ford Anglia: “For Sean P. F. Harris, getaway driver and foul-weather friend” (Rowling 1998, 5). Joanne and her sister Di got along with their mother Anne very well; one might say they acted more like friends and not like mother and daughters. However, when Joanne was 15 and her mother was 35, Anne was diagnosed with quickly progressive form of multiple sclerosis. The first signs of this were noticed when Jo was barely twelve when her mother could not find the strength to lift a coffee pot. (Smith 2001,70) Just as Hogwarts was a place where Harry could free himself from everything, Wyedean School was a site of liberation for Joanne whose own home was filled with tension due to her mother's sickness. The fact that Anne would not survive became even clearer when, on 23rd April, 1983 she wrote her will aged just 38 at the time (76). Seven years later, in 30th December 1990, Anne Rowling died. Joanne indirectly dedicated a chapter called The Mirror of Erised to her memory and up to today she describes that chapter as the “most beautiful chapter she has written” (102). The Mirror of Erised is a magical mirror in which one can see his or her deepest desires. One of the quotes describing Harry's feelings after seeing his entire family in the Mirror of Erised closely described 37
Joanne's feelings after her mother's death: “He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness.” (Rowling 1997, 168) Soon after this, Joanne moved to Portugal, where she got a job as English teacher at a school. As she first started writing Harry Potter in 1990, she brought a shoe box full of notes regarding the books along with her to Porto, Portugal. This was where she met her first husband Jorge Arantes. The two married and few years down the line in 1993 their daughter Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes was born. Soon after their daughter's birth, Jorge and Joanne started to quarrel, and in November 1993 their marriage reached the critical point. (Smith 2001, 120) Joanne along with her daughter was kicked out of the house and went back to England. During the period of 1993, Joanne was diagnosed with clinical depression and, at some point, even contemplated suicide. That period is said to have given her the idea of Dementors- the guardians of Azkaban, who could suck out all the happiness from any person who would get close to them. After her mother's death, Joanne and her father Peter did not get along. Peter did not participate in Joanne's wedding and did not visit his other daughter Di, who now lived in Edinburgh. When the first Harry Potter book came out in 1997, it was dedicated to Di, Jessica and Anne, “For Jessica, who loves stories, for Anne, who loved them too, and for Di, who heard this one first.” (Rowling 1997, 5). Joanne and her father’s relationship got worse when Peter moved in with another woman, just months after Anne’s death. The years up until the release of the first book were harsh to Joanne and Jessica: they lived in poverty and Joanne, as a single mother, struggled to give everything she could to her daughter. During those trying years, Joanne fought in court in order to get full custody of her daughter and finally achieve full divorce, which she did in 1995. Many agents and publishing houses turned down Joanne's first book for different reasons, such as the length of the work being considered excessive as far as entering the charts of children's readings was concerned. The struggle to release the first Harry Potter book lasted more than a year and, finally, on 30th June 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released both in hard and soft covers. (Smith 2001,159). At first, the interest in the book was low as only a select few wanted to read a book about wizards living in a boarding school written by a young, unknown woman. In order to attract the crowds, Joanne's name was altered; Kathleen was added to it, as J. K. Rowling had more of a clang to it than J. Rowling on its own. Kathleen was chosen by Joanne in memory of her grandmother. Two days after the release of the first book, Joanne brought in the manuscript of the second book - Chamber of Secrets; however, she felt that the book was too heavy as she had 38
problems writing it. Joanne even took the manuscript back for six weeks, wanting to correct it. (163) Barry Cunningham, the publisher of Bloomsbury of that time, helped Joanne a lot with her books- he was the one to release the first two books. Jessica and Joanne's lives improved as Joanne started receiving money for her books. However, with the fame and money another dimension availed itself to Joanne: the facts about her failed marriage, the relationship with her father and her mother's death came to light. The marriage with Jorge cost her the most, as he claimed he had helped her to write her first book. Jorge sold the story about their marriage to many magazines. (173) Events like this led Joanne to mistrust the press and up to this day she keeps her family life as secret as possible. This notwithstanding, her second marriage to Neil Murray in 2002 was soon discovered, along with the birth of their children David Gordon Rowling Murray (born in 2003) and Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray (born in 2005). During the period from 1997 to 2007 all seven Harry Potter books were released. Additional books were also released, such as Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in 2001 and The Tales of Beedle the Bard in 2008. The money, earned from these books was given to charitable causes. In many interviews Joanne has stated that there will be no more books about Harry Potter adventures, as she made a clear end to it in the last book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, adding an extra chapter called 19 Years Later and ending it with a simple sentence- All was well. (Rowling 2007, 607)
4.2 The Success of the Potter Books The Harry Potter series has enjoyed enormous success all over the world. In the book The Irresistible Rise of Harry Potter (2002) Andrew Blake has done some research on this subject though this work was written prior to the publishing of the last book in the series and just a year after the first movie was released. Blake's writing examines the Harry Potter series as a cultural revival of England. The year 1997 was the beginning of a new era for England. An election had appointed a new government promising the start of a modern Britain with the New Labour party at the helm in parliament. This is an important factor to consider in discussing the cultural revival, for what Andrew Blake points out in his book is this; England was up until this point branded with an image established in past centuries with famous monarchies, prominent castles as a legacy of the greatness of the land, class systems and an “ancient� parliament filled with old rich 39
aristocrats (pp. 5-7, Blake, 2002). A country that once had been a centre of world politics now had to recreate the term Englishness to keep up with a developing world. “At precisely this moment an Englishness that deals with both the local past and a more inclusive present appeared, and in subsequent years it has become a global commodity through one of England’s most consistent cultural exports: fiction.” (7) What the Harry Potter series did for the rebranding of England, according to Andrew Blake, was its ability to combine the remnants of ‘Britishness’ and contemporary qualities. He calls this method “retrolutionary” – “presenting aspects of the future through terms set by the past, in order to make it seem palatable.” (8-9,) The protagonist is a young man from a seemingly “typical” British family who one day has the opportunity to leave and attend an exclusive magical boarding school somewhere in the United Kingdom. The author of the books J. K. Rowling has managed to twist the traditions of English literature and culture and made it accessible, not just for the British for whom the idea of boarding school, etc, is reality, but also for a world-wide audience, where the appeal of British culture is associated with school abroad, class systems, honour, nobility and traditions have a magic of their own. The settings of the Harry Potter books are mostly, but not exclusively set at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and even though they occasionally leave the school, the Harry Potter universe is England. “Hogwarts represents the multicultural contemporary England (…). And though there is a class system in operation at Hogwarts, it doesn’t dictate the plot as you would expect from a Victorian novel (…). The community is not given; it is made, by the abilities of all its members – by the incompetent Neville Longbottom as much as the heroic Harry Potter.” (15)
According to Blake this fact is contributing to the “symbolic figure of the past-in-future England which is in desperate need of such symbols” (16), in order to grasp the intriguing past of traditional England and modify it, into a relatable world. But also in terms of a contemporary problem that was an issue in late 1990’s. Another way that the Harry Potter series has established itself in the minds of the British youth, as well as the rest of the world, is the focus the New Labour party had presented during their election: “education, education, education” (27). With this a new era of literacy focus 40
and with the success and economic backup of the first Harry Potter movie The Philosopher’s Stone, they launched a new concept for the British schools – ‘Literacy hour’. The American company Coca-cola had chosen actor Daniel Radcliff as a spokesperson for this concept with catch phrase “You don’t need a messenger owl like Hedwig to get the message: READ!” (31) Furthermore, the company promised to donate ‘thousands’ of books to schools and library in the UK and ‘millions’ more around the world (30). Slowly but surely, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone made it to the top of “Booktrack” bestseller list. There were many reasons for the book's success. The Harry Potter story has been described as a work that, ”retells the familiar in an original way” (Eccleshare 2002, 8) In fact, the novel had all the right ingredients to attract children's attention; students can fly on broomsticks, owls deliver ones mail, the feeling of being different, prejudice, love, humour, the secret wish that one is special and that something out of the ordinary life awaits one. Rowling´s artistic phenomenon gave life to ”a seemingly never-to-be-satisfied market that cannot wait to hear what Harry Potter will do next”.( 14) This is also evident given the recent years with the opening of the “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” theme park in 2010. The popularity and demand for more Potter is clearly not singularly connected to the people of Britain. The marketing aspect of Harry Potter concept is one of the defining factors when speaking of the great success that the series has enjoyed. The brand of Harry Potter is associated with mystery, fun, magic and because of its positive connotation, the concept lives on. No dispute of world interest can be made and according to journalist Stephen Brown this can mainly be traced back to the fact that this is a well branded phenomenon, with loads of merchandise ready to attract consumer interest. Notwithstanding, the success of the series can be traced back to the fact that first and foremost it is a well written adventure (Brown 2005 - Harry Potter Brand Wizard)
“If Harry Potter is a hero of our times, it is chiefly because of his effect on children’s reading habits” (Blake 2002, 31). It is a series that celebrates a world without internet, television and game consoles. At Hogwarts all learning is achieved from books (pp. 36-39) “Reading, hearing and viewing Harry’s adventures, they will encounter a group of friends who read in order to act” (46). England today still connotes its old cultural values, but what the Harry Potter universe helped doing was putting these in context, so that the rest of the world could explore the magic as well. Although it is a literary work that has done immensely well within England, it has also 41
attracted a fan following across the entire world. Of course this could be a consequence of the support of world cooperation and the attention garnered from the Harry Potter movies, yet there is one profound truth about the story of Harry Potter. Harry is a young boy when he starts at the school and he does so as an unwritten leaf, on a clean slate. He is a boy interested in sports, adventures and a positive hero who always seems to pull through numerous trials with a little help from other colourful characters. Fans do not have to have grown up in an English school system to appreciate the concept of the book, they just have to have been children at some point or others in their lives.
4.3 Literary Techniques This section examines some of the literary techniques used in the Harry Potter volumes. In this concern, a brief introduction will be given to what literary techniques are and to the impact they might have on the audience of a literary work. More specifically, the characteristics of “typical” fantasy literature for children will be explored. Emphasis here is on the extent to which the Harry Potter books correspond to the hallmarks of fantasy literature. Whether by accident or design, fantasy literature is in many instances directed at or intended to influence young audiences. This being so, an examination of the Harry Potter series in the context of children's and young adult's literature will be made.
What is a Literary Technique?
The Italian literary critic, Professor Carla Benedetti defines a literary technique as everything that an artist or writer uses with particular artistic intentions (Benedetti 1999, 117-118.) This rather general stipulation is based in part on the studies of the so called Russian formalists (in particular Viktor Shklovsky) who viewed art as technique. (Shklovsky 1917) With this in mind, the definition of what a literary technique is can be is a rather broad one as it incorporates “anything from rhetorical figures, lexical facts (such as the use of archaisms), phonetic and rhythmic elements and methods of composition and plot construction among other things.” (Benedetti 1999, 117-118.) The broadness of this definition entails that a literary technique can just as easily be an omission or avoidance of a literary concept, much as it can be an inclusion of one. One could say that literary techniques are tools and methods that give meaning to writing. A 42
very simple example of a literary technique is alliteration; whereby the same letter or sound is repeated at the beginning of words that run adjacent to each other in a text. This section will discuss some of the more prevalent literary techniques inherent in J.K Rowling's writing. As the reader will soon establish, many of these techniques are not as overt nor as obvious as more basic, well-known writing techniques such as alliteration, mentioned above.
Literary Techniques in the Context of Fantastic Literature
The Harry Potter series is a quintessential epitome of fantasy literature. As such, it conforms to quite a few of the prevalent properties of the genre. This section provides a vague background to some of the most characteristic features of fantasy literature with the aim of aiding an understanding of the Harry Potter novels in the context of this genre. Fantasy literature is unique amongst literary genres insofar as it being readily accessible to both children and adults alike. This is precisely the case with the Potter books, which have managed to acquire worldwide appeal through all age groups in society despite them originally having been intended for children. By her own admission, J.K Rowling did indeed write the very first Harry Potter novel with children as her intended audience. However, contemporary literary criticism tends to assume that children's literature actually has two narrative levels as opposed to a singular one. What this essentially implies is that fantasy literature has a narrative level “addressed to the child and another addressed, often unconsciously to the adult behind or beside the child” 5The implication of this proposition is such that texts from the fantasy genre should always be analysed according to the aforementioned narrative levels. Whilst the narrative code for children is a lone entity, the narrative code for adults can decrypt children's code as well as its own. (Fenske 2008, 419.) As such, adult readers of fantasy literature can, by virtue of this, decode overlying events behind the foreground of the actual story. Whilst Rowling may not necessarily have intended that the Harry Potter books have such a wide appeal insofar as them reaching out to young and old audiences alike, the manner of her writing is such that she inadvertently appealed to “the child in every adult” rendering the literature readily accessible across all levels of society. Another common trait in fantasy literature and indeed of children's literature is that of the lack of an omniscient narrator who accounts for the storyline from a future point of view with 5
Nikolajeva, Maria: Children's literature comes of age : Toward a New Aesthetic, New York, London. Garland Publishing. 1966. 57-58
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picture-perfect hindsight. Instead, the story is told from a personal as well as focalised narrative, a technique that Cambridge professor Maria Nikolajeva terms “subjective realism.” (Nikolajeva 1996, 99-100) This entails a filtration of events and happenings from the point of view of the protagonist before they are presented to the reader. On many occasions, the author frequently indulges in hiding him or herself behind one of the protagonists’ perspectives. (99100) Hence, with regard to the Harry Potter literature, one could argue that Rowling's views are indeed those of Harry's. The readers therefore view events through Harry's eyes. As such the values and morals that Harry abides by are tainted more positively throughout the series, and likewise those values which he holds in foul regard receive a more negative portrayal. These are arguably Rowling's values too. A theory that holds some water when one considers the author's troubled past and indeed her own personal values that coincide quite well with those of her protagonist, Harry Potter.
4.3.3 Plot and Storyline The plot is of key importance to any piece of literature and naturally, different genres of literature have different plot characteristics. Certain television programmes and computer games aimed at children have successfully captured their audiences’ attention through weaving complex plots together. Children's literature however, contains simply structured plots with a candid cause-effect relationship (Nikolajeva 1996, 76). This being the case, successful children's novels are typically of a circular plot structure. In other words, the plot line follows a trajectory that looks as follows: home – departure from home, adventure, return home. (79) More specifically, the typical aim of the plots of children's literature is that of immersing the reader in the life and more importantly, the development of a central protagonist. In J.K Rowling's Harry Potter series, what one sees is a hero having to leave his ancestral surroundings and facing the perils and indeed the joys of interaction with situations, contexts and creatures that are unfamiliar to him. The reader is introduced to these situations, contexts and creatures through the eyes of the protagonist via the subjective realism technique described in the previous paragraph, thus gaining an appreciation and indeed a sense of empathy with the foreign nature of what Harry's departure from home is all about. One could argue that this sense of empathy is in fact heightened amongst younger readers who can more readily identify with Harry Potter, given that he is a role model of their own age, if not slightly older. Moreover, in contrast to their adult counterparts, children are
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nonchalant when it comes to improbable story lines, simple plots and a simple character scheme (Nikolajeva 1996, 114) In fact children evince “a need for stories of wish fulfilment, stories which provide compensatory and escapist reading.� (114.)
4.3.4 Character Scheme As works of fiction, the Harry Potter books are laden with highly improbable story lines which follow a simple plot structure and an easy-to follow character scheme. These attributes render them readily accessible to young readers. More profound reflection on the aforementioned attributes reveals a sort of duality if you like, insofar as the plot and character scheme being simple and complex and the same time. This is a somewhat contradictory proposition that requires some explanation. The character scheme is indeed easy to comprehend insofar as the existence of a set of main characters who live up to traditional and even stereotyped social roles. However, a more detailed glimpse into the Potter universe sheds light on a more complex character scheme within the main scheme. This is exemplified by the sheer number of characters and personalities in the Harry Potter series, many of whom lack central roles yet who all somehow contribute to the literature in some way or other. Additionally, whilst some characters fulfil certain stereotypes for a significant part of the series, their true personalities are in many instances revealed at some point or other, thus complicating the image the reader has of them. The most ardent example of this is Severus Snape, who after coming across as being evil and laden with ulterior intentions that could jeopardise Harry Potter's world, turns out to be one of the most important figures in the protection of Harry. The shift in how the reader perceives a character like Snape is in fact quite a common occurrence within the Potter literature. Other characters such as Neville Longbottom, Percy Weasley, the Malfoy family and even Albus Dumbledore all come across as living up to a certain set of stereotypes before certain key events in the course of the series literally shatter the perception and preconceptions the reader had of them. Hence, it is clear that whilst there is a rather clear and simple plot in the Harry Potter literature that captures the attention of younger readers, there is also a more complicated and overlying plot and subplots that grab the focus of more adult readers. The same duality can be said to exist with respect to the character scheme. This concurs with the positions concerning the narrative code in the Harry Potter series, made at the start of this section.
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Re-examining the character structure in the Potter literature, one is confronted with Harry Potter, an orphan and the protagonist of the series. A key fixture is the inventory of children's literature is in fact such a character, namely an orphan (Nikolajeva, 2002, 183-184). Closely related to the depiction of such an orphan is the description of parent substitutes who often take the form of a wise old wizard, as is the case in Tolkien's Gandalf or, in this case, Albus Dumbledore (189) .More parallels can be drawn up between Harry Potter's story and the typical traits of children's literature with respect to the depiction of a dangerous and scheming villain who is usually the first to set the plot in motion with his actions. Often when the child character faces a threat that is too great for him or her to face alone, an adult helper, frequently a powerful wizard such as the one depicted earlier in this paragraph appears, deus ex machina and saves the day (124). During the course of Harry Potter's life he faces numerous dangerous and at times seemingly insurmountable perils which he is incapable of facing alone. In many instances, he is forced to flee from these perils. In others, his mentor Dumbledore appears, deus ex machina to help him out. One final observation relating to the descriptions of characters in children's literature is that of male authors tending to turn active and independent girls into heroes, while female authors tend to show boys in battle against a villain (77-78). In the case of the Harry Potter literature, Rowling exemplifies this general assertion by depicting a boy in battle against a key villain, Lord Voldemort.
4.3.5 Themes Certain themes or motifs as it were can be said to be more appealing within the context of children's literature. Professor Nikolajeva cites several pivotal motifs in children's text. Brief examples of how these themes are depicted in the Harry Potter novels are given alongside the aforementioned themes: Arrival in a new home: Harry's departure from the Dursley's house on Privet drive and his arrival at Hogwarts and the Weasley's home, The Burrow. Both Hogwarts and The Burrow represent a new set of surroundings for Harry. The First and last day of school: The sorting ceremony at Hogwarts for all the new arrivals and the significance of this event for the wizard community. The closure of several of the books in the series coinciding with the closure of Hogwarts for the school holidays and the consequent embarkment by the students on the Hogwarts express. 46
Carnivalesque events such as Christmas and Halloween: Christmas at Hogwarts is depicted on several occasions throughout the Harry Potter novels. The exchange of gifts and spread of cheer is described quite candidly on all these examples. Quest motif : Harry Potter is the tale of a young man's pilgrimage to find his identity and his quest to share his values with the world around him. Journeys: The Harry Potter novels are in themselves a journey; Harry's journey through the process of his development. Apart from this, they are crammed with numerous actual and symbolic journeys; the journey to and from Hogwarts on the Hogwarts express, to name a more obvious trip. Surviving a threatening situation: Harry and his friends frequently have to survive threatening situations. Fighting Salazar Slytherin's basilisk in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, escaping from dementors and death eaters on numerous ocassions and facing Voldemort himself in Harry's case are all examples of perils that need to be survived. The battle between good and evil : The eternal battle between good and evil is elucidated throughout the Harry Potter novels. It is very much a case of Potter and the upright against the rest of the the unjust wizarding world. Unjust Stigmatisation and group exclusion of the child protagonist : Harry is born into a world that has already defined his role for him, by virtue of his status as “the boy who lived.� He is pursued and tormented for being who and what he is without having done anything to earn the stigmatisation that follows him through his life in the Potter novels. Relationships to teachers, siblings and parents: Rowling uses page upon page on describing relationship structures in the Potter novels. Harry has clearly stipulated relationships to teachers such as Snape, Dumbledore and Mc Gonagall. He has no siblings and he never knew his parents as they were killed shortly after his birth. His relationship to them is a process that takes place through others such as Professor Snape and his Godfather Sirius Black. Sleep, dream, unconsciousness: Harry's life is frequently depicted in dimensions other than the course of everyday life. His dreams are often troubled and Voldermort does in fact try to access Harry's life through his dreams. (Nikolajeva, 2002, 111, 202. Nikolajeva 1996, 163-194). Additional motifs have been identified by Deborah Cogan Thacker. They include: An old mentor introducing the protagonist to a magical world: Albus Dumbledore guides Harry through the magical world of Hogwarts and indeed comes to be a towering mentor for him. Hagrid is also an example of such a mentor. 47
Search for identity in strange social surroundings: Harry's identity is constantly questioned under different circumstances. Again, his past and status as an orphan are under the spotlight and he has to find meaning in the world around him in his own way, and not in the way that many of his peers do. Conflict with and subsequent rejection of an adult representative of the value system: Harry Potter and his friends frequently break rules at Hogwarts and within the wizarding world in order to survive. They overtly and knowingly reject the rules of the established value system. (Cogan-Thacker, Webb 2002, 110-112)
It is therefore evident that in her writing, J.K Rowling uses many of the techniques related to themes that appeal to children. Doing so aids the process of the reader gaining empathy and identifying with the Harry Potter literature.
4.3.6 Values When one examines the parallels between typical characteristics of children's literature and the Harry Potter novels as far as the transmission of values is concerned, it is evident that many properties of the genre are reflected in J.K Rowling's books. Children's literature aims to display the values and desirable tendencies of behaviour to a greater extent than many other genres. Children's texts thus represent first and foremost adult concepts of morality. (Musgrave 1985, 17) Children's parents, keen on moulding their sons and daughters after their image will therefore seek out literature that is beneficial and often non violent when it comes to choosing books for their kids. Emerging traits in the line of children's publishing show that in the recent decades, and in particular since the 1970's, modern children's texts now bear the responsibility of providing readers with a realistic view of the world in all aspects, even the negative ones (Cogan Thacker 2002, 112).
Rowling's Harry Potter series has been praised as well as criticised for its unambiguous content, which in addition to portraying extremely pleasant situations has also focused unashamedly on other less pleasant aspects of life such as death and even torture. This realist approach ties in with the post 70's tendencies described in the previous statement. Such an approach, whilst providing a realistic, no-nonsense interpretation of life that does away with
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petty pleasantries and fails to mask some of the more brutal elements of society has been crticized. Numerous Christian organisations, chiefly in the Bible-belt regions of The United States have outlawed Harry Potter literature, terming it violent and in many cases allying it with Satanic values. (14) For the most part however, Rowling's personal realism, is very much an asset in her inventory of literary techniques. A discussion pertaining to literary techniques would be incomplete without touching on how religion is portrayed in the world of Harry Potter literature. Children's literature frequently touch on the concept of morals and usually clearly define right and wrong in some way or other. Nevertheless, authors tend to refrain from any direct depictions of deity. (Nikolajeva 2002, 216.) Rowling steers clear of making any religious assertions in the Potter novels, which arguably reflects her own stance towards her opinion of God. In the British documentary, JK Rowling: A Year in the Life, when asked if she believed in God, she said, "Yes. I do struggle with it; I couldn't pretend that I'm not doubt-ridden about a lot of things and that would be one of them but I would say yes.� And whilst such an ambivalent position as regards religion comes across fairly clearly and consistently throughout the Harry Potter literature, Rowling's literature has undergone significant criticism from numerous religious institutions, as mentioned before. One can however conclude that an avoidance of religious depictions in her writing is another literary technique in Rowling's arsenal that contributes significantly to the success of the Harry Potter novels. Having established a definition of a literary technique being anything and everything that an artist uses with particular intentions, it becomes clear that a literary technique can be quite a few things. It can just as easily be an omission of a writing element much as it can be a specialised use of established tools of writing. In the case of the Harry Potter novels, one can argue that Rowling's lack of lofty writing; her avoidance of complicated sentence structures and the resulting simplicity of her texts therein is the key tool in her arsenal of writing techniques. Rowling wrote the Potter books with a children's audience in mind, and as such numerous parallels between the conventions and traits of successful texts for children and the Harry Potter books can be drawn up inasmuch as the portrayal of values, themes, character schemes and plot. Again, Rowling's avoidance of complication and her resulting faith in simplicity shines through as being pivotal in light of the success of her works. In similar vein, a realistic albeit graphic approach to writing that doesn't save young readers from the bare unpleasantries of life and ambiguity with respect to religious depictions can be said to be influential in explaining the reception the Potter novels have received worldwide.
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Whilst Rowling wrote Harry Potter for the child, she inadvertently, or knowingly, managed to access the adult world too, through appealing to the child persona in every adult or indeed through the parent whose child was absorbed in the Potter literature. This gives a sort of duality to the narrative structure of the Harry potter novels; one that is simple on one level and yet unwittingly complex on another more profound level. Lastly, Rowling's Harry Potter series is an extension of the values, morals, beliefs and so on of her own personality. A lack of an omniscient narrator and the filtration of ideas and events through the mind and eyes of the protagonist himself, Harry Potter through subjective realism is the literary technique that best allows for Rowling to fulfil her artistic intent, that of sharing her views with the rest of the world.
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5.0 Analysis: Harry Potter and Everyday Life When discussing of the appeal of the Harry Potter books, it is important to take into consideration the notions of values, themes and literary techniques used in the series. These different elements can be useful when the writer is to establish a connection with the reader. As mentioned before in 5.2, where focus was put on which literary techniques, Rowling uses her books to establish a relationship with the reader. This section will focus a great deal more, not on the deliberate methods, but on why people can relate so well with the books. We find this important because by analyzing this we will hopefully be able to later discuss what affect this connection has for the readers and how the Harry Potter universe might be a part of their lives. The Harry Potter universe is manifested in the genre of children’s literature and it is within this particular genre that we put a great deal of weight on how to convey values and different modes of behaviour (Fenske 2008, 425). The question is thus what these values might be? When reading through the Harry Potter series one quickly realizes that British cultural values shine through with emphasis on the English school story and other national traits. It will therefore be the purpose of this section to look into this matter, pinpointing this in the text and discussing if this might be the reason for its great success in British culture. And this is indeed the case, we intend to talk about why the readers are affected by the notions of Britishness in the series.
5.1 The English School Story and its Relation to the Harry Potter Series According to Thomas Arnold, developer of the English public school system, most school stories correspond to a clear and all-embracing schema. This content is quite frequently trivial and the event limited. The quote by Canon Raven (Theologian and Cambridge dean) summarizes the “recipe” for the English school story quite well: “Take a juvenile athlete as your chief ingredient; add a wit, a bully, a persecuted fag, an awkward scholar, a faithful friend, a dangerous rival, and a batch of disorientated pedagogues; mix these up in an atmosphere of genial romanticism; insert a smoking scandal, a fight, a cribbing scene and sundry rags, and a house match or two; bring them all to the boil when the hero scores the winning try or does the hat trick; serve the whole hot, and with a title associating the desk with an establishment which the intimated can identify; and the suburbs will raid the libraries for the result .” (Fenske 2008, 426). 51
Even though this quote is taken from a genre where the story is written in a world that doesn’t involve fantasy, it still matches a lot of scenes taken from within the very core of the Harry Potter universe. To make this clear we will with the help of Fenske draw some specific parallels between the standard English school story and the Harry Potter series. The oh-so-very English school story came out of the mid-nineteenth century and was an extremely successful genre for about a hundred years and thus sunk into the category of the outdated literature. Thomas Arnold was a figure in the development of the English public school and one of his corner stone’s in his school organization was to assign pupils into so called “houses”. Every house had a housemaster from the teaching staff and a prefect from among the pupils (Fenske 2008, 426). This is something that goes through the Potter books as well. We have the four houses at Hogwarts called Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Each of these houses has its own housemaster taken from the teaching staff and lead by a prefect from its own house (HP 1). Some reviewers like to describe the Harry Potter series as an exact replica of the “English school story” – particularly the first three volumes. The only distinction is that Potter deals with his own survival and that of his society. This is something that doesn’t occur in the traditional school story (441). According to one of the sharpest critics of the Harry Potter books, “Rowling has taken “Tom Brown’s School Days” and re-seen it in the magical mirror of Tolkien.” (Bloom 2000). If this is true, one might be so bold as to say that above all genres Harry Potter is first and foremost a school story. To demonstrate this, observe this passage taken from Fenske 2008, page 442, where common motifs of the school story are seen in the Harry Potter series: Harry is falsely suspected of being behind the attack on the schoolchildren, and is then ostracized and in the end triumphantly rehabilitated (Chamber of Secrets). There are sports competitions within the school, as with the annual awarding of the “Quidditch” trophy, but also with other wizard-schools such as at the Triwizard Tournament. Accidents happen in Potions class and at Quidditch again and again. Both Harry and Malfoy (Harry’s rival) with their respective peer groups stand in competition with one another. Harry rebels against his teacher Snape (HP 1, 151; HP 3, 389), Hermione against Professor Umbridge (HP 5, 268-269) and Professor Trelawney (HP 3, 119; HP 3, 322). Harry and Ron are often punished: e.g. with cleaning up the files at Argus Filch’s (HP 2, 137), by being made to go through the Forbidden Forest (HP 1, 269), and later, Harry is punished by Professor Umbridge (HP 5, 294-299). 52
Foreign students and headmasters visit Hogwarts. Cedric represents the death of a schoolmate. Snape and Umbridge are highly unfair and biased teachers. The school is full of underground dungeons (The Philosopher’s stone, Chamber of Secrets) and mysterious rooms such as the Room of Requirement. All of these elements and much more are something that the English school story and the Harry Potter series have in common. But besides these parallels the cast of characters of Harry Potter also seem to have something in common with the English school story. Harry is not a particularly good student, but he is an excellent Quidditch player. Dumbledore matches the benign dictator type. Hagrid is the unconventional teacher, who is normally represented by the sports teacher. Madam Pomfrey the nurse takes on the roles of the caring housekeeper. As usual with school stories where parents play a minor part, mothers like Mrs.Weasley are portrayed positively in the role of a housewife (Fenske 2008, 442). Another thing that is relevant to mention in this context is that Rowling somehow manages to include both the values of a mixed school, and thus makes it possible for many teenagers to relate to the series (Fenske 2008:443).
5.1.1 Sub-Conclusion It is clear from this small comparison that Hogwarts´ ideological system resembles that of the public school in the classic English school story. Thus, students are expected to participate in the house cup and moral as well as athletic strength are highly valued. Within the setting of Hogwarts and the world of the specifically English boarding school, the novels celebrate the very British way of life, just as the English school stories have always done (Fenske 2008, 443). But what does this mean in terms of appealing to the British people? The unusual connection of a school story with fantastic elements has created an opportunity for almost all readers to connect with the story. Because of the fact that Rowling combines the adventure story with the boarding school novels the texts´ content can speak to lovers of fantasy as well as of non-fantasy literature. Rowling does in fact portray wizards in entirely everyday situations and confronts them with trivial problems, such as cooking, housework, traveling and sports (Fenske 2008, 438). Even a master wizard like Dumbledore may speak of his toiletries (HP 4, 456). This is in contrast to Tolkien, who would never associate Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings, who is of the same position as Dumbledore is in Harry Potter,
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speaking about such basic subjects (Fenske 2008, 439). This factor combined with the aforementioned connection with the English boarding school systems makes it easy for the British readers to relate to the story, since they can share some of the same values and expectation from their own experience with school. Furthermore this School genre has been long loved by young adults and especially among young girls for decades (Fenske 2008, 448). Another factor in the success of the Harry Potter series is that the series appeal not only to children but also to adults (Fenske 2008, 447). This is probably due to the fact that adults can relate to and identify with the many themes portrayed in the series such as the very relatable matter of death and loss (Fenske 2008, 437). This only supports our hypothesis that the reason for the books' success in England and their appeal to the British population is anchored in the use of especially the English school story in which the children can relate to, and also inspires a feeling of national unity in both adults and children.
5.2 The Universal Appeal of the Harry Potter Series As aforementioned in point 5.3 the fascination of the books in British literature is possibly due to the books being anchored in the English school story. It is therefore clear to us that a native Briton could feel a special attachment to the books. It is even more likely that this connection could have an influence on the British reader’s everyday life. One thing that remains in the dark, however, is how the series have appealed to the rest of the world. If the values and themes are so firmly rooted in British culture what is it then that attracts readers from various cultures all around the world? As mentioned in point 4.2 the success of the series is undeniably great and can be observed on a global scale. This section will therefore investigate and analyze what elements in the books that might appeal to a broader audience and where one might see examples of this. The first thing this section would like to shed light on is how values within the field of democracy and human rights are portrayed in the series and how the author influences us through this. In short, what is right and wrong in context of the novels? And could this be a possible factor for its wide appeal?
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5.2.1 Democracy and Human Rights in Harry Potter The world of Harry Potter is a world of prejudice, inequality and racism. This is expressed through Voldemort’s ideology as much as, very subtly, in the official magical world (Fenske, 2008, 278) The ideology that Voldemort adheres to revolves around dividing people into “pure bloods”, “mudbloods” and “muggleborns”. According to him, only “purebloods” are entitled to membership in the magical society and people who are not of pure magical descent are “muggles;” despicable and outlaws with no rights in the magical community (278). In the Deathly Hallows Voldemort gains power and takes control over the Ministry of Magic. He introduces a legislation stripping all non “pure bloods” of their civil rights (HP 7, 172-173. This is a severe assault on basic human rights. Even Snape who used to collaborate with Voldemort admits when asked, “”Does it make a difference being a muggleborn?, Snape hesitated… “no”, he said, “It doesn’t make a difference!” (HP 7, 536). The point here is the hesitation, Snape really believes it makes no difference. The pure blood Malfoy family supports Voldemort’s ideology. Draco continuously insults Hermione because of her heritage, calling her a “filthy little mudblood” (HP 2, 123) and defames her as “impure and filthy”. He even goes so far as to say, “”But don’t touch my hand, now. I’ve just washed it you see, don’t want Mudblood sliming it up”” (HP 4, 327). But later on we see that Draco and his family realize that the ideology of Voldemort is flawed and we learn that he and his family are among the ones to suffer from Voldemort’s new order. The characters that the reader is most obviously supposed to sympathize with, such as Harry and Dumbledore, fight to destroy Voldemort and his radical ideology and discrimination. Even when facing death, Dumbledore still insists on the equality of all beings; Malfoy is surprised and asks: “”You care about me saying “mudbloods” when I’m about to kill you?” “Yes, I do” said Dumbledore” (HP 6, 551-552). Another character who stands in contrast to the Malfoys is Arthur Weasley. He studies the non-magical community and helps implement “Muggle” friendly legislation. His sympathizing with the Muggles has held him back at the ministry for years (Fenske, 2008, 280). The Minister for Magic, Fudge, thinks Weasley lacks proper wizardry pride (HP 4, 770). This actually points towards the fact that Fudge might be a bit of a racist himself raising the possibility that the magical community itself may also be racist. This shows that racism is right at the centre of the novels´ plots. It captivates the reader and questions the role of racism in 20th century history. The continued racism throughout the plot, both within the magic community but also in the “Muggle” world, could easily be a 55
reflection of some of the class prejudice we see, not only in Britain, but in the rest of the world. And therefore, we understand and relate to the problem. But what does all this mean? What is Rowling´s message? First of all the plot clearly demonstrates how absurd Voldemort’s racism is: Hermione a “muggle born” is able to defeat Voldemort (Fenske 2008, 287). We also realize how absurd Voldemort’s racial prejudice is, since he himself is in fact a “half-blood”. Even Snape who believes in racial differences had a “muggle” father (Rowling 2005, 594). The magical world is thus in no way an ideal world, and its basic core is characterized by “the same mentality that produces the evil racism, classism and sexism” which can be observed on a global basis (Houghton 2001, 86). Fenske states the following on page 288:
“Magical world reflects the reader’s reality with all its social, political and ideological deficits. We may consider the novel many layered avoidance of a black and white attitude to reality their main achievements.”
5.2.2 Friendship and Loyalty In this section we will move away from the theme of human rights, since they don’t deal with all aspects of society. There are values that have developed independently. Among these are friendship and loyalty which this section will focus on. In the Harry Potter books much emphasis is put on what makes a good and trustworthy friend, especially among the good and positive characters. This is exemplified by the kind of loyalty Hermione demonstrates in The Philosopher’s Stone when she is lying to a teacher in order to “save” Harry and Ron. It’s only after this that she is accepted into the group (Fenske 2008, 310). Betraying or neglecting another friend, on the other hand, is a sign of failure and evil. This is seen when Ron and Harry promise to help defend Buckbeak, when they simply forget to attend the hearing. They feel deeply ashamed when Hagrid says: “I thought you two value your friend more than broomsticks or rats. That’s all” (Rowling 1999: 297). The only character in the book who doesn’t seem to value or treasure friendship is Voldemort. “”Lord Voldemort has never had a friend, nor do I believe that he has ever wanted one”” (Rowling 2005, 260).
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Even though this much is obvious, Rowling does not idealize friendship. The books show us continuously that friends can quarrel and later on recover. Dumbledore seems to embody this thinking too:
“Ah Harry, how often this happens, when between the best of friends! Each of us believes that what he has to say is much more important than anything the other might have to contribute!” (Rowling 2005, 336)
Dumbledore also awards Neville with extra house points for having shown a great deal of bravery when standing up for his friends. Harals Thorsrud6 claims that the novels depict various types of friendship already described by Aristotle. These are: The useful friendship, the pleasure friendship and finally the true friendship (Fenske 2008, 311). The useful friendship is embodied by Voldemort and his followers. The death eaters follow him because they are afraid and they hope to improve their own status (311). This is something we can observe in another fantastic fictive work namely that of J.R.R Tolkien – The Fellowship of The Ring. Here, the negative character Saruman joins the evil Lord Sauron out of fear of being on the losing side, but also because he sees this as an opportunity to gain more power (J.R.R Tolkien – The Fellowship of the Ring 1956).
The second friendship is that which is portrayed in the relationship between Draco, Grabbe and Goyle. This is classified as the “pleasant” friendship: both sides like to have the other around. Draco appreciates their hero worship and Grabbe and Goyle like to associate with the nobility of Draco (Fenske 2008, 311). The last friendship is “true” friendship, which is unselfish and relies on feelings. This unites Ron, Hermione and Harry and it is vital for Harry in his defeat of Voldemort. Only with the help of friends can he defeat Voldemort.
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See Harald Thorsrud, ”Voldemorts Agents, Malfoys Cronies, and Hagrid’s Chumps: Friendship in Harry Potter“, Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle ran Hogwarts, edf. Baggett and Klein. Chicago, La Salle: Open Court, 2004, 38 - 48, 39; Bürvenich 2001, 115.
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When reading through the books it is clear that the major values in Harry Potter are loyalty, trust, faithfulness and reliability - values which we appreciate in our everyday life. These values are also the most important weapon in fighting the forces of darkness.
“[...]in the light of Voldemort’s return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust [...]” (HP 4, 784).
5.2.3 Love The last issue that will be approached in this chapter is love. This subject is one of the most crucial in the whole series. Furthermore it is something which is a great part of our human reality and everyday lives. Love is one of Rowling’s main issues in the books, and it is very clear that the emphasis on the motherly aspect of this is great. The biggest indicator of this mother-love is how Harry’s mother, Lily Potter, saves him by sacrificing her life for his:
“Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever.” (Rowling 1997, 321).
Harry is, unlike his opponent Voldemort, able to love. This is a gift that he disregards at first:
“You have a power that Voldemort has never had. You can – “”I Know!” said Harry impatiently. “I can love!” It was only with difficulty that he stopped himself adding, “Big deal!” (Rowling 2005, 476-477)
Only in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows do we finally see the importance of this ability to love. Harry overcomes his fear of death because he loves his friends. He is willing to die to save them, and this action protects him from Voldemort (Rowling 2007, 591). This action can in many ways be compared to that of Jesus Christ who sacrificed his life to save mankind.
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This paper will in no way state that the Harry Potter series is a reflection of the Bible, but this mirroring of the greatest act of love is something we can relate to, partly because we have heard about this in religion. We learn through these examples that everything is possible through love. Moreover, it indicates that mostly any decision made out of love is right and will reward you. Harry’s sacrifice for love grants him the opportunity to go back to his peers and finish his job. Rowling’s message of love is not only limited to her positive characters. Even Voldemort’s followers are able to feel and show love. Narcissa Malfoy loves her son Draco as ardently as Lily Potter loves Harry (Rowling 2005, 38). This is vital in terms of looking at what Rowling defines as right and wrong. It seems that the “bad” characters can show surprising aspects of themselves and be redeemed, especially through acts of love. It also points towards the assumption that all is lost without love. Voldemort´s mother, Merope, stands in contrast to Lily, Narcissa and Molly Weasley who are all willing to fight for their children. Merope dies because she loses hope. Being left by Tom’s father she gives up on herself and in doing so her motherly love for her son as well. Love is the initial point for everything that happens in the Potter series. Merope’s denial of love to her son is the basis for Tom’s career as “Dark Lord”. Lily Potter’s self sacrifice protects her son and marks him the chosen one (or, the Messiah) (Fenske 2008, 361). It is ultimately “love” that defeats Voldemort’s hatred and barbarity.
5.2.4 Sub-Conclusion Even though most of the values, themes and issues found in the Harry Potter series may be British, they still appeal to many other cultures. The aforementioned issues such as democracy, human rights, racism, equality, friendship, loyalty and love can be found almost anywhere in the world. It is fair to say that the series withholds morals that most people would strive to live after. This accounts for much of the success of the books. The relatable themes and issues of the universe in Harry Potter give the reader something to hold on to and to reflect upon. It might even be something that one could integrate and take into an everyday life basis.
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6.0 Analysis: The Paradox of Fiction in Everyday Life The Paradox of Fiction can be observed in most people‘s everyday life. Many examples could be mentioned; people live this paradox all the time. As little children, people engage in makebelief games with their parents or their friends; as teenagers and adults they read books, watch movies and attend plays. It brings up the question, “how can we have F-emotions (Fictional emotions) when we know that- in the sense that we are occurrently aware that, or are attending to the fact that- the objects of our responses are fictional?”(Todd 2009, 1). Fantastic fiction has a huge impact on everyday life when it comes to make-belief games, quasi-emotions and just paradox of fiction in general. Imagination is another point that gets highly influenced by fantastic fiction. C. Todd discusses the main problem in his paper Imaginative Acceptance and Attending Emotionally to Fiction. He aims to prove that there are similarities between practical reasoning and engagement with fiction. In his paper he states: “Tamar Gendler contends that our capacity to respond with genuine emotions to merely imaginary stimuli is a fundamental part of our cognitive architecture” (2). Walton has also noted in his book that make-belief games help people to develop by allowing them to achieve and live through something they could not in their regular lives. Gendler notes Antonio Damasio's research,“which appears to demonstrate that practical reasoning tasks involving imagined scenarios concerning our own future decisions and actions is successful only insofar as it essentially involves somatically encoded emotional responses.” (2). Paul Harris, as Todd wrote, even claims that,
“Had we not evolved a decision-making system in which the contemplation of possible lives and possible features engaged our emotions at a somatic level, we would be less prone to spend as many hours as we do absorb in fictional worlds.” (7)
The paradox of fiction could also be seen by how it involves us into fiction. Bratman's suggestion in general is that, an agent's belief's provide the default cognitive background for further deliberation and planning (where) practical reasoning admits of adjustments to this default cognitive background, adjustments in what one takes for granted in the specific practical context.” (8).
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When it comes to the paradox, it could be explained that the reasons as to why people develop quasi-emotions towards fictional characters differ. For that reason people also have different favorite characters- one might love Harry Potter or Ginny Weasley, while another one might be fascinated by Bellatrix Lestrange or Severus Snape. However, it does not mean that the first one is a good person for liking the “positive” characters, and the other one is a possible criminal for liking the “bad guys” in fiction. Additionally, such likings also differ because of different backgrounds and people tend either to like what is close to what they have now or what they want to discover. Todd concludes that “fiction emotionally involves us only insofar as it draws on relevant aspects of familiar reality”. (8).
Make-belief games can often be seen in one’s childhood, one of the examples being the mentioned mud pies game. During such activities, a child also sets the make-believe truths (as one could not perform a proper make-believe game without those) and use toys as the props for his or her games. For example, a girl is playing with her Barbie dolls and her friend is playing with car toys. Without realizing this, they are setting up the make-belief game with all the additions cited below: 1) They imagine and set up stories and the plot of their game 2) They use dolls and cars as their props in order to act out the plot 3) They make up certain fictional truths, such as the dolls and cars actually being real beings as opposed to inanimate plastic objects Walton also adds that toys or props help children and people in general to follow the plot thoroughly without it floating away. In some sense, it works as a script for writers. Also, when it comes to make-believe games, David Velleman argues that,
“In order to enter into the fiction, the child would have to act it out; and in order to act it out... he would have to act out of imagining it, not out of a desire to represent it in action. A child who was motivated by such a desire would remain securely outside the fiction, thinking about it as such- that is, as a fiction to be enacted.” (Todd 2009, 6)
It must be noted that this quote is relevant not only in child's play, it could also be applied to adults who emotionally engage with fiction and develop quasi-emotions to it. Additionally, while playing such games, children also use the quasi-emotions. 61
For example, the girl imagines that her “baby” (a plastic baby doll) says the first words; thus, she laughs and feels happy about this. In truth, she realizes that while the baby is not real and the first words are probably either coming from a mechanics box inside the doll, or it is what she said while pretending to be a baby. However, it could be noted that often children's emotions and quasi-emotions go hand in hand; there are times when children are genuinely scared of or happy for what actually does not exist. The child might not be really scared of his father pretending to be a monster and chasing after him (instead, the child will show the quasi-emotions; it will feel rather scared, but at the same time, it will know that “the monster” is his father), but the child might get truly scared about a monster, which is created by his imagination or is coming from something a child read or was read to (for example, a big scary wolf from The Little Red Riding Hood) and is “hiding in a closet” or “under the bed”. Thus, the child will more likely run for help and feel genuinely scared in the second case, as the imaginary monster is something unknown and something that the child believes to be truly real. Nevertheless, such make-belief games are important to child's development- their imagination evolves due to this and they gain a better understanding of the world without having to face stern, real-life consequences. As stated previously in “The Paradox of Fiction” chapter, makebelieve games allow everyone to at least get a chance to pretend to be someone else. Walton claims that “The divergence between fictionality and truth spares us the pain and suffering we would have to expect in the real world.” (Walton 1990, 68). However, Roland Barthes argues that, “the children’s toys seem increasingly to replicate adult reality for, as a result, “the child can only identify himself as owner, as user, never as a creator”” (Armitt 1996, 4). In addition, when it comes to make-believe and children's games, it is crucial to note the influence of fantastic fiction in a child's life. Considering the previous argument by Barthes, that children cannot identify themselves as the creators, it could be suggested that they are not only replicating adult reality, they are also replicating the stories they like.
When it comes to teenagers and adults, the make-believe games take on a different perspective. The paradox of fiction is still very present in a teenager's everyday life, considering that their emotional state can be much less stable than that of an adult. One might even say that the paradox of fiction helps teenagers to go though the rougher period of their lives. However, at this point another theory can be applied. In addition to make-believe games: quasi-emotions are sometimes much more present in a teenager's life than in a child's 62
life. Instead of playing with dolls, teenagers, in particular girls, tend to read a lot of books, while boys tend to start playing games on gaming consoles. The author of young adult novels, Gail Giles, claims that,
“YA (Young Adult) writers are serving today’s teens a bit like the Brothers Grimm served generations of younger readers. We show our readers the dark woods in hope that they won’t venture into them.” (Giles 2003)
This statement can also be referred to the one that Kendall Walton wrote in his Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts book- “Make-believe provides the experience- something like it anyway- for free.”(Walton 1990,68) and “We realize some of the benefits of hard experience without having to undergo it.” (68). Thus, it could be stated that the paradox of fiction, in some sense, helps people to venture out into their emotions and, more importantly, might teach them a lesson. The Harry Potter series highlights such lessons and important qualities: friendship, loyalty, bravery, family, trust and selflessness. People tend to develop quasi-emotions to Harry Potter series easily not only because of these traits. While Harry is a hero, he is still a regular boy, who has both good and bad qualities. This likeness to any other human makes it easier for readers to develop the emotions. The make-believe in everyday life begins once a person starts engaging in any type of activities that revolve around fantasy and imagination. An example of this could be roleplaying games that are being practiced both in the real world and on the Internet. Even though this activity is popular mostly among teenagers, some adults practice it too. Such people (commonly known as role-players) tend to create their own characters (either original or already existing ones- such as characters from “Harry Potter” series) and act out certain scenes from books, movies or even games. This must not be mistaken with actors; even though they do engage in make-believe games on stages or in front of cameras, role-players engage in such games during their free time and consider it not as a job, but more like a way of spending free time. Another example of make-believe games can be flash mob events. While these occurences are not entirely based on books like role-playing games are, flash mob events do evolve around engaging in make-believe games. However, it must be noted that while such people play make-believe games, the ones, who watch it, are not to be considered participants- most of the time they are just onlookers. 63
Walton's understanding of onlookers is that: “Onlookers, observing the game from without, do not think of themselves as subjects to its rules” (Walton 1990:209). While people watch roleplayers or people in certain kind of flash mob perform, they do not engage in the action completely; most of them just stare, take pictures or film the event. It could be guessed that at some point they do develop quasi-emotions to the characters they see in front of them (not to the people themselves) This usually happens if these characters are from books they read or movies they saw. An example of the previously mentioned flash mob occurrence is that of a flash mob performance at New York's Grand Station, where “Death Eaters” and “Voldemort himself” tortured an innocent person. Most of the people stopped by to watch the show, some filmed and took pictures of it. One could suppose that at certain point they might have developed quasi-emotions towards someone who played Voldemort. They might have felt hate for the character, they might have slightly feared him and his looks, but they did not feel direct emotions, as they, at the same time, realized that it was only an act. The same goes when a person is watching a movie (for example, one of Harry Potter movies); the person might develop hate for protagonists such as Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy or Voldemort himself, but it does not mean that he or she, after finishing the movie, will hate the actors who portrayed these characters. When it comes to adults, the paradox of fiction becomes much more different in their everyday lives than it used to be in their childhood or teenage years. Adults do not engage in typical make-believe games as much, but their quasi-emotions remain, as they are still attending plays, watching movies or reading books.
One of the best examples to describe this paradox in everyday life is the example of Charles and the green slime. As mentioned previously in the “Paradox of Fiction” chapter, Charles is watching a movie and he sees a big, green slime coming towards him. He experiences quasiemotions (quasi-fear in particular), he engages in make-believe by believing in its truths. Charles' fear is initiated by “his awareness of his quasi-fear sensations. He is simply disposed to think of himself as fearing the slime, without deciding to do so.”(Walton 1978, 16). When it comes to the children and mud pies example, it could also be applied: while the child sees a glob of mud in front of him, he imagines it to be a pie, but not mud; however, the child does not need to remind himself that and he sees a glob of pie without saying “This is not mud, this is pie” to himself. Another example of this could also be taken from reading fiction literature: while visualizing it is slightly harder when the book is picture-less, a person still does not need to remind 64
himself that whatever he imagines is not actually real. In such cases, it could be said that (using Charles and the green slime as the example):
“Charles's tendency to imagine himself afraid of the slime when he finds himself in the relevant mental state constitutes persuasive grounds for attributing to him acceptance of a principle whereby his experience makes it make-believe that he is afraid.” (Walton 1978, 16)
While paradox of fiction does play an important and positive role, there are also negative aspects associated with it. Engaging in make-believe games too often might result into reality getting changed to the point where the person prefers staying in his make-believe world instead of the real one. Often, such things are called simply “fanaticism.” Examples among Harry Potter fans can be found. It is easy to find many pages on the internet full of people who love the series about a scarred boy. While it is normal to some extent, some fans go as far as getting tattoos connected to Harry Potter tattooed on their bodies or pretend to be characters from the books most of the time. Quite a few people expressed their quasiemotions and belief in make-believe truths by crying over the deaths of Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore of Fred Weasley and cheered when Voldemort or Bellatrix Lestrange drew their final breath. Most of these people realized that these characters were fictional, and some fans who claimed to be there from the very beginning, possibly crossed the fine line between quasi-emotions and real emotions by starting to believe that all these characters actually existed in real life. The Paradox of Fiction can be spotted in numerous situations in everyday life. While watching a movie, people develop emotions to it and cheer when the bad guy is killed or struggle when the good guy is in danger. It becomes much more personal while reading books or listening to songs, as the person gets a chance to imagine everything on his own and be his “own director”. A lot of philosophers have been struggling with a proper and completely clear explanation as to why people develop such emotions, but one of the main possibilities as to why they do it could be that people need escapism and are naturally curious. Thus the paradox of fiction is what helps people to fulfil the need for both without making drastic changes in life.
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7.0 Discussion: The Significance and Impact of Fantastic Fiction In the year 1492 A.D. the world expanded with a discovery of an entirely new world named America. The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus travelled under a Spanish flag in search of Asia and instead he found a lost Eden filled with a foreign people unknown to Europe. A new world, with unfamiliar animals, foods and foliage was introduced to the minds of Europeans of the time. The discovery of the continent of America was one of the last great explorations that made a significant impact upon our perception of the world and though this has in some ways limited exploration of reality since our mind still has possibilities for experiencing a kind of expansion.
For ages we have investigated our own mental capacities and relation to reality and the culture and society that surrounds us e.g. with cave engravings, epic poems, or pop-cultural novels, exploring both fictional stories and what we consider to be the history of our reality. As stated in chapter 2.0 fantastic fiction gives us freedom and provides us with the possibilities of reviewing our own reality and gain perspective. Though a fantastic fictional world does not manifest itself in the same way as the real world does to us, a piece of literary fiction has the ability to create an ever expanding world to the reader. It seems that we often fear the unknown, however, we are also fascinated by it. We are drawn towards world discoveries and mythical realms such as Troy or Atlantis, and this attraction towards what is unfamiliar to us might have been a large influence when it comes to the developments in the last fifty years. It is plausible to assume that the fact that we are leaving for outer space nowadays is a result of our curiosity. Yet not everyone has the means nor the possibilities to travel into space or explore the Amazon. Fantasy is a journey that anyone can choose to embark on and this is one way that we might satisfy our thirst for the unfamiliar. But why are we attracted towards or curious about what we do not know?
If we look at it from a primitive perspective one could imagine that curiosity is a sort of survival mechanism, an instinct which serves to make us gain experience, as knowing about the world is a prerequisite for survival. From a more social or cultural aspect engaging in fiction is not only a pleasurable way to spend one’s leisure time but also a practice in dealing with social relations and figuring out one’s relation to the world via a fictional universe. In this way fiction can be said to develop mental capacities as the reader employs his
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imagination to create a version of the fictional universe in his mind – a universe in which he engages in the activities and problems of the characters that we can identify with in our own experience. To some degree when getting involved in these relatable yet fictional issues in a fantastic universe detached from our own reality, the reader rehearses dealing with problems that their might experience themselves (section 2.4.3). Through fiction we are introduced to worlds that in many aspects are like the ones we live in, but fantastic fiction has the ability to transfer problematic issues of reality into a safe environment, to a point that gives the opportunity for reflection for the reader. We identify with the heroes, villains and other secondary characters and the trials they are experiencing (section 2.4.3). Through fiction we have the chance to follow a choice in a given situation and experience the consequences without having to suffer from them ourselves. This is perhaps also the appeal of fiction, since it takes realistic situations that deal with values, choices, ambitions, etc. and makes them approachable for the reader by placing them in an exciting and unfamiliar yet non-threatening environment. The fictional universe is to a larger extent co-determined by the reader’s own mind activity which invites the reader to become cocreator of the fictional universe. This is also a testament to the individual aspect of fiction. What a person finds intriguing and relevant for one’s life is an individual affair as is how much the plot and characters influence state of mind activity. This is the way in which fiction appeals to the individual as it invites the reader into a universe that offers stimulation and inspiration whilst activating the reader to fantasize and in this way co-construct and experience autonomy. So fiction works in a particular way on the individual level, but how has the Harry Potteruniverse come to appeal to such a wide world audience? As we have discovered throughout this project the Harry Potter universe unfolds upon a delicate balance between the familiar and the unknown. As stated in section 5.1 the reader is introduced to two unfamiliar worlds and cultures combined in the literary universe: the non-magical/”muggle” world and the magical world. This requires an elaborate and intelligent presentation of these cultures for the reader, especially for someone entirely unfamiliar to the British culture, and it in turn heightens the level of complexity. The use of literary techniques are employed with relatable modern characters and this is combined with old English traditions connoted with English virtues of the past; traditions, loyalty, honour and heroism. In this way the series signal very strongly that they come from a specific cultural point of departure.
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The English boarding school system is a vantage point for the structure of the novels as the course of the school year frames the plot of each novel, with the Deathly Hallows as the only exception. When we read we are presented with the features of this particular everyday setting, the specific characteristics of this school system, as explained in section 5.1. Consequently, the theme of everyday life plays a central role to the plot of the novels. The theme of everyday life is exemplified both generally in the characters’ course of experiences and events but also specifically in the particular setting of the British school. This adds another dimension to the story as the reader can identify with general everyday elements whilst being familiarized with a specific cultural environment. This might also be a determining factor in making the series accessible on multiple levels; when we read, different features, characters, values, themes etc. stand out to us and we have the possibility of either identifying with these or experience how we feel different from them. This exemplifies a variety of ways in which one can relate to the world and it shows how the world and our position in it, is not a static condition but a dynamic interplay of relations. One could also suggest dynamism as a feature that we seek when we open a book. We want to be stimulated. This is again connected to our attraction towards the unknown. However as mentioned previously in this section we often have ambiguous feelings towards the unfamiliar as the attraction is often accompanied by insecurity. We need stability as well. The Harry Potter series have a specific method of maintaining this balance or proportion between the familiar and the unfamiliar. As mentioned in section 4.2, J.K. Rowling has managed to produce a piece of literature that presents the familiar in an original way.
The plot is structured around everyday life as such, general as well as specific, familiar and relatable as well as unfamiliar to us. The theme of everyday life is employed as an anchor or a set reference point for the reader. The most obvious characteristic of the concept of everyday is the cycle – the routine, the recurrent events and the themes and issues that we come across in our day-to-day experiences; getting up, getting dressed, eating breakfast, attending classes or working, doing homework and so on. Everyday life is in this sense the ultimate embodiment of familiarity. We know what is going to happen because in a sense we all plan and organize our time around this cycle. And it is this concept of everyday almost becomes a mechanism in itself in the novels as it structures the plot and offers a distinct sense of security and a guarantee that if we do not identify completely with the characters we can at least relate to what they are going through. This increases the complexity of the novels as the reader continuously follows two strands of narration: the course of everyday life and dealing with 68
more or less trivial problems and events, and the underlying mystery accumulating tension and excitement throughout the storyline. In this respect the novels bear resemblance to crime novels as the reader is gradually provided with clues and included in the true state of affairs. This use of delayed decoding is also employed to a high degree in terms of the characters; most significant in this respect is the character of Severus Snape, whose true motives and motivation are only known in the very end of the series. He appears to be a villain, but delicately it is hinted throughout the story that his character is not so one-dimensional, but rather nuanced and deepened by a ‘higher purpose’ unknown to the reader.
So it appears that even though the Harry Potter series envelop the reader in a fantastical universe that seems so far from our own the differences between the world we know and the fictional magical one might not be as great as we expect. The reader might not even be aware that this strong direction of the course of everyday life that can operate as a mechanism that helps the reader to orient himself in the otherwise chaotic fictional universe. And that this in turn can serve as a practice in the dynamic reality that we experience ourselves outside the fictional frame. This also heightens the level of complexity. The fact that the novels have a structure fixed enough to experience stability whilst maintaining the appetite for more when this structure is strategically broken for dramatic effect might be a contributing factor to the success of the series. J.K. Rowling has a remarkable ability to satisfy our expectations but at the same time keeping the story intriguingly unpredictable. Delayed decoding is one of the main techniques employed to evoke this effect throughout each individual novel as well as the entire series as a whole.
In the point 5.2 a vital point is made about the influence of not just Harry Potter but many types of popular works. We speak of the decoding of the literary text, which Fenske argues is explicit in the books of Harry Potter. The series are imaginative and filled with silly side stories accessible and entertaining for children, but in the relationships between the characters there is a dynamic for adults as well. One could argue that children are inclined to ask, when the protagonist is challenged with a situation or moral dispute, “what will he/she do next?” where adults would also consider the question “What would I do myself?”.
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Thus a child who has read the Harry Potter series might experience them in a noticeably different way as an adult.
“Whilst Rowling wrote Harry Potter for the child, she inadvertently or knowingly managed to access the adult world too, through appealing to the child persona in every adult or indeed through the parent whose child was absorbed in the Potter literature. This gives a sort of duality to the narrative structure of the Harry Potter novels; one that is simple on one level and yet unwittingly complex on another more profound level.” (from section 4.3.6)
From this is follows that it does not necessarily to make sense to divide literature into clearcut categorizations of either adult or children’s’ literature, at least in the sense that it should not be devalued, simply because it also is approachable for children. There is a different between labelling something as childish, which has somewhat negative connotations, and suitable for children, so stating that Harry Potter is a children’s book tells us nothing about the content nor the value of its significance for or impact on either adults or children. J.K. Rowling has, in the Harry Potter series, incorporated intricate philosophical themes of life and death which are mysteries to children as well as adults and she has made these themes accessible to the both of these audiences (section 4.3.6). The series does seem to have educative features, as a lot of fantastic fiction does, in the way that the reader is presented with themes such as what is good and evil, but this is done without lecturing. The interpretation is kept open for the reader. No specific ideologies, religions or deities that we know from outside the fictional universe are mentioned (section 4.3.6).This ensures the possibility of the series to appeal to a wide audience. Realistic aspects of life are portrayed, pleasant as well as unpleasant. The reader is directed or coached as we follow Harry, experience his strong sense of justice, and therefore most naturally side with him and usually agree with his opinions and approve of his terminal choices. We are presented with topics of discrimination, human rights, democracy, friendship, loyalty, and love, and via Harry the reader’s own sense of justice is stimulated (section 5.2).
In connection to the success of the Harry Potter series we have discussed the depiction of the school system. In section 4.2 it is stated that Andrew Blake argues that the school system of Britain was declining in terms of success to educate and inspire youngsters to read and that the Harry Potter series changed this fact. This is an example of how fiction can have a direct 70
impact on a culture. Whether or not the Harry Potter series has had a direct influence on the educational system in a sustainable way is difficult to state, but the British Labour party nevertheless chose the series as a representative for the literacy movement of England. The popularity of the series only seems to have expanded since the final movie has premiered. Public awareness is important and if young people get the perception that reading is an appealing activity and if this message is spread when children in turn watch each other becoming absorbed in the magical universe it is possible to speculate that the Harry Potter series have contributed to this movement of literacy in England.
What fiction does to us and for us is something profound. Children experience it from an early state of age. In an idealistic sense it makes us question the world that is and how it could be. Fantastic fiction gives us the tools to share our visions, fears and suggestions for alternative way of organizing the world. This is what O’Keefe means when she describes fantastic fiction as a liberation into something (see section 2.4.3). Additionally it stimulates us to learn. It gives us practice in relating into other individuals’ situations and conditions in life. It makes us able to relate, empathize and connect with characters that might seem alien and fictional to one individual, but realistic and part of everyday life to another. The Harry Potter series and the success that it has received can on some level be said to be a testament of our time. The fact that they have received such massive attention tells us something about ourselves; what we dream about and what mystifies us, what we are curious about and ultimately how we prefer to satisfy this curiosity. The Harry Potter universe is an opportunity to explore ones curiosity and it seems that a widespread and expansive community of people around the world has found the stories about the young dark-haired orphaned wizard captivating and satisfactory when it comes to exploring this curiosity about the world and our place in it. The success of the Harry Potter books is a testament to our culture although it is difficult to conclude exactly what it can tell us about ourselves. During this project the impact of fantastic fiction has manifested itself in various ways. On an individual, social and cultural level and what is truly fascinating about the Harry Potter universe is how it has managed to influence these three distinct levels. But an intriguing questions remains: will it manage to pass the test of time? “All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time” (Ruskin, 1891)7. 7
John Ruskin: The Works of John Ruskin (1891) http://www.cambridge.org/​us/knowledge/features/​featureitem/item5945404/​?site_locale=en_US
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It does seem that fiction has the ability to define or describe aspects of reality and this is how we can see how fiction directly affects everyday life, as specific authors and works of literature can practically become synonyms of and age and a culture. Shakespeare can be considered a synonym for the English renaissance drama, Charles Dickens the Victorian age, and Tolkien redefined fantastic fiction. How will the fictional world of Harry Potter have any substantial meaning for future readers or is it a phenomenon that strictly appeals to our specific cultural era?
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8.0 A Final Discussion – Philosophy in Literature As we have already mentioned, the interaction between philosophy and fantastic literature plays an important role in this project. In our previous discussions we have noted some philosophically interesting questions raised by fantastic literature; now we wish to go in the reverse direction and argue that philosophy itself often makes use of the devices of fantastic fiction.
In this final discussion we felt a need to converse a bit about how literature and philosophy is intertwined in fantasy. Through our working process with this project it has become evident for us that literature and philosophy work hand in hand especially via the fantastic elements. Thus, this section will focus on how fantastic literature can be a mediator between everyday life and the mind. We will also discuss if and how people tend to put their dreams and hopes into fantastic fiction, in so doing making fantasy function as some sort of reflection of their needs. The function of fantastic fiction, or any form of fiction, is in many ways a tool for giving the mind a free space, where it can convey and develop dreams and hopes without worrying about the norms of the real life. This idea is something that is used over and over again, not only in the Harry Potter universe, but also in several other books and movies. For example in The Neverending Story (Die Unendliche Geschichte) written by Michael Ende, we see an example of a story taking place in a parallel world (like in Harry Potter) called Fantasia (Phantásien in the original German version). This is a world that is being destroyed by The Nothing, which represents and constitutes people’s lack of imagination in the real world. At some point our hero of the story, called Atreyu, confronts the servant of the nothing, named G’mork, and they discuss what Fantasia represents and what is destroying it.
“G’mork: Foolish boy. Don't you know anything about Fantasia? It's the world of human fantasy. Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries. Atreyu: But why is Fantasia dying then?
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G’mork: Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So the nothing grows stronger. Atreyu: What is the nothing?! G’mork: It's the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it.”8
In this conversation we learn how fantasia reflects the human mind, and that it can only survive as long as we keep dreaming and hoping. This is something that we find in many fantastic movies and books and it is also something that can be compared to Anthroposophist thought. Anthroposophy is a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner. It claims the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development. To be more specific, it aims to develop abilities of perceptive imagination, inspiration and intuition through a form of thinking which is independent to the experience that picked up by one’s senses. It stands in contrast to natural sciences, in which investigations are anchored in the physical world. In short this philosophy tries to shed light on the phenomena of human soul life and to spiritual experiences (McDermott, pp. 3–11, 392–5). When one reads through the aforementioned quote from The Neverending Story it becomes clear that this piece of fantastic fiction is a perfect example in representing this philosophy. It shows how human soul life and reality can be perceived as one reality merged together.
Thus, this example shows how a philosophy can be conveyed through a fictional work, and maybe in a way that is more comprehensible to understand than if one were to read it from the direct source. This leads us to the discussion if fantastic fiction actually serves multiple purposes when affecting our daily living and understanding of this. Fantastic fiction can be, as we learned throughout this project, a means for learning. In section 5.2 we learned that if the fictional work can establish a connection with the reader, through relatable themes of value, then we can actually as a reader learn a lot about friendships, good and evil and life and death. 8
Screenplay script by Wolfgang Peterson, 1984 The Neverending Story: http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Neverending-Story,-The.html
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This is, especially for children, an important tool for later development. If a story anchored in the world of fantasy can inspire thoughts of philosophy and learning tools for social life, it must in some way be a part of the everyday. Via the presentation of a specific thought universe depicted in the piece of fantastic literature, one learns the process of becoming acquainted with different thought patterns which is in itself a practice in philosophical thinking.
Fantastic fiction is in many ways a different approach to philosophical methods. In philosophy it often happens that an extreme example will be used for getting a point across. These examples are called intuitions pumps. An intuition pump can for instance be Descarte's example of the evil demon. René Descartes hypothesizes the existence of an evil demon, an epitome who is “as clever and deceitful as he is powerful”. This demon tries to mislead Descartes, by presenting an illusion of an external world, including other people, to Descartes’ senses, where in fact there is no such external world in real existence. The evil demon also presents to Descartes senses that his body is in fact an illusion, including his sense of the world around him. This example is something we know today in the more modern sense of being Brains in Vats. It is the same basic idea of thought experiment intended to draw out certain aspects of our ideas of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, and meaning (Kwame 2003, 52). It shares the same core idea which many science fiction stories do. The typical example is a situation where a mad scientist will remove the brain from the body and put it in a vat, connecting it with wires and control and upload thoughts from a computer to it. This supercomputer will then feed the brain with electrical impulses similar to that of the brain. According to these kinds of stories the computer will then be simulating a reality and the person with the “disembodied” brain would continue to have a perfectly normal conscious reality, but without these being related to objects or events that take place in the real world.
A science fiction story that most people know is the story of The Matrix. The Matrix is a computer generated world which simulates the world as we know it. It is inhabited by humans but as an illusion. The real human beings are in reality stored away in vats by the machine, but with their minds and thoughts in the world of the Matrix. The Matrix is constructed in such a way that when you think that you eat or drink the computer will feed the brain with information which tells you that the steak is juicy or the orange juice is fresh. But these electrical artificial impulses are so strong that if the mind dies in the Matrix so wills the body in the real world. 75
This example shows how science fiction stories can process the aforementioned philosophy. Our argument is that fantastic fiction can have the same function. It is, as science fiction, an extreme example which can break down an idea into different conceptions. In this way one could argue for fantastic fiction being a tool of de-familiarization. It thus takes a concept into a different context, this context being the fantastic world, away from reality and shows it in an entirely different light, allowing people to understand it on different terms. Fantastic literature is in this understanding a device for appropriating the process of philosophical thinking. It is not striving to conclude anything, but merely motivating the reader to think, thus making it about the process and not the conclusion.
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9.0 Conclusion
In this project we have investigated the function of fantastic fiction and the impact that this might have upon everyday life and consequently on the individual reader. Fantastic fiction has many positive functions. One of the most commonly known functions is that it allows the reader to practice escapism and develop his or her imagination. Escapism is a great way to be entertained and distract one’s mind away from trivial matters of everyday life; however, escapism can also be dangerously seductive. The reader might become so attracted to the fictional universe that a feeling of discrepancy is generated when the reader’s own life does not measure up to the fictional universe. This is one of the most common assumptions about the negative functions of fantastic fiction, but as O’Keefe argues fantastic fiction is not as much an escape from as it is a liberation into something (see section 2.4.3.). A world of possibilities for gaining experience. As stated throughout this project the individual benefits from engaging in a fantastic universe as one follows the problems, issues of the characters and becomes acquainted with different relationships and dynamics that are depicted. This essentially serves as a practice in social relations and in understanding the relation between the individual and the world. One is able to engage in the course of unfortunate or even dangerous situations and realize that benefits such as mental strength and experience can follow from difficult situations, and this can all be achieved within the frame of the fictional universe: we learn without actually having to undergo the threats that the characters experience. It should be stated that although we investigate the impact of fiction on the individual we do not strive to conclude anything set on this matter. As we have discovered during the project one of the qualities of fiction is the possibilities that people have to interpret and extract the elements which they can use and find inspiring. The interpretation of a piece of literature will always be subjective and therefore the impact of fiction is never static or the same. Such a generalization becomes meaningless. This also shows how fantastic fiction serves to mirror and reflect people’s own everyday realities as they project their own individuality and subjectivity into the fictional world. In this sense the interpretation of fiction resembles the way in which a mirror reflects back projections as the light is bent and cast back towards us, and new light is shed upon what we already thought we knew.
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The Harry Potter universe unfolds upon a delicate balance between the familiar and the unknown. J.K. Rowling has managed to make use of the sense of security that one finds in the familiar, expected or trivial and combined this with the fantastic elements of mystique that create tension and surprise. The relation between the familiar and the unknown is most remarkably exemplified in the tension between the magical world and everyday life. The concept of everyday life manifests itself in connection to the series in two distinct ways. First, everyday life is a central theme and vantage point for the structure of the Harry Potter novels, as each novel is organized around the course of a school year. This increases the appeal of the novels as most people are familiar with the recurrent organized structure around which we organize our lives and our time. Secondly, it has become evident that the series has the possibility of affecting the everyday life of the reader as it stimulates the reader to develop cognitive skills and in this way think about the relation between the self and the world, the cultural context and the social surroundings. It was in connection to this that we discovered the similarity between fantastic fiction and philosophy. Fantastic fiction describes worlds that seem alien to our own and explores objects and events that we usually consider impossible. The most prevalent example of a technique of fantastic literature that resembles philosophical methods is defamiliarization, where the goal is to make us experience the world and objects that surround us in a new way heightening perception. As accounted for earlier the resemblance of this technique to the philosophical method of “intuition pumps� is striking. In this project it has also been an interest to us in whether people actually need fantasy fiction. It is tempting to assume that the series do not only appeal to a universal culture but also to a universal need in all of us. The fact that people have been creating fiction e.g. myths and fairytales for hundreds of years and that they keep on doing it does suggest that there is a need for fiction and thereby also an impact and direct effect of engaging in fiction, although it is difficult to conclude anything decisive concerning this matter.
In terms of the reason for the wide appeal of the series we can conclude that the novels have a high level of complexity. They are accessible on multiple levels as they deal with universal philosophical themes such as life, death, love and friendship etc. They do not propagate ideologies, religions or deities and this keeps the appeal of the books fairly open. Furthermore, they seem to contain a sort of duality in the narrative structure which makes them accessible and appealing to children as well as adults.
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The Harry Potters series has become a cultural phenomenon. As stated in the discussion many pieces of literary works have become symbols that serve to co-define different ages. This is one way in which we can directly see how fiction is able to reach out in the world and affect something that is non-fictional. In terms of the series’ widespread success, it is tempting to wonder whether it will manage to manifest itself as a cultural classic that will be associated with our specific era. We can only speculate about this matter however considering the series' current popularity and the qualities of the novels as described in this project, J.K. Rowling has given the novels excellent prerequisites to ensure that they remain in our memory as either classic pieces of literature or at least as fiction to be remembered and appreciated. Consequently, the series has served to raise awareness and generate acknowledgement of fantastic fiction and its qualities. This assumption is also supported by the fact that a University, Durham University, has dedicated an entire course to dealing with the Harry Potter series, something which has attracted a lot of media attention. This all helps to establish and justify the series as valuable fictional works that contain elements of educational significance and interest. Could we imagine a world without fiction? It should be noted that in this section we do not distinguish between the concepts of imagination, fantasy9 and fiction as these concepts are closely interrelated and our main interest is whether we might imagine a world in which we are not able to experience and express fictional ideas and concepts. In his “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" Arthur C. Clarke has formulated three laws; “When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.” “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”10 (Clarke 1962, pp. 14, 21, 36.). 9
Here it should be noted that we mean fantasy, not fantastic fiction. A fourth law was added in the 1999 revision of “Profiles of the Future”:”For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.”
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In these laws Clarke undermines the strong distinctions between fiction and reality emphasizing the fact that although we have natural laws of science and physics we can never state that something is impossible. We can strive to assume and predict about the future but we cannot claim that aspects of the future are predestined. Fantastic fiction and philosophy seeks to broaden our minds in this respect to be open to possibilities as this is a way in which we are supposed to explore the limits of the possible as Clarke states in the second law. Engaging in philosophical thinking and fantastic fiction is a venture into possible worlds where we are tempted to ask ourselves: could this happen in real life, and if so, what would our reality be like? Development from the invention of the wheel to modern societies’ technologies, aeroplanes, computers and space crafts. These artefacts are all testaments to our imagination and to our abilities to think beyond what we currently believe to be possible. Today’s everyday technological device is the former century’s magic. This all begs the question: are we as alien to the fictional worlds as we believe ourselves to be? And could we imagine a world without fiction? Would a world without fiction not be a world without inventions? An invention is in a sense a piece of fiction until it becomes realized and manifested physically in the world and so we need fiction or something fictional to spawn the artefacts that we create to enhance chances of survival. But would a world without fiction then be a world without humanity? And does this mean that animals do not create some sort of artefacts or inventions? Monkeys use sticks, rocks or branches to fish out insects from the insides of a tree, or to crack open nuts or fruit, this activity must require the ability to imagine consequences of actions, that is causal relations etc. When it comes down to it, the question of whether we might imagine a world without fiction ultimately depends on how we define fiction? Are we actually able to define it? And what exactly are we to take away from the world so that it would be “fiction-less”?
One is often inclined to define fiction by contrasting the concept with what is not considered fiction. Most people consider history a static and objective account of events recorded over thousands of years. However, to be objective one would have to be able to note down every single aspect of reality, from every single being’s perceived point of view in order to convey all nuances. This would be an immense and probably impossible task and which is why our
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account of history is delimited to chosen representations of events. Napoleon once stated, “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon”11
If we acknowledge the fact that history will always be comprised of certain accounts of reality extracted from chosen sources, history cannot be objective. History is the stories that we tell ourselves about the world. Consequently, a world without fiction would be a world without history. As mentioned in section 2.3 and as it follows here defining fiction then becomes a matter of whether we can ever have true objectivity.
“A book published in 1990, subtitled “The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, explains the usefulness of fantasy fiction from a different point of view. The book’s misleading main title, Flow, sounds as if it could be promoting a state of undisciplined, free-floating, vague contentment. But Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s purpose is quite the reverse. He explains that the richest human life involves activities of a certain structured kind that help individuals control their attention and energy, challenge their abilities, and develop their understanding and enjoyment. Such activities – puzzles and sports and games, intellectual pursuits, crafts and, certainly, arts – are pursued for their own sake rather than extrinsic rewards. They have goals, rules, structures that stretch body or mind; they require skill, concentration, and energy. Someone in this state, engaging in these activities, is strengthening the self; but at such moments awareness of the self is diminished, and connection with what is outside the self is heightened.” (O’Keefe 2003, 21).
This quote sums up the function and impact of fantastic fiction. Engaging in fantastic fiction is an example of “flow”-activity that enriches the individual. Fiction offers to us this kind of enrichment and if taken away it might deprive some people of this. Taking away fiction would be to take away an intriguing possibility to experience the world and develop the self via expressing, evolving and exploring. In “The High Price of Materialism” a series of thorough statistical inquiries are made, investigating the level of contentment that people experience with their lives overall. This is examined and discussed in relation to many factors, the overall conclusion being that there is a tendency that people who
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Documentry: The Story behind the Story, Disney 2010
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greatly value and prioritize the material aspects of life - to a large extent possessions but also recognition from others and fame - seem to be less satisfied and more disposed towards mental illness (Kasser 2002, pp. 11,21). Whereas people who value intrinsic aspects of life where one engages in “flow” activity (as mentioned in the quote above) which heightens ones concentration, perception and feeling of connection to the world, such as intellectual pursuits and reading maybe fantastic fiction, expressed a higher level of contentment with their lives (Kasser 2002, pp. 21,23,76).
“[…] “flow” […] occurs when an individual is doing something for no other purpose than the sheer joy, interest and challenge involved. A great example of intrinsic motivation is children’s play, but it can also be seen in any number of adult activities, such as climbing mountains, painting pictures, […] and even writing books. […] In the midst of such experiences, people often report a sense of strong connection and oneness with whatever they are doing. […] frequent flow experiences are important ways to satisfy our needs for authenticity and autonomy.” (Kasser 2002: 76-77).
From this it follows that even if we were to imagine a world without fiction, a world where true objectivity exists, it would in any case be a poorer place to live in.
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10.0 Theories of Science The theory of science is about how we obtain, revise and deal with knowledge. Science is the knowledge of the universe and the way we answer the questions that rise within, is through the use different methods to create, change or confirm theories. Scientific theory is based on collections of set concepts and laws, which we obtain through the empirical methods of observation and experimentation. The knowledge obtained in the science of humanities, such as language, literature, philosophy and history, happens through analytic, speculative and critical methods. This part of the theory of science merely deals with ideas than outright empirical data. The relation of this project to the theory of science is in the field of philosophy and language within the faculty of humanities. The results were obtained through analysis, critical discussion of the values and morals in the Harry Potter books and our concepts of reality and fiction in everyday life, for instance through the theories that developed the paradox of fiction. However, theory of science reaches much further and interconnects anything from us searching for and weighing the relevance or credibility of the sources by using methods of hermeneutics and source criticism, to being able to discuss them and then coming to a scientific recognizable conclusion.
10.1 Reflection of Theories and Methods This section will offer a discussion on the used devices which were chosen to write this project. As highlighted in our introduction, this project mainly lies in the dimension of philosophy, whereas linguistics play a supporting role. By Text & Sign not being the ruling dimension of the project we focused only on the method of text-analysis. This helped to reveal the many literary techniques used in the books, which have the intention of influencing and shaping the mind of the reader with its value- and moral-containing storyline and characters. However, the main devices to pinpoint the core elements of Harry Potter and the effects of fantastic literature were the philosophical theories that are in general called the paradox of fiction. This exact theory was essential for working with this project because it is used to
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discuss the paradox of how people start to believe that fiction is true and develop feelings towards it. This proved a connection between fantastic fiction and a big reason why it appeals to people and effects them, which our project is all about. Alongside the paradox of fiction, the researched results of the stylistic motives of suggesting certain values in our example of the fictional literature, Harry Potter, contributed to the philosophical discussions of the project. One thing to mention here, is that we focused the theories on the paradox on fiction, only on fantastic fiction and not the science fiction, where the term could just as easily be applied. The way we obtained all this data and knowledge was mainly through books and articles, which we analysed with the help of the critical methodology of modern hermeneutics and thorough source criticism of the material, based on credibility, authority, age and use of publication. Another thing to highlight in this reflection is why we did not use a more empirical approach on the effort of answering our problem statement, such as interviews. Doing so would have supported our project, but when studying the effects of fantastic fiction, it is difficult to generalize due to factors such as the huge amount of various target groups and universal appeal. Our approach through research in books would therefore be more valuable in the end.
10.2 Weaknesses Whilst it is important to be as objective as possible as far as our work in this project is concerned, it is also vital that a more critical perspective be adopted towards certain elements of our research and writing. Primarily, we must account for the fact that, as we have all been influenced by the Harry Potter books from a tender age, elements of subjectivity with regard to our judgements in this project may exist. In other words, we may all have been biased in some way or other by the phenomenon of Harry Potter and this could have shone through our writing at one point or another. Secondly, in many instances, we have referred to the Harry Potter novels as being pieces of fantastic literature. Hence, our judgements pertaining to them have been tainted in the shade of us examining them from this point of view. A more objective view may arguably have viewed them as novels first and foremost and as works of fantastic literature thereafter. In our defence, viewing Harry potter as a phenomenon of fantastic fiction was a decision that was
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made on the basis of the focal point of this project being anchored in us ascertaining the need for fantasy in people's everyday lives, though more objectivity with regard to this may have been prudent. In addressing the universality of Harry Potter, we have focused primarily on the exploration of generically British values to a global audience, citing this exportation as being one that has been successfully managed to reach out to millions the world over, independent of national boundaries. And whilst from our visit to Durham it was clear that Harry Potter is very much a universally popular social phenomenon in the U.K, we did not travel further afield to establish the exact effect of Harry Potter on specific countries. Doing so would have entailed more empirical research on our part much as it would have lengthened the process of our writing. The trade-off could however have led to more balanced assumptions on our part on the subject of the universality of the Harry Potter novels. On the subject of empirical research, it is worth pointing out that the empirical research conducted in the writing of this project was purely preliminary insofar as it being used to provide an understanding of the Harry Potter novels on a surface level. Concurrently, we did not delve into lengthy and elaborately constructed empirical research but rather limited ourselves to discussions with individuals who could shed some light on the matters at hand from which we gathered all we could. A more structured, elaborate phase of empirical research would have been more time-consuming yet ultimately it would have allowed for us to more accurately gauge the assumptions made in the writing of this project against real-life scenarios. Additionally, we did not attend the Harry Potter and The Age of Illusion course at Durham University. Instead, our stay in Durham was limited to one day, due to time constraints. A longer stay would perhaps have aided our understanding of the Harry Potter universe. Lastly, this project has analysed the Harry Potter novels from the basis of us making judgements of J.K Rowling's writing. Naturally, one can make all manner of deductions as to the meaning of a writer's texts, but ultimately their true meaning is restricted best known by the writer himself (or herself in this case). We unfortunately did not have the opportunity to interview Rowling herself, and relied on the judgements of others in order to make deductions concerning her writing. Had we interviewed her, we would perhaps have got a more rounded perspective from which to analyse the Harry Potter novels.
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10.3 Source Criticism • Presence of Myth David Colbert Colbert is a historian and former television writer. His knowledge of history and more specifically, his interest in folkloristics provides the framework for his writing. His views of the Harry Potter novels are hence tainted in such a shade. Colbert identifies mythical and historical references in numerous aspects of the Harry Potter universe. However, his 2001 book “The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Factsâ€? has not been approved by J.K Rowling. The book was published on the condition that the aforementioned discrepancy was stated on the its cover. Hence, whilst Colbert's mythical depictions may be historically and theoretically sound, they have not been verified by the J.K Rowling, whose writing is being analysed. It is therefore worthy to keep this inconsistency in mind.
Alan Dundes Dundes was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline. Dundes was strongly opinionated and frequently challenged the academic positions on folklore. However, he has been criticised as being too radical in his views, which have touched on sensitive matters such as the New testament and the Qur'an as examples of folklore.
Allan Kronzek Allan Zola Kronzek is an author, educator, and magician. Kronzek has been referenced once in this project, with regard to his position on the etymological backgrounds of the magical terminology used in the Harry Potter septet. Kronzek claims that the spell tradition in the Potter books emanates from the Western magical traditions, in themselves a mix of the magical traditions of Roman, Egyptian and Greek culture. His assertion naturally takes its departure from Kronzek's occupation as a magician. His views of Harry Potter are as such tainted in the light of his occupation as a magician, which is worth keeping in mind.
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• Literary Techniques Maria Nikolajeva Maria Nikolajeva is an established academic within the field of children's literature and critical theory. Her academic background and speciality leans towards a more multidisciplinary approach towards literature and this certainly shines through with respect to the perspectives she's offered regarding the Harry Potter novels as examples of typical fantastic fiction. A multidisciplinary position allows for the comparison of many varied theories and traits within different fields. However, it is arguable that such an approach can at times be a bit vague. Again, this should be considered when one reads the section on literary technique in Harry Potter.
• The Universal and British Appeal of the Harry Potter Series Claudia Fenske Muggles, Monsters and Magicians by Claudia Fenske is a literary analysis of the Harry Potter series, which tries to comprehend why the series has got so much success and global triumph. It deals with the books appeal to world and why it has enchanted not only children, but also young adults. Claudia Fenske has studied modern languages, politics and marketing at the universities of GÜttingen, Salamanca, Granada, Marburg and Hagen, and is currently working in communication and marketing in Berlin. She published this book in 2006. Based on her expertise and her education we found her very relevant for our project. Since the book is from 2006 her research is very up to date and contains the latest opinions of several different theorists including her own view upon the topic. We used her interpretations as an inspiration in our writings concerning literary techniques and the appeal of the Harry Potter series.
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• Paradox of Fiction Kendall L. Walton The material used for Paradox of Fiction and Paradox of Fiction in everyday life chapters has been varied. While most of the information came from the books, a lot of articles (both taken from the philosophy magazines and blogs) were also used. While the paradox of fiction term was first used by Colin Radford, Kendall L. Walton's book Mimesis as Make-Believe: on the Foundations of the Representational Arts was much more relevant than Radford's article from the series of Replies to my Critics. Walton's book was released in 1990's; even though more than 20 years have passed, the information in it is still valuable and relevant nowadays, as it can still closely describe the paradox. The rest of the articles, concerning make-believe theories, were released from 1975 to 2009, and while the dates or release varied a lot, information in the articles remained of the same style.
Sean Smith A book by Sean Smith J.K. Rowling: A Biography was also needed in this project; it was used in a chapter „J.K.Rowling“. While it was released in 2001, missing out a decade of specific information about the author, it was still greatly used and is relevant when it comes to describing the author's early years. It must also be noted that this book is translated in Lithuanian, thus all the quotes taken into the project are translated from Lithuanian to English.
• Fantastic Fiction Steven Swann The Fairy Tale – The Magic Mirror of the Imagination by Steven Swann Jones is a guide to the fairy tale of its origins and evolution. Jones is chairman and professor of English at California State University in Los Angeles and offers a very concise overview of the fairy tale. We consider this as a very objective and up to date textbook and therefore this source helped this project in the appointing part of how the genre of fantastic fiction, we know today, originates from.
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Lucie Armitt Lucie Armitt is a lecturer in English at the University of Wales and has been most useful as a guide into what Fantastic fiction is and the evolvement of this area of fiction. Theorising the Fantastic has also been helpful in the sense that it refers to many experts throughout the book, so we have been able to gather inspiration from this work.
Andrew Blake The Irresistible Rise of Harry Potter was writing by Andrew Blake who is currently head of cultural Studies at King Alfred's College. Even though the book was published in 2001 we still believed it to be an interesting angle in the discussing of the impact that the Harry Potter universe has had on the British culture. Perhaps even more so, because of it is writing only a few years after the first in the Harry Potter series was written. The problem is however that it is difficult to state anything substantial arguments from a more updated point of view based on this piece of work, since it is ten years old.
• Functions of Fantasy and the Significance and Impact of Fantastic Fiction Anthony Kwame Appiah Anthony Kwame Appiah is a philosopher, cultural theorist and Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. He has taught at the University of Ghana, Cornell, Drexel, Yale and Harvard and he has a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. He has written books on philosophy, ethics, moral, semantics etc. “Thinking it Through” provides an elaborate overview over philosophical theories from Socrates and Plato to Max Weber, organizing the chapters around topics and showing how opposing philosophical theories seek to explain different issues. The philosophical perspectives on the concept of the mind were useful for the project in terms of our interest in the impact of fiction and consequently the way it might affect or minds and how we think about the world. The book was relevant for considering the relation between what we experience as the real external world and what we consider to be fiction. Furthermore it served as a means for discussing the similarity between the philosophical method of conjuring up elaborate examples and the magical stories of fantastic literature.
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Nigel Gilbert Nigel Gilbert is a sociologist and Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey. He is author of a number of books on social research, social simulation etc. His book “Researching Social Life” gives an overview over social research methods, frameworks and theories for analysis. In this project it has been relevant in terms of employing its sections on narrative analysis in social research, accounting for narrative consciousness, and for theories on discourse analysis and social constructionism. This relates to our project in considering the relation between how what we think about the world actually co-constructs the world and consequently showing how something that might be considered fictional affects the reality we experience.
Deborah O’Keefe Deborah O’Keefe is a former professor at Vassar and Manhattan colleges and author of books on fiction and fantasy. Furthermore she has degrees from Smith, Cornell and Columbia. In “Readers in Wonderland” she argues that escapism is far from fantasy’s main function and she offers a variety of perspectives on the functions of fantasy. The book gives a great overview of different pieces of fantasy literature “from Dorothy to Harry Potter” as stated on the cover of the book. O’Keefe draws on her own experience as a reader but also draws in psychologists such as D.W. Winnicott and in this way explains fantastic literature from a psychological perspective, this being highly relevant for our project concerning its focus on the impact that fantastic fiction has on its reader. On page 22 O’Keefe states that the book strictly will examine works of fantastic fiction with young characters at the center. This might be delimiting as we are dealing with the impact and fantastic fiction on all kinds of readers and not specifically children, and adults might be more inclined to identify with an adult protagonist. It might have broadened the spectrum to focus on the impact of fantastic fiction on adults in particular as well.
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Viktor Borisovitsj Shlovskij Viktor Borisovitsj Shlovskij was a Russian writer and literary critic. He investigated the functions of literature, theories of literature and literary technique. His is best known for his concept of defamiliarization (ostranie in Russian) described in “Theory of Prose” from 1925 in the essay “Art as Device”. We employed this concept of defamiliarization to describe aspects of the Harry Potter series, showing how the reader is enabled to obtain a more perceptive understanding of various themes or objects of our world as they are defamiliarized in the fictional universe via this literary technique. Furthermore the technique seems to be able to demonstrate the connection between philosophical methods and literature. Consequently, although published in the first half of the 19th century Shlovskij’s work is relevant to this day. The quote employed to define defamiliarization has been extracted from a Danish piece of literary criticism by Peter Stein Larsen, as the article explained the concept well and as we trusted it to be an accurate translation. This is the reason why there are no references to Shlovskij in the bibliography. We have in turn translated the quote to English ourselves.
Arthur C. Clarke Arthur C. Clarke was a British author best known for his extensive authorship in science fiction literature, the most famous piece probably being “2001: A Space Odyssey”. In this project we have used “Clarke’s Three Laws” formulated in his “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination” in “Profiles of the Future: An Enquiry into the Limits of the Possible”. We have used his laws as quotes that contribute to the understanding of the relation between what is magical and fictional and what is real, seeing how the real world sometimes approaches the fictional in technology.
Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguistic best known for his theories on semiotics. He greatly influenced the general understand of language and communication, and although more modern and elaborate theories have been developed since, we found his work on the sign and its signifiers relevant for explaining the pervasive subjectivity of perception of reality and as a result of this showing the likeness of an individual’s perception of reality with fiction. We have obtained Saussure’s theory of semiotics from John Fiske’s “Introduction to Communication Studies” and there are therefore no direct references to Saussure in the bibliography. 91
• Conclusion Tim Kasser Tim Kasser is an American psychologist and professor of psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He has a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Rochester. He has written books and articles on values and materialism in modern society, investigating how people seek to be stimulated in order to feel content and satisfied with their lives. We employ Tim Kasser’s book “The High Price of Materialism” to argue that reading fantastic fiction is a sort of “flow”-activity that stimulates the reader and heightens quality of life.
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11.0 Further Research During the writing process of this project, several ideas and thoughts have come to life. Some were useful and gave us more insight and was incorporated into the paper. Yet, some had to be left out so as to make room for others. This was necessary in order to make the paper proper and to dig deeper into selected theories. However, if one were to go further with this project, a few of the following ideas might be relevant. In our final discussion a lot of new ideas came to our minds. One of them was the intuition pumps. Even though there were explained and discussed it is clear to us now that an entire new project could have been made. One could have brought in several other examples of other fantastic literature than the Harry Potter series. The triology Lord of the Rings by Tolkien could have been our focus point. In this piece of fiction there is just as much emphasis on themes like life and death, good and evil and friendships. One could also have stepped away from fantasy and dealt with science fiction instead. The story about Frankenstein by Mary Shelly would have been perfect in our discussion about intuition pumps, because it deals with the brain in the vat concept. The Frankenstein monster is in fact created by super technology and is pieced together from different human body parts. Another case study that we could have used is the story of Mandeville and his travels. In our project we talk a bit about him what there could have been an in depth analysis of about what is real and what is not, and if fantasy can create reality. Mandeville invented his own stories. He never actually went on his travels, but because people believed in it, it became true. This is again an entirely new project. Instead of asking the question of the significance of fantastic fiction and could we imagine a world without it, we could have focused on what happens when fantasy is turned into reality. Furthermore, religion could have played a vital part. As a further research we could have used the power of religion and belief to understand why people believe in what is not real. This could revolve anything from the religion we now today, like Christendom or Islam, to more ancient beliefs, like the old mythologies. It still raised the same question of why and how people can escape into what is non-realistic. During this project we considered if we should talk about the occult. But we turned away from it and kept our focus on fantastic literature instead. But it could have been interesting to examine the power of magic and investigate how it is used today and why people believe in it. Is it the same need to escape and a want for the
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extraordinary? And what impact might it have on our everyday life? Additionally, we decided not to use psychological theories as to why people develop feelings towards fictional characters and things have are not real in general; instead, we chose to focus only on philosophical discussions. However, a lot of psychological theories have been suggested for that matter, the Thought Theory or Counterpart Theory being one of them. This project has answered many questions, but at the same time raised twice as many. These are just some of the points one could work further with. But as with all projects we needed to sort out what we could use and what worked for this particular focus. But there is no doubt that one could have gone about it in many different ways.
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12.0 Bibliography 12.1 Books Main Sources: Rowling, J. K.. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. UK: Bloomsbury, 1997. Rowling, J. K.. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. UK: Bloomsbury, 1998. Rowling, J.K.. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. UK: Bloomsbury, 1999 Rowling, J.K.. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. UK: Bloomsbury, 2000 Rowling, J.K.. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. UK: Bloomsbury, 2003 Rowling, J.K.. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. UK: Bloomsbury, 2005 Rowling, J.K.. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. UK: Bloomsbury, 2007
Secondary Sources: Appiah, Kwame Anthony. Thinking it Through. USA: Oxford University Press, 2003 Armitt, Lucie. Theorising the Fantastic. N.p. :Hodder Education Publishers , 1996 Baggett, David; Klein, Shawn E.; Irwin, William. Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts. Chicago: Open Court, 2004 Blake, Andrew. The Irresistible Rise Harry Potter - Kid-Lit in a Globalised World. UK: Verso Books, 2002 Clarke, Arthur C. Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination. In Profiles of the Future: An Enquiry into the Limits of the Possible (revised edition from 1999). London: Indigo, 1962 Colbert, David. The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Facts. N.p.: Berkley Trade, 2004 Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th edition (revised). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Eccleshare, Julia. A guide to Harry Potter Books. UK: Cromwell Press, 2002 Fenske, Claudia. Muggles, Monsters and Magicians – A Literary Analysis of the Harry Potter Series. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, 2008 Fiske, John. Introduction to Communication Studies. London: Routledge, 1982 Gilbert, Nigel. Researching Social Life, 3rd edition. London: Sage, 2008 95
Jones, Steven Swann. The Fairy Tale – The Magic Mirror of the Imagination. New York: Routhledge, 2002 Kasser, Tim. The High Price of Materialism. Cambridge, MA:MIT Press. 2002. Kronzek, Allan Zola; Kronzek, Elizabeth. The Sorcerer's Companion: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter. N.p.: Broadway, 2001 O’Keefe, Deborah. Readers in Wonderland. New York:Continuum, 2003 McDermott, Robert. The Essential Steiner. N.p.: Lindisfarne Books, 2007 Nikolajeva, Maria. Children's Literature comes of Age : Toward a New Aesthetic. New York, London. Garland Publishing. 1966 Smith, Sean. J.K. Rowling: Hario Poterio sakmių kūrėja. Dajalita, 2001. Translated from: J. K. Rowling: A Biography. Michael O'Mara Books Limited. 2003 Thacker, Cogan Deborah; Webb, Jean. Introducing Children's Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism. N.p.:Routledge, 2002 Larsen, Peter Stein. Det monologiske og flerstemmige i lyrikken from Drømme og dialoger. To poetiske traditioner omkring 2000. DK: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2009 Walton, Kendall L.. Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1990 Willmann, Carlo, Waldorfpädagogik: Theologische und religionspädagogische Befunde. DE: Böhlau Köln, 2001
12.2 Internet Sites -
Brown, Stephen. “Harry Potter Brand Wizard” http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jul2005/di20050721_060250.htm
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Chaundy, Bob. “Harry Potter's Magician“. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/823330.stm 30.11.2011
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BBC News Wear. “Durham University students offered Harry Potter course“. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wear-11011279 01.12.2011
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Cambridge University Press. “The Works of John Ruskin“. http://www.cambridge.org/​us/knowledge/features/​featureitem/item5 945404/​?site_locale=en_US 01.12.2011
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dblock1126. “VOLDEMORT & DEATH EATERS TAKE OVER GRAND CENTRAL“ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrIK4tD-CM. 30.11.2011 96
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Durham University Homepage, “Sunday Times University Guide 2012 http://www.dur.ac.uk/study/sunday_times/
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Giles, Gale “Why Teens need Edgy Fiction“. http://www.gailgiles.com/Why_Teen_Need_Edgy_Fiction.html 30.11.2011
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IMDB. “Memeroable Quotes from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows“ . http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201607/quotes 01.12.2011
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IMSDb. “Screenplay script by Wolfgang Peterson, 1984, The Neverending Story” http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Neverending-Story,-The.html 15.12.11
- Puig, Claudia. “The lore of 'Harry Potter'” - http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/lore_of_harry_potter.htm 15.12.11 -
Soylent Communications. “J.K.Rowling's Bibliography“. http://www.nndb.com/people/510/000022444/ 30.11.2011
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Thorsrud, Harald. “Essay - Voldemort's Agents, Malfoy's Cronies, and Hagrid's Chums: Friendship in Harry Potter” http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-friendship.html 15.12.11
12.3 Articles Neill, Alex (1991): “Fear, Fiction and Make-Believe”. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), Blackwell Publishing, pp. 47-56 Radford, Colin (1975): “How can we be moved by the fate of Anna Karenina?”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplemental Vol. 49, pp. 67-80 Suits, David B. (2006): “Really Believing in Fiction”. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 87 (2006), University of Southern California and Blackwell Publishing Ltd., pp. 369-386 Todd, C. (2009). “Imaginative Acceptance and Attending Emotionally to Fiction”. Written for Workshop "Emotions and Perception", 29th July, SOPHA 2009 Walton, Kendall L. (1978): “Fearing Fictions”. The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Jan., 1978), Journal of Philosophy, Inc., pp. 5-27
12.4 Documentaries Disney. The Story behind the Story. Hollywood 2010
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13.0 Appendix
13.1 Summaries of the Harry Potter Novels Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone The story begins in Little Whinging, England. Harry Potter is an orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle- the Dursleys. Just before his 11th birthday, mysterious things start to happen. Eventually, a half giant named Hagrid shows up and announces that Harry is a Wizard; thus, he is going to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, he also tells Harry that he is famous as The Boy Who Lived; his parents were killed by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort when Harry was just 1 year old; his failure to kill Harry destroyed Voldemort, making Harry a hero. Harry and Hagrid go to the Diagon Alley, the secret alley known only to Wizards, where Harry buys his school supplies, and, most importantly, his wand. On his trip to Hogwarts Harry meets his future best friends Hermione & Ron. Students at Hogwarts are divided into four houses: Slytherin, Ravenclaw,Hufflepuff and Gryffindor; this last becoming Harry's and his friends' house. The main character and his friends begin a journey through magical discoveries and encounters such as with Hogwarts's headmaster Dumbledore, Quidditch, the Forbidden Forest, Trolls and other fantastic creatures.Harry learns about the Philosopher's stone, which is hidden somewhere in school; he also finds out that Voldemort is after the stone. By the end of the year Harry manages to stop Voldemort from stealing the stone, thus saving the Wizarding World once again.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets It is Harry's second year at Hogwarts. After a long summer break and adventures (such as the meeting with a House Elf Dobby and his warning about evil in the school), Harry and Ron return to school by using Ron's father's old flying car. But the adventures do not end with this: after a while, mysterious attacks happen in Hogwarts, and a warning about the opening of the Chamber of Secrets appear. The legend reveals that a dangerous creature is living in it. Harry keeps on hearing voices that no one else can, and later on he realizes he speaks Parselmouth, the language of snakes. As Salazar Slytherin, the creator of the Chamber, was also a Parselmouth, students starts fearing that Harry is Slytherin's descendant, thus the one who opened it. But the situation changes once Hermione is attacked; she manages to leave a clue
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behind which motivates Harry and Ron to solve the mystery. The terrifying creature in the Chamber is a basilisk which has been travelling through Hogwarts via the pipes. Harry finds the diary which belongs to Tom Riddle (Voldemort in his youth), and discovers that because of it Ginny, Ron's sister, opened the Chamber and helped Riddle. Eventually Harry, with the help of Dumbledore's phoenix, kills the basilisk and destroys Riddle's diary.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry is fed up with his uncle's sister and decides to run away from the Dursleys. With the help of the Knight Bus, he travels to the Diagon Alley, where he spends his last days of summer before coming back to school. During his stay Harry discovers that Sirius Black, a dangerous prisoner who betrayed his parents, escaped Azkaban, the Wizards prison. Therefore, Hogwarts is guarded by Dementors, soulless wardens of Azkaban, in charge of protecting the school from the fugitive. In this new adventure Harry meets professor Lupin who teaches him the Patronus Charm, an effective protection from the Dementors' power. A further important discovery is also the Marauder's Map which allows Harry to sneak out of Hogwarts castle to Hogsmeade. There he learns that Sirius Black had once been Harry's father best friend and was appointed to be his godfather. Later in the story Harry and his friends are introduced to the concept of an animagus, a wizard who can take animal form. By transforming himself into a black dog, Sirius manages to hide from his persecutors. Harry is told of the friendship between Sirius, his father and Lupin and recognizes his godfather as innocent, as he is not the person who betrayed his parents. In the end, the Dementors, while chasing Black, attack Harry but he manages to defend himself with his first Patronus and helps Sirius escape and save himself.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry is invited by the Weasleys family to assist the Quidditch Cup. The Championsip is ruined because Voldemort’s servants, the Death Eaters, appear after the game and frighten people, causing a riot. Once the students are back in Hogwarts, they are welcomed with the big news: the school will host the Triwizard Tournament this year. Three different wizarding schools (Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons) will compete with each other and a talented student from each school will be chosen to face different challenges and prove his/her bravery and skills. The goblet of fire decides which champions are going to participate in the tournament. However, Harry gets chosen as the fourth champion and must face the three challenges, just like the rest of the champions. During the last trial Cedrig Diggory, the hero 99
selected to represent Hogwarts is killed by Voldemort's servant, Peter Pettigrew. The last part of the trial is in fact a trap fabricated by the Dark Lord, in order to catch Potter and make sure that Lord Voldemort returns to his full power and body. Once he is resurrected, Voldemort and his followers tries to kill Harry. However, Harry manages to escape and bring Diggory's corpse back. The year ends with the sad realization: the war is coming.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Two Dementors appear in the town of Little Whinging and attack Harry and his cousin. To protect themselves Harry uses magic and breaks a rule of the magical world, by using magic in front of a non-magical person. Therefore, Potter has to attend a disciplinary hearing where his future in Hogwarts has to be decided. Before the hearing Harry meets the Order of Phoenix, a group of wizards formed by Albus Dumbledore, who fight against Lord Voldemort's regime. Eventually, Harry is exonerated and can come back to school. However, the school is changed; a new teacher, Dolores Umbridge, is also a Ministry's worker, who is appointed to change Hogwarts for the Ministry's liking. A lot of people do not believe Harry's and Dumbledore's beliefs that Voldemort is back because of her and the Ministry's authority. Therefore, Harry proposes to his friends to form a secret group, known as Dumbledore's Army, in order to fight back the Ministry's strict regime and teach each other how to fight against the Death Eaters. This secret order gets discovered by Umbridge and her helpers; Dumbledore takes the blame and is forced to leave the school. The year ends with a big battle between the Order of the Phoenix and the dead Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, where the prophecy, that Voldemort is looking for, lies. Sirius Black is killed, and Harry's destiny is revealed to be intertwined with Voldemort: neither can live while the other one is alive.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry's Sixth year begins with him and Dumbledore learning about Voldemort's life, trying to find a way to destroy the Dark Lord. An old teacher, Professor Slughorn, returns as Potion's teacher, allowing Professor Snape to finally get his dream position as the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher. During the school year Harry comes in possession of a mysterious book previously owned by the Half-Blood Prince. It reveals secret remedies and alternative tactics to reach perfect magical spells. Harry's reputation in the Potions lessons rises although he is not the creator of those spells. In the meantime Potter and his friends suspect that their long time enemy Draco Malfoy to be in collaboration with Voldemort. While Harry is on a mission with Dumbledore to destroy part of Voldemort's soul,a Horcrux, Hogwarts is invaded 100
by the dead eaters, due to Draco's collaboration. While the Order of the Phoenix and Death Eaters fight against each other on the Astronomy tower and around the school, Harry confesses Snape killing Dumbledore. Dumbledore's death is a terrible tragedy for the magical world, marking the beginning of open terror from Death . Harry is thus more motivated to accomplish his mission and decides not to go back to Hogwarts. He instead decides to depart right away to destroy the remaining fragments of Voldemort's soul. His best friends Ron and Hermione want to support him and decide to start the journey with him.
Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows Harry starts his final journey to search for the remaining Voldemort´s Horcruxes in order to be able to defeat him. During this trip, the trio faces a lot of difficulties, such as lack of food, terrible weather conditions or even betrayal, as Ron leaves after getting fed up. Luckily, he eventually comes back with Gryffindor´s sword which allows them to destroy another Horcrux. The spirit between the three friends is restored and they continue their search, during such they discover the Deathly Hallows, which are said to be the most powerful objects in the Magical World. During their search for the last Horcruxes, they go to such extremes like breaking in into the Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Their return to Hogwarts in order to find the last remaining Horcrux revokes the war between the Death Eaters and the Order of the Pheonix, which causes a lot of victims from both sides. In the end Harry realises that he is another Horcrux, thus he gives his life to destroy Voldemort and sacrifices himself, letting the Dark Lord kill him. Harry, instead of crossing over to the other side, appears in a place, which takes the shape of the Kings Cross station; he meets Dumbledore in there, and they discuss the matters, relevant in order to destroy Voldemort. In the final battle, Harry finally succeeds and kills the dark Lord. The magical world returns to peace and Potter and his friends become the heroes of their time.
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13.2 Educational Journey to Durham University During the month of October our group applied for economic support with regard to this project. Roskilde University deemed our application for a travel grant as a valid one and as such sponsored a trip to Durham University where we conducted preliminary research that helped us gain a more detailed and more rounded appreciation of our goals. Durham University is the third oldest university and one of the most prestigious universities in England. It is in fact named in the top 3 British Universities at present, in the prestigious Sunday Times University Guide 2012. 12 The principle travel aim of our journey to Durham was that of being able to participate in the premiere session of the “Harry Potter and The age of Illusion” course on the 7th of October, where we interviewed Dr M.A Richardson in order to gain insight into some of the central themes we discussed in the course of our project. Dr M.A. Richardson is an esteemed member of the academic community in Britain and coordinates the “Harry Potter and The age of Illusion” course at Durham university. This course attempts to define and understand the phenomenon of the Harry Potter world in its social, cultural and educational context. Topics such as today's educational system are compared to the magical school system in the world of Harry Potter. This allows for a comparison between these parallel universes in matters of citizenship and other societal dimensions. The study of the social and moral issues raised in the Harry Potter saga does in fact bear significant relevance to the society in which we live. The “Harry Potter and The Age of Illusion course” is not merely a unique course amongst many courses offered at British universities, but more so a certified if not highly acclaimed academic cycle that helps shed light on the parallels between the world of Harry Potter literature and everyday life. Analysis and examination of the themes of good citizenship, prejudice and peer pressure are also studied during the lectures of the course, which have been reviewed and approved by the faculty's teaching and learning committee. The course is considered as relevant and educative as any other course offered in other British academic institutions and has attracted national as well as international attention on account of it being one of the first courses at university level that examines the social phenomenon of Harry Potter in significant depth.
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Professor Richardson´s knowledge and insight regarding several of the topics we hold in high regard in this project have been fundamental for the development of the project. His broad acumen on the subject of Harry Potter and how it relates to everyday life provided us with numerous ideas and inspiration and motivated us to delve deeper into the subject.
There is no doubt that the journey to Durham and our lengthy discussions with Professor Richardson were of extreme importance to the writing of this project, in particular with respect to the growth and evolution of our work in the preliminary stages of our writing.
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