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We're always holding space for Harry Potter, but no one does it quite like the Harry Potter Academic Conference.
Our favorite event of the year was back in person at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia in October and full of interesting insights as usual. Katy and Emily talk with Potterversity producer and conference communications coordinator Laurie Beckoff and conference vice chair Lauren Camacci about the range of presentations and the wonderful community of scholar-fans.
Emily, Laurie, and Katy discuss their respective papers: "Harry, Gawain, Green Knights, and Goblets," about the connections between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; "'All with Flaming Red Hair': Harry Potter and the Magical Redhead Tradition," on how Harry Potter engages with literary and historical depictions of redheads; and "The Petunia Palimpsest," about Fiona Shaw's portrayal of Petunia Dursley and Maarva Andor on the Star Wars show Andor.
We also talk about some of our favorite papers from the weekend. Dumbledore was a popular topic and remains a contentious figure. Psychology and politics were present alongside literary analyses. We enjoyed presentations on Madam Pince and the Hogwarts library (Ian McLaughlin), sexual innuendo and maturation in Goblet of Fire (Bill Ward), the series as wainscot fantasy (Liam Butchart and Katherine Wang), property law in the wizarding world (Dorothea Keiter), entrepreneurship and business in the wizarding world as well as the fandom (Abigail Kohler), and a potluck panel about food in Harry Potter (organized by Mark-Anthony Lewis).
There was plenty to learn from the plenary lecture by Priscilla Hobbs, author of Harry Potter and the Myth of Millennials, as well as the invited talks by conference regular Brent Satterly and first-time presenter Julian Wamble, known for sharing snippets of his Harry Potter class on TikTok and his Critical Magic Theory podcast.
The conference switches off annually between in-person and online events, so we look forward to joining a global community of scholars virtually in 2025. -
Don't judge a book by its cover - this episode is about how looks can be deceiving in Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts.
We're joined by Eizabeth Baird Hardy (Mayland Community College) to discuss her chapter in The Ivory Tower, Harry Potter, and Beyond, "Muggle Worthy: Deceptive Exteriors and Outsized Interiors in the Wizarding World." There is an implicit lesson in the wizarding world - one understood by magical children but that needs to be learned by newcomers like Harry - not to trust architecture. Staircases move, paintings hide passageways, unassuming pubs contain entrances to bustling magical streets. People, too, are more than they appear, like the enormous but gentle Hagrid.
Some spaces in Potter seem sensitive to emotional or psychological factors, such as the Room of Requirement, which seems to work in a similar way to a boggart in terms of understanding a person. While the former senses what a user needs, the latter senses what they fear. The Room of Requirement does not appear to judge and can be used for noble or nefarious purposes, whether to fight Death Eaters or let them into the castle.
What about portable, extendable spaces? Hermione has her beaded bag and Newt Scamander his suitcase full of creatures, both of which serve as metaphors for the complex personalities under the exteriors that might be overlooked. Spaces like these are also seen in Mary Poppins, Discworld, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Fantasy itself feels like a space where we cross a threshold from the mundane into a world of possibility. -
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In the spirit of the spooky season, this episode is all about spirits and specters in the wizarding world.
Emily and Katy, who recently published a new article titled "Harry Potter and Historical Witness: The Pensieve and the Time-Turner," are joined by Louise Freeman, fresh off our two-part episode on memory, and David Martin, member of the winning Hufflepuff team on Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses and author of Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches and Other Thoughts About Harry Potter.
Why does Hogwarts have ghosts? David thinks that ghosts are representations of the past and the influence of the past on the present, so a thousand-year-old castle is bound to be full of history. Louise sees the influence of Gothic novels, in which old castles tend to be haunted.
We debate the dynamics governing ghosts and their interactions with the world around them. Ghosts don't age, but can they evolve emotionally? Peeves is a different kind of spirit altogether as a poltergeist and can interact with objects in a way the Hogwarts ghosts cannot - and thus cause much more chaos. Ghosts are also distinct from the form of Tom Riddle that emerges from the diary, the figures that appear with the use of the Resurrection Stone, and Voldemort's victims conjured by Priori Incantatem.
Most of the ghosts at Hogwarts lived centuries ago. Why did they choose to become ghosts and stay at Hogwarts? In addition to a fear of death, we discuss what unfinished business they had on earth - which could be coming to terms with death. Once ghosts finish their business, can they ever move on? -
The journey to the past continues as we delve deeper into the magic of memory in Harry Potter.
In the second part of our conversation with Louise Freeman, we continue discussing the ethics of Memory Charms and move on to the memories stored in wizarding portraits and Horcruxes. Magical portraits can carry some of the memories of their subjects, allowing viewers to converse with them after their deaths. New developments in artificial intelligence purport to offer something similar. How healthy is it to dwell on memories, for wizards or Muggles? Portraits, the Mirror of Erised, and the Resurrection Stone all offer glimpses of lost loved lones, which can be helpful to a certain extent but come with warnings about becoming too attached.
While portraits can be a safe and healthy expression of the transhumanist impulse to live on through an object, the creation of Horcruxes is a dark, dangerous, evil expression of that desire. The Tom Riddle who emerges from the diary refers to himself as a memory, indicating a connection between memory and the soul. The Dementor's Kiss presumably removes memories along with the soul, as Dumbledore says that Barty Crouch, Jr.'s testimony is lost, implying that his memories could not simply be retrieved and placed in a Pensieve.
Memory is such a key part of the series partly because there is such an emphasis on grief. Harry, who was too young when his parents died to remember them, gradually reconstructs memories of them through photographs, stories from those who knew them, the Mirror of Erised, the Pensieve, and the Resurrection Stone. The grieving process, and Harry's journey more broadly, necessitates exploring the past. Is it possible that even his conversation with Dumbledore in King's Cross is entirely constructed from memories? -
Explore how memory operates in magical ways in Harry Potter that might be quite unlike the Muggle understanding of memory.
Regular contributor Louise Freeman is professor emerita of psychology at Mary Baldwin University and a licensed behavior analyst and service provider for special needs individuals. She considers the implications of being able to store and share memories in a Pensieve. While the basic premise seems somewhat similar to the psychological process of encoding, storing, and retrieving memories, there is almost an element of time travel, in which the user can access details that the initial viewer surely would not have been able to see or remember. But can such details be trusted, or are they part of the viewer's subjective reconstruction and reinterpretation of the memory? While it is obvious that Slughorn has tampered with his memory of Tom Riddle, it is less clear how accurate Snape's memories of the Marauders are.
Upon his death, Snape manages to show Harry a clear montage of memories explaining everything - had he been preparing all of the necessary information in order to hand it off so neatly? How difficult is it to show memories smoothly? Could Harry's memory of the Dementor attack in Little Whinging have been used as evidence in his hearing, or would Fudge not have allowed or trusted it, particularly if presented by Dumbledore?
What happens when memories are lost to a Memory Charm? Are they fully removed, or just hidden? Victims of such charms seem to have varying degrees of success in recovering their memories. While taking memories can be portrayed as a terrible crime, like what Lockhart intended to do to Harry and Ron, modifying them is often depicted as humorous or necessary, such as when the Ministry of Magic performs Memory Charms on Muggles who have witnessed magic.
Hermione alters her parents' memories without their consent, albeit for a noble purpose, but the full consequences are unknown. If they were to be captured and interrogated by Death Eaters, could their memories be forcibly extracted? There are ethical issues surrounding memory in both the wizarding and Muggle worlds. Stay tuned for Part 2 to hear more from Louise on the complicated nature of memory. -
What makes a monster, and how do we relate to them, especially when they produce works of art we love?
There are plenty of monsters in the wizarding world, but the author has also been charged with being monstrous herself following her comments on transgender people. Katy and Emily talk to Lorrie Kim, author of Snape: The Definitive Analysis of Hogwarts's Mysterious Potions Master and host of the podcast Harry Potter After 2020, about Claire Dederer's book Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma, which focuses on how audiences respond to art made by controversial creators.
We debate the idea of "the death of the author" and how possible or desirable it is. Audiences often crave details about an artist's life, which can sometimes provide insight into their work. In the internet age, we have so much information at our fingertips and can develop parasocial relationships in which we feel like we really know an artist personally - and then feel particularly hurt when we learn something about them that contradicts our image of them. This kind of revelation can be all the more difficult with media we consumed as children.
What we know about an author can impact how we read their work, as it affects how Harry reads Tom Riddle's diary and the Half-Blood Prince's potions textbook. How do we engage with Harry Potter knowing what we know about the author, and what guidance does the series itself offer? -
Venture to the ancient past to explore Harry Potter and the Aeneid as foundational texts.
Dr. Mitchell Parks (Knox College) joins us to discuss intertextuality and Harry Potterâs dialogue with classical works like Virgilâs Aeneid. In his chapter in The Ivory Tower, Harry Potter, and Beyond, he examines what it means for a text to be âfoundationalâ in various ways â as a work of literature, on a personal level, for identity groups, as a political foundation.
While the Aeneid can tell us about Roman society and later periods from readersâ reactions and literary responses, Harry Potter set the tone for young adult literature at the turn of the 21st century. The diversity of responses to Harry Potter compels us to consider how people besides the elite men whose commentary was preserved might have reacted to the Aeneid, which itself draws on Homerâs Odyssey and Iliad.
Mitchell sees the strongest echoes of the Aeneid in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows because of the darker atmosphere, heroes facing a difficult mission, and a great deal of wandering followed by battle.
While it can be interesting to think about what sources the author actually read and intentionally referenced, intertextuality can be more of a process by which readers make connections themselves and put the text in dialogue with other texts the author may not have even read. Intertextuality is as much about finding differences as it is finding similarities.
Putting his classics skills to further use, Mitchell also shares his mind-blowing revelation about a nearly illegible Latin epitaph on Ignotus Peverellâs tombstone in The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
Finally, we consider how long the Aeneid has endured and how Potter might fare in the future. How will it evolve in the next 20 years? Could it last 2,000 like the Aeneid? -
Get a preview of the latest Harry Potter academic anthology, featuring a diverse array of essays on the series.
We're joined by Dr. Lana Whited (Ferrum College), editor of The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter (University of Missouri Press, 2002), one of the first anthologies focused on the series, and now the second volume, The Ivory Tower, Harry Potter, and Beyond (University of Missouri Press, 2024). Quite a bit of Potter scholarship is contained in anthologies devoted entirely to the series, possibly due in part to the historical difficulty of getting Potter studies articles accepted by academic journals, but these anthologies have helped to develop a community around the subject. Only the first three Potter books had been released when the first volume was compiled; by the time of the second, Lana was able to seek out chapters not only on the full series but also Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as well as The Casual Vacancy, the Cormoran Strike books, and even The Ickabog.
The new anthology, coming over 20 years after the first, offers something of a retrospective on how far Potter studies has come. From its early days, the field has extended beyond literary studies to include religious, psychological, political, and scientific perspectives. Podcasts have also contributed a great deal to discourse. Of course, the author's changing reputation has had a major impact.
Emily, Katy, and Lana discuss their respective chapters, "Parenting Models in the Potter Saga and Cursed Child: Human and Divine," "Secrecy and Segregation in the Wizarding World's Hidden Histories," and "The Ickabog, Monsters, and Monstrosity," offering a sample of the range of topics covered. -
Get swept away by the cinematic sounds of the Wizarding World.
We're joined by musicologist Dr. Daniel White (University of Huddersfield), who has a new book about the music of two major fantasy franchises, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. He talks about the musical foundation laid by John Williams in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and how subsequent composers built off his work both within the Harry Potter series and continuing into the Fantastic Beasts films.
Dan applies music theory to unpack what makes "Hedwig's Theme" so iconic and how it contributes to worldbuilding and evokes nostalgia. We look at the tone shifts between films and the recurring musical motifs that change throughout the series. Dan tells us about his methodology for analyzing film music, including ethnographic research interviewing audiences about their reactions and conversations with composers and music supervisors for video games, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks.
The theme parks offer an interesting blend of diegetic (in-universe) music, like Celestina Warbeck and the Hogwarts frog choir, and non-diegetic background music from the soundtracks. Fans have of course made their own Potter-inspired music in the form of wizard rock. While the music of Lord of the Rings is more epic in scale, covering different regions, races, and communities, Harry Potter tends to focus more on individual characters, their relationships, and more specific locations. Both share a theme of home and have become homes for audiences, inspiring the subtitle of Dan's book, The Music of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings: Sounds of Home in the Fantasy Franchise. -
In the last of our episodes featuring contributors to our book, Potterversity: Essays Exploring the World of Harry Potter, take a look at two very different teachers: Albus Dumbledore and Dolores Umbridge.
Our guests are Dr. M'Balia Thomas (University of Kansas) and Dr. Brent Satterly (Widener University), whose chapters focus on Hogwarts professors. Both found ways to connect with students through Harry Potter and saw examples of what to do and what not to do as a teacher by looking at the Hogwarts faculty. They consider what it means to see teachers through the student perspective in the series but also get an inside look at certain teachers, such as Lupin and Snape, that show us their humanity and give us a sense of compassion toward educators we may forget to have.
In her chapter, "Dumbledorisms: The Idiosyncratic Style of a Hogwarts Headmaster," M'Balia examines how Dumbledore's tendency to speak in aphorisms gives the impression of wisdom but doesn't necessarily connect with students. Brent shares his experience taking on Umbridge, who is the antithesis of him as a social worker, as a drag persona in "Hem Hem⊠I Take Umbridge with Bigotry: Using the ÂWitch-in-Pink to Counter Oppression."
While we don't get the full story of all the interactions between students and teachers at Hogwarts, the wizarding world provides opportunities to think more deeply about the context of educational situations. -
Hop on a tour of the UK this summer to see Harry Potter and more beloved works of fantasy come to life.
On this episode, sponsored by History Bites Tours, Katy and Emily speak with History Bites founder Solomon Schmidt about the literary-inspired tour of England and Scotland he'll be leading in July. Solomon is the author of eight books in his History Bites series and host of the History Bites YouTube channel. In addition to his interest in history, he incorporates his love of fantasy literature, including Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia, into his travel itineraries to take fans to relevant landmarks.
In just eight days, Solomon will lead fans through London, Oxford, Edinburgh, and more to discover sites of significance to Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling, as well as filming locations for the Harry Potter movies. From Platform 9 3/4 to the Hogwarts Express, the tour lets travelers immerse themselves in fantasy, visiting the pubs and cafes the writers frequented and breathtaking natural and historic wonders. We've previously discussed the transcendent experience of Harry Potter fan pilgrimages, and this tour offers just that opportunity.
Check out the History Bites website for more information on registering for the trip of a lifetime. -
We're in for a bit of fun as we look at games in the wizarding world and using games to bring the wizarding world to the classroom.
Katy and Emily are joined by two more contributors to our book, Potterversity: Essays Exploring the World of Harry Potter. Laurie Beckoff, our producer, and Tison Pugh, Pegasus Professor of English at the University of Central Florida and author of Harry Potter and Beyond, both wrote chapters about games, with Laurie looking inside the series and back at medieval literature, while Tison looked outside the series at how to apply games in his Harry Potter course.
Both Laurie and Tison come from a medievalist background, so we discuss the connections between Harry Potter and the Middle Ages, particularly magic and quests. They also see games - such as tournaments, Quidditch, and chess - as playing a significant role in both medieval romance and Potter, especially when it comes to character development, moving the plot along, and revealing the values of a society, as Laurie discusses in her chapter, "It's All Fun and Games Until...: Leisurely and Competitive Pursuits in Harry Potter and Chivalric Romance."
In Tison's chapter, "Gamifying the Harry Potter Studies Classroom," he explains how he uses a House Cup tournament to engage his students, bringing team building and a bit of healthy competition into an educational environment. We look at performance in both chapters - how wizards and knights develop reputations and respond to their audiences as well as how Tison's students take on the traits associated with their Houses - and how power structures come into play or can be subverted. -
On this episode, two more contributors to our book talk about their chapters on equality, inclusion, and compassion.
Travis Prinzi and Mark-Anthony Lewis join Katy and Emily to discuss how the wizarding world serves as a lens through which to understand the social ethics of our own world, particularly amid racial tensions and diversity. Travis's chapter, "The Problem with Loving Enemies: Kindness and Oppression in 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,'" and Mark-Anthony's chapter, "Uncle Remus's Shack: Tokenism in the Wizarding World," both examine how we respond to people who are different from us.
For Travis, studying critical race theory in education while rereading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in preparation for the release of the final book made him see systemic prejudice in the wizarding world in new ways. It was house-elf slavery and the discussions around it that made Mark-Anthony think deeply about how their oppression came about.
Travis sees the seemingly simple fairy tale of "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot" take on completely new meaning when put in the historical context Dumbledore provides in The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Mark-Anthony applies W.E.B. Du Bois's idea of "twoness" to magical minorities, some of whom have a literal "twoness" as hybrid beings like centaur and merpeople.
How can we use the wizarding world to find solutions to the challenge of social and racial equality in our own world? For a start, we can confront our fear of the unknown and embrace the freedom to be wrong - and learn from it. -
Featuring more of our book contributors, this episode is about various members of Harry's found family.
Katy, technical director Emma Nicholson, and Louise Freeman (Mary Baldwin University) discuss their chapters focused on character analysis: "Arthur Weasley and the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts," "Padfoot Revelio! The Life and Love of Sirius Black," and "The Weasley Witches: From Snitches to Stitches to 'Not-My-Daughter-You-Bitches'" (possibly the best title in the volume).
Emma was drawn to Sirius for his authenticity and passion but also because of his flaws that she feels enrich his character. Katy saw something of a dark underbelly to Arthur's seemingly charming Muggle obsession, leading her to wonder if there are hints of colonialism and cultural appropriation. Louise considered how Molly and Ginny do or don't fit into female archetypes, particularly as Ginny changes over the course of the series.
All of these characters are complex and sometimes misunderstood. We talk about the impact each has on Harry's emotional journey and their nurturing qualities. We also consider the pressure each faces to conform, whether to gender expectations, wizarding law, or social norms. Arthur, Sirius, and Ginny all come off as non-conformists in some way, while Molly often pressures her children to conform but learns to accept things not going the way she planned, like the success of Fred and George's joke shop and Bill and Fleur's relationship. -
The next topic from our book up for discussion is old magic steeped in myth and tradition.
Katy talks with co-host and co-editor Emily Strand and contributor Lana Whited (Ferrum College) about their chapters "The Real Magic of Christmas in Harry Potter" and "Here Be Dragons and Phoenixes: A Thematic Direction for the Fantastic Beasts Series." Emily looks at the theological roots of magic and Christmas as a time for darkness turning to light - and thus an appropriate season for Harry to have significant experiences where he learns new information, often about the past. Lana discusses the origins of magical creatures in Asian mythology that hold deep significance in both The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore, which explore the past through prophecy and family history.
The wizarding world has a sense of being frozen in time, and journeys into magical worlds often feel like journeys into the past. Part of that is the lack of modern Muggle technology that comes not only from moving into the past but also into nature, which is especially prominent with a magizoologist as the protagonist of the Fantastic Beasts series. Christmas and creatures hold longstanding traditional connotations - ideas of rebirth and resurrection, enchantment and mystery - that come to the forefront when they are mentioned in these stories. -
We're starting off the companion episodes to our new book with the dark side of Harry Potter.
Dr. Beatrice Groves (Oxford University and Bathilda's Notebook) and Dr. Amy Strugis (Lenoir-Rhyne University and Signum University) join us to discuss their chapters "Good Men and Monsters: The Influence of Bram Stoker's Dracula on Harry Potter" and "Dark Arts and Secret Histories: Investigating Dark Academia." They talk about what drew them to the more disturbing and Gothic aspects of the series.
Amy explains the difference between the Dark Academia aesthetic and the literary genre. The latter generally involves a school or university setting, elements of mystery and death, concern with the past, and social critique, especially of power dynamics that exist in the wider world and are concentrated in an academic institution - all of which are present in Potter. It might seem like heavy material for young readers, but adolescents can experience bullying, injustice, and grief and can relate to and learn from fiction. The aesthetic that has been popularized online tends to focus purely on style, romanticizing some of what the genre criticizes.
Harry Potter engages with dark and Gothic traditions but also breaks from them. Bea sees Mina Harker in Dracula as a parallel for Harry, both marked by evil, but the works ultimately seem to have different attitudes toward the nature of evil - while Dracula's influence can turn innocent Mina into a monster, Harry maintains his inherent goodness and the power to resist Voldemort.
What problems does knowledge of the Dark Arts pose? Going back to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, danger lies in how people use such knowledge more than the knowledge itself. Knowledge is power, so keeping secrets and controlling access to knowledge are issues in Dark Academia - a genre that has only become more popular since the success of Potter. -
Venture to infinity and beyond for a look at astronomy in the wizarding world.
We're joined by Jane Bright, a PhD candidate in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Arizona. Astronomy is the one subject wizards and Muggles seem to have in common. Why is it important enough to be a required subject at Hogwarts, and how is it different from the astrology that is part of Divination? Jane has some theories regarding the historical split between disciplines and the usefulness of astronomical knowledge in ritual magic. As a bonus, wizards may actually be learning some math!
Astronomy is present in the wizarding world outside of the classroom as well. Dumbledore's watch, for instance, shows the movements of stars and planets, and a room in the Department of Mysteries appears to be devoted to the study of space. Magical telescopes seem old-fashioned, but wizards must be keeping up with Muggle scientific advances if they know about planets and phenomena that were discovered after wizards went into hiding.
Jane gives us insight into the astronomical names common among Harry Potter characters and connects astronomy to alchemy, going all the way back to the Big Bang at the dawn of the universe to discover a celestial Sorcerer's Stone. This comparison could potentially be useful for wizards as a form of representational magic, helping them to understand natural processes that relate to the magic they want to perform and thus make it more powerful. -
On this episode, we dish about this yearâs Harry Potter Academic Conference and preview our new book, Potterversity: Essays Exploring the World of Harry Potter (McFarland).
Katy and Emily welcome Potterversity producer Laurie Beckoff and technical editor Emma Nicholson, as well as Louise Freeman, Mark-Anthony Lewis, and Lana Whited to talk about HPACs past and present. This yearâs virtual conference allowed people from all over the world to come together, and we included the comments of other conference attendees in the webinar chat. We reminisce about our first experiences at the conference. Looking back helps us to see the evolution of Potter Studies through the last dozen years.
What keeps us coming to the conference? Wonderful discussions, inspiration for new ideas, deep dives into the Potter stories, like-minded people, constructive argument and critique, and a space in which Harry Potter is taken seriously. There is always something new to say and fresh perspectives on the series, as well as the movies and other related works. We all value the friendships weâve developed with people from all different disciplines and walks of life. Reflecting on presentations we heard at this yearâs conference that we found especially illuminating, we made suggestions for what weâd like to hear more about in the future.
Katy and Emily also reveal details about the new Potterversity book - currently available from McFarland Publishers - providing an overview and hearing from some of the authors about their chapters. Mark-Anthony talks about his chapter âUncle Remusâs Shack,â about tokenism as portrayed in characters like Lupin, Dobby, and Madame Maxime. Emma shares how she reconstructed Sirius Blackâs story in âPadfoot Revelio!â and in the process uncovered details that will surprise you and build empathy toward this complex character. Laurie explains her chapter âItâs All Fun and Games Until . . . ,â in which she compares the use of games in Harry Potter and Arthurian literature.
Louiseâs âThe Weasley Witchesâ analyzes how Ginny and Molly can be interpreted through the archetypes of the Amazon and the Mother, as well as the significance of Weasley sweaters. Lana explores the mythic significance of fantastic beasts in âHere Be Dragons and Phoenixes.â Emilyâs chapter investigates the motifs and themes of the holiday season in âThe Real Magic of Christmas in Harry Potter,â and Katy ponders transhumanism and cultural appropriation in âArthur Weasley and the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts.â We also provide hints about other chapters in the volume to whet your appetite for the book chapters and accompanying podcast conversations. -
In honor of Banned Books Week, this episode explores the causes and effects of book banning in the Muggle and wizarding worlds.
Harry Potter is one of the most challenged works of the 21st century, frequently appearing on the American Library Association's list documenting book bans around the country. It has long been accused of inspiring interest in the occult and encouraging children to literally perform magic but has also been criticized for featuring characters who break rules, as discussed on our episode about resistance.
In a time of social change and upheaval, there has been an increased movement to present a sanitized version of history and combat more progressive ideas in literature. Behind many book bans is the desire to control what children read and thus how they think and behave. But even books that present dangerous ideas are worth discussing rather than silencing, and readers can examine them critically.
How does the wizarding world approach access to knowledge? The Restricted Section keeps books available in the Hogwarts library but accessible only to those undertaking advanced study with permission from a professor. Dumbledore eventually removed the books with information on Horcruxes, but would it have been better if they weren't there for Tom Riddle to read in the first place?
In recent years, Harry Potter, previously challenged mostly by the right wing, has been challenged by the left wing due to the author's attitudes towards transgender people as well as the inequality and injustice in the universe she created. But the complex and imperfect nature of fictional worlds provides opportunities for critical thinking.
Whatever the motivation, attempts to ban books shows an acute awareness of the power of words and ideas to influence readers. -
Harry Potter may not technically be considered a work of horror, but there are plenty of horrifying aspects to explore in this episode.
Katy and Emily speak with Dr. Jeff Ambrose about the scariest parts of the series and the lasting effects horrific events have on characters (and readers and viewers). The series has its fair share of monsters, torture, murder, and soul-sucking, with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire bringing in such terrors as Death Eaters, Unforgivable Curses, and a gruesome graveyard resurrection. Horror as a genre traffics in trauma, which is bound to result from the characters' experiences.
Emotion is closely tied to magic in the Potter, so manifestations of trauma in the series come in the form of Thestrals, Dementors, and boggarts but also in Harry's role as a Horcrux, literally carrying past trauma within him, and in what Harry represents to Snape. While trauma can certainly be tied to personal identity, Jeff disagrees with the idea that it erodes characters' personalities, pointing to how Harry manages to function despite his traumatic past and how characters have different responses to their trauma.
Although the wizarding world and Hogwarts provide safe spaces for Harry, they are also full of dangerous and scary things: the shadow of a villain so frightening that people still fear to speak his name a decade later, a poltergeist, the ghost of a murdered student, a restricted section in the library, and the need to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts.
While Harry Potter does contain a great deal of darkness, it also shows us how to overcome it. Trauma can cause characters to make mistakes, like how Dumbledore keeps secrets and Snape harbors resentment, but Harry finds a community of support and Hagrid shows love to all kinds of creatures. - Mehr anzeigen
