‘Abandoned Boys’ and ‘Pampered Princes’: Fantasy as the Journey to Reality in the Harry Potter Sequence

Authors

  • Caroline Webb University of Newcastle, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2008vol18no2art1163

Keywords:

Harry Potter, Jack Zipes, J.K. Rowling

Abstract

With the publication of the seventh and final novel in the Harry Potter sequence, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007), it is at last possible to judge not only the thematic agendas of the sequence but also its overarching narrative strategy. The early novels of the Harry Potter series were derided, among other things, for an apparent formulaic quality, effectively identified by critics such as Zipes. Not only did Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) demonstrably owe a large debt to the structure and characterisation of the conventional early twentieth-century British school story, but its two sequels, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), closely imitated the structure of the first, as Zipes has shown in some detail (Zipes, 2001, pp.176-77). To such critics as Zipes, this imitative structure made manifest the poverty of Rowling's invention and the consequent unoriginality of her writing.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

  • Caroline Webb, University of Newcastle, Australia

    Caroline Webb is a senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research interests are in english literature since 1900, with a focus both on literary modernism and fiction by recent women writers, especially fantasy. she teaches undergraduate and Honours courses and supervises postgraduate students.

References

Burn, A. (2004) ‘Potterliteracy: Cross-Media Narratives, Cultures and Grammars’, Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature 14, 1: 5-17.

Byatt, A.S. (2003) ‘Harry Potter and the Childish Adult’, op-ed., The New York Times 7 July 2003, A13.

Gibbs, N. (2007) ‘J.K. Rowling.’ Time, dec. 31, 2007/ Jan. 7, 2008, 100.

Griesinger, e. (2003) ‘Why Read Harry Potter? J. K. Rowling and the Christian Debate.’ Christian Scholar’s Review, 32, 3: 297-316.

Katz, M. (2003) ‘Prisoners of Azkaban: Understanding Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma Due to War and State Terror (With Help from Harry Potter)’, JPCS: Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society 8, 2: 200-07.

Manlove, C. (2003) From Alice to Harry Potter: Children’s Fantasy in England. Christchurch, Cybereditions.

Mendlesohn, F. (2002) ‘Crowning the King: Harry Potter and the Construction of Authority’, in L.A. Whited (ed.), The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon. Columbia, University of Missouri Press, pp.159-81.

Nilsen, A.P. & D.F. Nilsen (2006) ‘Latin Revived: Source-Based Vocabulary Lessons Courtesy of Harry Potter: Teachers Can Capitalize on the Popularity of the Harry Potter Books to Interest Students in the Roots of Words’, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 50, 1: 128-34.

Pennington, J. (2002) ‘From Elfland to Hogwarts, or the Aesthetic Trouble with Harry Potter’, The Lion and the Unicorn 26: 78-97.

Rowling, J.K. (2004a) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London, Bloomsbury.

Rowling, J.K. (2004b) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. London, Bloomsbury.

Rowling, J.K. (2004c) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. London, Bloomsbury.

Rowling, J.K. (2004d) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London, Bloomsbury.

Rowling, J.K. (2004e) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. London, Bloomsbury.

Rowling, J.K. (2005) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. London, Bloomsbury.

Rowling, J.K. (2007) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. London, Bloomsbury.

Steege, D.K. (2002) ‘Harry Potter, Tom Brown, and the British School Story: Lost in Transit?’, in L.A. Whited (ed.), The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon. Columbia, University of Missouri Press, pp.140-56.

Trites, R.S. (2001) ‘The Harry Potter Novels as a Test Case for Adolescent Literature’. Style 35, 3: 472-85.

Zipes, J. (2001) Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children’s Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter. New York, Routledge.

Downloads

Published

2008-12-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“‘Abandoned Boys’ and ‘Pampered Princes’: Fantasy as the Journey to Reality in the Harry Potter Sequence” (2008) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 18(2), pp. 15–21. doi:10.21153/pecl2008vol18no2art1163.