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COURSE MANUAL
for
ELECTIVE COURSE
HARRY POTTER AND THE POWER OF IMAGINATION
Course Instructor:
Rashmi Raman [email protected]
Office Hours: To be confirmed
Spring Semester 2020
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Table of Contents
Information on Harry Potter and the Power of Imagination...................................................... 2
Part I ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Part II .......................................................................................................................................... 3
Course description ...................................................................................................................... 3
Recommended Texts ................................................................................................................... 3
Intended learning outcomes ....................................................................................................... 5
Teaching and Learning Activities ................................................................................................ 5
Grading of Student Achievement ................................................................................................ 5
A Note on Plagiarism ...................................................................................................................7
Course syllabus with weekly readings ......................................................................................... 8
Information on Harry Potter and the Power of Imagination at JGLS
The information provided herein is by the Course Coordinator. The following information
contains the official record of the details of the course.
Part I
Course Title: HARRY POTTER AND THE POWER OF IMAGINATION
Course Code:
Course Duration: One Semester
Number of Credit Units: 4
Level: BA-LLB
Medium of Instruction: English
Pre-requisites None
Pre-cursors: Nil
Equivalent courses: Nil
Exclusive courses: Nil
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Part II
This course was conceived and formulated at JGLS for the first time in 2013. It has run three
times since then and each time new dimensions and approaches are added to the course to make
it relevant and interesting to students.
Course description
Harry Potter, the character and the series of novels, is a phenomenon both in terms of literature
and culture. The novels can be seen as the ultimate bildungsroman of a young, unloved and
unwanted boy who grows up to be the definitive hero. In this course, we will analyze different
themes raised in the novels. This course situates the phenomenon of Harry Potter at the
interdisciplinary intersection of history, ethics and literature. How can the historical
imagination inform literature and fantasy? How can fantasy reshape how we look at
history? The Harry Potter novels and films are fertile ground for exploring all of these deeper
questions. By looking at the actual geography of the novels, real and imagined historical events
portrayed in the novels, the reactions of scholars in social sciences to the novels, and the world-
wide frenzy inspired by them, students will examine issues of race, class, caste, gender, time,
place, the uses of space and movement, the role of multiculturalism in history and the idea of
translating the novels into different languages. The flexibility of the series may relate to its roots
in a wide variety of genres including the gothic novel, detective fiction, fantasy, adventure, and
even the dystopian novel. This course will examine the Harry Potter series in relation to all these
genres. We will read portions of the books alongside other novels and short stories that illustrate
the generic conventions Rowling works with.
Recommended Texts
The default compulsory core texts for this course are the seven books in the Harry Potter series
by J.K. Rowling. Students are advised to have a personal set.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Rowling, Joanne K., London, Bloomsbury (1997)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling, Joanne K., London, Bloomsbury (1998).
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling, Joanne K., London, Bloomsbury (1999).
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling, Joanne K., London, Bloomsbury (2000).
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling, Joanne K., London, Bloomsbury (2003).
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rowling, Joanne K., London, Bloomsbury (2005).
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling, Joanne K., London, Bloomsbury (2007).
If students want a more in depth resource for studying Harry Potter through a structured
interdisciplinary lens, please see some recommendations below. There will be a study pack
available for purchase with selected readings from the reading list.
The Law and Harry Potter, Jeffrey E. Thomas and Franklin G. Snyder, eds. Durham,
North Carolina, Carolina Academic Press (2010).
Law Made Fun Through Harry Potter's Adventures: 99 Lessons in Law from the
Wizarding World for Fans of All Ages, Karen Morris & Bradley S. Carroll, CreateSpace
Independent Publishing Platform (2011).
Harry Potter, Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings, Abanes, Richard, Eugene, Ore, Harvest
House Publishers (2005).
Kids' Letters to Harry Potter: From Around the World. An Unauthorized Collection,
Adler, Bill (Ed.), New York, Carroll and Graf (2002).
Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle ran Hogwarts, Baggett, David/Klein, Shawn
(Eds.), Chicago (2004).
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Purloined Letter”
Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia”
“The Wizard and the Hopping Pot” (from The Tales of Beedle the Bard)
Elizabeth Gaskell, “The Old Nurse’s Story”
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four
C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Pardoner’s Tale”
“The Tale of the Three Brothers” (from The Tales of Beedle the Bard)
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Intended learning outcomes
By the end of the course students should be able to:
- problematise reality as a social construct;
- recognize how the Harry Potter series employs conventions from a variety of genres;
- understand the political, religious, moral, and philosophical underpinnings of the texts
on the course;
- develop an awareness of the social and cultural background contributing to the
continuing Harry Potter phenomenon.
Teaching and Learning Activities
Reading, comparison and analysis of varied writing from popular as well as academic works
Students will be assessed upon their ability to read and critically evaluate the essential readings
set out in this manual.
All students must attend the lectures and participate in the discussion seminar. Students must
come to class ready to discuss and critically evaluate the readings.
Grading of Student Achievement
50% Formative Assessment:
a) Oral presentations to be given during student-led tutorials (35%)
b) In-class activity (15%)
50% Summative Assessment: 2000 word essay on a topic related to the course
There will be continuous assessment of learning. Students must come to all of the lectures and
seminars and fully participate in class to contribute towards the 20% of the final exam grade for
class attendance and participation and to be able to make the oral presentation during tutorial.
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Letter
Grade
Grade
Value
Total Course
Marks )
Grade Definitions and Explanation
O 7 70 and above Outstanding Sound knowledge of the subject matter,
excellent organizational capacity, ability
to synthesize ideas, rules and
principles, critically analyse existing
materials and originality in thinking
and presentation.
A+ 6 65 to 69.75 Excellent Sound knowledge of the subject matter,
thorough understanding of issues;
ability to synthesize ideas, rules and
principles and critical and analytical
ability.
A 5 60 to 64.75 Good Good understanding of the subject
matter, ability to identify issues and
provide balanced solutions to
problems and good critical and
analytical skills.
B+ 4 55-59.75 Adequate Adequate knowledge of the subject
matter to go to the next level of study
and reasonable critical and analytical
skills.
B 3 50-54.75 Marginal Limited knowledge of the subject
matter and irrelevant use of materials
and, poor critical and analytical skills.
F 0 Below 50 Failure Poor comprehension of the subject
matter; poor critical and analytical
skills and marginal use of the relevant
materials. Will require repeating the
course.
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Class Participation
15% of the final grade is reserved for participation in class activities and active engagement
throughout the course, demonstration that participants have read and are engaging with the
recommended readings and completing tasks set as homework/in class presentations.
A Note on Plagiarism
Any idea, sentence or paragraph taken from another source must be credited to that source. If
you paraphrase or directly quote from a web source, presentation or essays, the source must be
explicitly mentioned. You SHOULD NOT plagiarize content, be it from scholarly sources (i.e.
books and journal articles) or from open source internet resources. The university has strict
rules with consequences for students involved in plagiarism. This is an issue of academic
integrity on which no compromise will be made, especially as students have already been trained
in the perils of lifting sentences or paragraphs from others and claiming authorship of them.
As law students, you are entering a profession that is responsible for upholding the rule of law.
Please do not harm the integrity of the profession or your reputation by being dishonest in your
academic work.
If you are unaware of rules of proper referencing and citation, please request your course
instructor to update you about the same.
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Course syllabus with weekly readings
Week 1: Why study Harry Potter in universities
This week introduces the idea of the Harry Potter by asking how relevant the stories from the
series are to university level students and how they interact with other areas of learning as tools
of law, policy, governance, politics, philosophy, ethics and human rights. This is done by looking
at other “children’s stories” and asking whether they influence thought and decision making in
the “real” world.
Readings
Thomas, Jeffrey E.: "Introduction: The Significance of Harry Potter" in Thomas, Jeffrey E. (Ed.): Harry Potter and the Law. Texas Wesleyan Law Review 12:1 (2005).
Further Readings
Doniger, Wendy: "The sources of Harry Potter”, in Wiener, Gary/Parks, Penny J. (Eds.): Readings on J.K. Rowling. San Diego, Greenhaven Press, 2004. Zipes, Jack: "The Phenomenon of Harry Potter, or Why All the Talk?" In: Zipes, Jack: Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter. New York, London: Routledge, 2001, 170-189. Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. Toronto: Penguin-Signet, Classics, 2000.
Discussion Questions
1. What is the relevance of popular literature in our studies of law and morality?
2. Where do we locate Harry Potter as a bildungsroman of our times? Should Harry Potter
be taught at university? Is it just another children’s novel or does it make sense to
include it in university curricula?
3. As young Indians, what parallels in the narrative traditions of India might you draw
comparable moral values from, as you have (presumably) from the Potter series you
“grew up with”? What does this indicate for the endemic culture of colonial conditioning
of our childhoods?
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Week 2: Situating the Harry Potter saga: Tale as Old as Time
People are fascinated by stories of good and evil because of our desires to feel and be all the things we are not, and also to believe that we have the power to save as well as be saved. We like to feel the things that a good story can give us. It enhances our imaginations and aspires us to dream, to go beyond what we have previously known. Every story needs a hero and a villain, whether it’s in a novel, a film, a religious sermon or just office gossip. The battle between good and evil is the essence of all storytelling. It is the duality we bring into life as human beings. The world itself is not about clear boundaries between good and evil; it is about the duality of these values in every actor and situation.
Readings
Joseph Campbell, Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) selected excerpts. Mary Liston, The Rule of Law Through the Looking Glass, Law & Literature, 21 Law & Literature 42 (2009). Grimm’s Cinderella: Or, The Little Glass Slipper
Further Readings
Kork, Bert. "The People vs. Harry Potter." Pravda (21 March 2005)
http://english.pravda.ru/society/family/26-08-2003/3582-potter-0/
Skoglund, Kristin Flaten: The war between good and evil in children's literature: A study of
children's fiction by C.S. Lewis, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling. Bergen 2003.
Children's Literature: A Reader's History, from Aesop to Harry Potter, Seth Lerer, Chicago
University Press (2009).
Ballard, S. B.: "Thoughts on Harry Potter: Wizardry, Good and Evil." In: Anglican Theological Review 82 (2000), 173-176.
Discussion Questions
1. How does the series illustrate the dualism between good and evil? Does Harry Potter
perpetuate the Cinderella story or add another dimension to it?
Student Presentation
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Presentations will collect relevant excerpts from the texts that retell an old story of good versus
evil and trace their origins to ask what some of the common good/evil binaries the texts
borrow from are.
Week 3: Harry Potter and Gender
Essential Readings
Yeo, M. (2004). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Feminist Interpretations/Jungian
Dreams. Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education, 4(1), 1-10.
Heilman, E. (2003). Blue Wizards and Pink Witches: Representations of Gender Identity and
Power. In E. Heilman Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter. 221-237 New York, NY. Routledge
Gallardo, Ximena C., and C. Jason Smith. "Cinderfella: J.K. Rowling's Wily Web of Gender."
Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays. Ed. Gizelle Liza Anatole. Westport: Praeger, 2003. 191-
206.
Further Readings
Dresang, E.T. (2004). Hermione Granger and the Heritage of Gender. In D. Caselli The Ivory
Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon. 211-242. University of
Missouri Press, Columbia, MO.
Discussion Questions
1. Is there a gender bias or the perpetuation of a gender binary in the series? Where do
mythical creatures fall in the parabola of such a binary?
2. What would feminist critique of the Harry Potter series argue to change in the series?
Student Presentation
Arguments based on challenging a gender stereotype will be presented by students in this to
locate where in the text of the books gender stereotypes emerge.
Week 4: Symbolism, Allusions and Imagery in Harry Potter
Essential Readings
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Of Grammatology, Corrected Edition, Jacques Derrida, translated by Gayatri Chakravorty
Spivak, Johns Hopkins University Press (2013).
Orlando, Virginia Woolf (1928).
The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass (1959).
Further Readings
Duriez, Colin: "Voldemort, Death Eaters, Dementors, and the Dark Arts: A Contemporary
Theology of Spiritual Perversion in the Harry Potter Stories." In: Christopher H. Partridge, Eric
Christianson (Ed.): The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan and Western Demonology in Popular
Culture. London, Oakville, CT.: Equinox, 2008.
Discussion Questions
Student Presentation
Week 5: Why Harry Doesn’t Cast a Spell Over Me – The Problem with
Derivative Imagination and the Politics of Harry Potter
“I must confess to being completely unmoved by the Harry Potter phenomenon. The books
strike me as derivative and bland, and the film versions are, if anything, even worse —
faithful adaptations of schlock. Pulp fiction can be transformed into art, but only if the
film-makers treat the source material with a healthy amount of disrespect (see The
Godfather). The various writers and directors who’ve worked on the Harry Potter
franchise behave like Talmudic scholars adapting the Holy Book. Or, rather, seven Holy
Books, God help us.”
The Spectator, July 2011
Situating itself in reading the political crisis in 2019 India over the Citizenship Amendment
Act 2019 and the National Registration of Citizens by the Indian Government, this week
asks questions about where in the Potter series one may find political references to dissent
and disrespect for “authority”. How does Potter help young (or otherwise!) readers engage
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with and understand the political world around them? Isn’t that what makes literature
“great” or at least relevant to all times anyway?
Readings
Robbins, Ruth Anne. “Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers and Merlin: telling the client’s
story using the characters and paradigm of the archetypal hero’s journey.”Seattle
UL Rev. 29 (2005): 767.
The Veldt, Ray Bradbury (1950)
Dawkins, Richard. "Human chauvinism." (1997): 1015-1020.
Pieces on dissent and authoritarian regimes TBA
Further Readings
Gupta, Suman. Re-Reading Harry Potter. New York: Palgrave, 2003
Remke Kruk, “Harry Potter in the Gulf: Contemporary Islam and the Occult”, British Journal of
Middle Easter States, May 2005, 47-73.
Discussion Questions
1. Is the Harry Potter phenomenon worth all the adulation it receives? Some criticize it as
rehashing old ideas and suffering from derivative imagination that deserves no credit –
how well founded is this criticism?
Student Presentation
Presentations will highlight parts of the texts / movies that strike them as being a product of
derivative imagination and challenge the class to see this aspect of the Harry Potter
phenomenon.
Week 6: Fairy Tale and Allegory from The Mahabharata to the Order of the
Phoenix
“Tell me a story...”
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There is a lot of power in a simple story, especially when we are the age in which we believe
whatever we are told. When we are older, we are still ready to listen to a story and enjoy it even
if we do not really believe it. That is why a story is such a powerful medium for ideas, and some
of the most powerful stories are also some of the simplest—such as fairy tales and allegories.
An allegory is a fictional story that presents a spiritual truth. To outward view it is simply a
story, but when properly understood, it is a careful picture of something that is difficult to draw.
It is a story that takes truths that are hard for the oldest people to understand and shows them
to us through the eyes of a child.
Allegories often use make-believe elements such as spells and magic and mythical creatures; but
this is not true of all allegories. Some seem only an ordinary everyday story until you discover
the hidden meanings underneath the characters and storyline. Some very familiar allegories are
the parables in the New Testament. They are simple stories that can be enjoyed on their own,
but when they are explained in a spiritual sense their meaning suddenly becomes much deeper.
An allegory employs techniques such as symbolism, which is using objects to represent ideas like
love, honour, or envy; and personification, meaning that ideas are represented by people or
animals with personalities and appearances. It is like a miniature theatre where the ideas are the
roles and the characters are the actors who play the roles. An allegory is often much simpler
than an ordinary story. The plot usually has only one main goal, and the characters have one
major characteristic that defines them, such as fear or fury or faithfulness.
Essential Readings
Burke, Jessica. "" How Now, Spirit! Whither Wander You?." Tolkien and Shakespeare: Essays on
Shared Themes and Language 2 (2007): 25.
Natov, Roni. "Harry Potter and the Extraordinariness of the Ordinary." The Lion and the
Unicorn 25.2 (2001): 310-327.
Further Readings
Warner, Marina. From the beast to the blonde: on fairy tales and their tellers. Random House,
1995.
Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser (1590)
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Discussion Questions
1. Does Harry Potter employ allegory and symbolism to tell a fairy tale? What are the
instances in the texts of the books that convey allegory / personification of qualities that
inspire the characters in the plot?
Student Presentation
Students will present examples of allegory from Harry Potter and relate them to the virtues /
morals they then inspire in the characters in the books.
Week 7: Gryffindor and Slytherin: Rivalry and intolerance in Harry Potter
In Harry Potter, a student can persuade the Sorting Hat to an extent, to be allotted to the house
of their choice; this choice is later revealed as essential to the assignment scheme of the hat.
How the rivalry between the two houses affects the characterization of the main actors in the
story influences throughout the series.
Essential Readings
Tonry, Michael, Julian Roberts, and William Schabas. "Encouraging Difference at Hogwarts:
Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff as ‘the Other Ones’(Mónica Reina)."THE HARRY POTTER SERIES:
168.
Long, David. "Quidditch, Imperialism, and the Sport—War Intertext." Harry Potter and
International Relations (2006): 127.
Discussion Questions
1. What characteristics do the different houses symbolize in the books – how do these affect
the destinies of the actors in the plot?
Student Presentation
Presentations will be made based on parts of the text that evidence rivalry between the two
houses and how they go on to influence the characters in the novel.
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Week 8: Harry Potter and Torture: From the Cruciatus Curse to Hamdan v.
Rumsfeld During this session we examine the right to life and the prohibition against enforced disappearances, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment which are core human rights that protect the integrity of the human person. We explore both the status and scope of the right to life and the prohibition against torture in the context of the magical curses as well as in case law.
Essential Readings
Schwabach, Aaron: "Unforgivable Curses and the Rule of Law" in Thomas, Jeffrey E. (Ed.): Harry Potter and the Law. Texas Wesleyan Law Review 12:1 (2005)
Boumediene v. Bush 553 U.S. 723 (2008) Rasul v. Bush 542 U.S. 466 (2004) Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006) Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 (2004) Why Not Torture? Simon Chesterman, December 17, 2014 (working paper)
Further Readings
Brown, Stephen: "Torment Your Customers (They'll Love It)." In: Harvard Business Review 79:9
(October 2001), 82-88.
Discussion Questions
1. Why is torture an unforgivable curse? What does the use of the word unforgivable
suggest in the context of the series?
2. In later books, parts of the Harry Potter series appear to speak to a system which
endorses the use of torture not only as a means to gain information, but also as a tool to
prove one’s superiority – how does this observation engender a modern reading of the
texts from the perspective of a universal prohibition against torture and the right not to
be tortured as a human right?
3. Was torture used against defenseless non-magical beings in Harry Potter?
Student Presentation
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Presentations will find evidence in the texts that form the series that show the use of torture in
the magical world and show points of convergence and divergence between torture as a
human rights violation and as an unforgivable curse.
Week 9: Harry Potter and the Law and Ethics of the Death Penalty
In a world where offenders and the condemned co-exist in forboding Azkaban, what is the Harry
Potter series’ take on capital punishment? This week studies contemporary legal writing on the
cultural uses of capital punishment and excerpts from the Harry Potter series on invocation of
the death penalty by bureaucrats, the Wizengamot, and even in duels between wizards.
Essential Readings
Garland, David. "The cultural uses of capital punishment." Punishment & Society 4.4 (2002):
459-487.
Barton, Benjamin H. "Harry Potter and the half-crazed bureaucracy." Mich. L. Rev. 104 (2005):
1523.
Further Readings
Bryan, Charles S.: "Myth, Magic, and Muggles: Harry Potter and the Future of Medicine."
In: The Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association 96:12 (2000), 514-518.
Mroczek, Breanna. "Split Seven Ways: The Magic of Death in the Harry Potter Novels." Magic is
Might 2012 (2013).
Discussion Questions
1. What are the cultural connotations of capital punishment in the series? Is there
punishment for wrongly imposing the death penalty? Is there a rule of law mechanism in
the wizarding world and what judicial checks and balances exist in curbing the excesses
of bureaucracy?
Student Presentation
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Presentations will locate portions of the text from the Harry Potter series to collate a narrative
that will then be used as material in an in-class policy debate with the motion – “The Harry
Potter series supports the imposition of capital punishment but does not define capital offences”
Week 10: From Thucydides to Harry Potter: Might as Right
Harry Potter and the philosophy of governing with the motto ‘might is right’ in studied in this
week. What is the role of the state in the magical world? How is the determination of the
mightier made?
Essential Readings
Whited, Lana A. "Magic is Might: Social Control, Hierarchy, and the Wizarding Economy in
Harry Potter (Kyle Ritchie)." THE HARRY POTTER SERIES: 174.
History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides (431 BC) [excerpted]
Mendlesohn, Farah: "Crowning the King: Harry Potter and the Construction of Authority."
In: Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 12:3 (2001), 287-308. [reprinted in Whited (Ed.), The
Ivory Tower and Harry Potter, 159-181.]
Further Readings
Chappell, Drew. "Sneaking out after dark: Resistance, agency, and the postmodern child in JK
Rowling’s Harry Potter series." Children's Literature in Education 39.4 (2008): 281-293.
Discussion Questions
1. Magic is Might – meaning and relevance to the development of the story; how does it
connect the destinies of the main characters in the series?
Student Presentation
Presentations will be made that connect theories of utilitarianism in governance to the
philosophy of governing under “might is right” using a historical sketch from Thucydides to
modern international law.
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Week 11: Suspension of Disbelief in the Harry Potter series & Interactive
Harry Potter quiz and movie screening
There will be a Harry Potter quiz based on all the books and a screening of the movies based on
the series. This will be followed by a student lead story telling session on how the series creates
suspension of disbelief.
Week 12: Muggles and magic: Innocence Lost and the Recovery of
Enchantment
This week we read magical realism into Harry Potter and study utopian and dystopian
caricaturing in literature as powerful tools of narration for the young adult. We look at examples
from the Harry Potter series to see how magical tales must be told forcefully, with extreme
situations and impossible conquests, in order to emphasize the enchantment of the narrative.
Yet, there is a relatability about a boy who lives in suburban London with unkind relatives that is
hard to situate in an otherwise magical world.
Essential Readings
Beahm, George, and Tim Kirk. Muggles and Magic: An Unofficial Guide to JK Rowling and the
Harry Potter Phenomenon. Hampton Roads Publishing Company Incorporated, 2007.
Totaro, Rebecca Carol Noel: "Suffering in Utopia: Testing the limits in young adult novels." In:
Carrie Hintz, Elaine Ostry (Eds.): Utopian and dystopian writing for children and young
adults. New York: Routledge, 2002, 127-138.
Kern, Edmund. The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us about Moral
Choices. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003.
Further Readings
Baggett, David. "Magic, Muggles and the moral imagination." (2004).
Orme, Jennifer. "Lies That Tell the Truth: Magic Realism Seen through Contemporary Fiction
from Britain (review)." Marvels & Tales 22.2 (2008): 339-341.
Discussion Questions
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1. How does a utopian / dystopian story create its basic story? Into what fit does the Harry
Potter series fall?
2. How does the breaking of magical realism occur in Harry Potter? How does it connect
reality with enchantment?
Student Presentation
Presentations will be on understanding Harry Potter as a dystopian / utopian novel; on
finding the imagery in the text that conveys the element of magical realism; and discussing
where the real and magical interface in the text of the books.
Week 13: Boys in Literature: Ideals of manhood: courage, ingenuity and
integrity
Popular culture is heavily influenced by literature in creating boy heroes from epics and famous
novels. From Krishna to Peter Pan, and Tom Sawyer to Harry Potter, the Lord of the Flies
imagery of brave young men taking on all the challenges the world throws at them and emerging
victorious against all odds is a timeless strategy to create a loyal readership.
Essential Readings
Robbins, Ruth Anne. "Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers and Merlin: telling the client's story using the characters and paradigm of the archetypal hero's journey."Seattle UL Rev. 29 (2005): 767.
Green, Martin. "JM Barrie: Peter Pan and the Idealization of Boyhood, Children's Literature 10.1 (1982): 159-162.
Wannamaker, Annette: Boys in children's literature and popular culture. Masculinity, abjection, and the fictional child. New York: Routledge, 2007 (Children's literature and culture 46).
Wannamaker, Annette: "Men in Cloaks and High-heeled Boots, Men Wielding Pink Umbrellas: Witchy Masculinities in the Harry Potter novels." In: The Looking Glass: An On-line Children's Literature Journal 10:1 (2006).
Further Readings
Mullen, Alexandra: "Harry Potter's Schooldays: Tom Brown, Harry Potter, and other Schoolboy
Heroes." In: The Hudson review: A magazine of literature and the arts53:1 (2000), 127-135.
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Whited, Lana A., and M. Katherine Grimes. “What Would Harry Do? J. K. Rowling and
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theories of Moral Development.” The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter. Ed.
Lana A. Whited. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2002.
Van Praagh, Shauna: "Adolescence, Autonomy and Harry Potter: The Child as Decision-Maker." In: International Journal of Law in Context 1:4 (2005), 335-373.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain (1876)
Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up, J.M. Barrie (1902)
Discussion Questions
1. What are the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity and its idealization through
creating boy heroes in the Harry Potter series? What are the manifest conditions that
emulate this characterization in society?
Student Presentation
Presentations from the Harry Potter series and other boy-hero books of instances and stories
that illustrate the boy-hero perspective of the narrative.
Week 14: The Sorting Hat - The Indian Caste system mirrored in the magical
world: Of goblins, house-elves and untouchability
This week is full of conversations about the “other” in Harry Potter. We discuss the second class
citizens in light of the Indian caste system and trace parallelisms in the narrative of societal
hierarchy and discrimination.
Essential Readings
The Threats to Secular India, Amartya Sen, Social Scientist, Vol. 21, No.3/4 (March-April 1993)
pp.5-23.
Galanter, Marc, "Untouchability and the Law", Economic and Political Weekly(1969): 131-170.
Dickerson, Darby. "Professor Dumbledore's Advice for Law Deans." U. Tol. L. Rev. 39 (2007):
269.
Further Readings
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Elaine Ostry, “Accepting Mudbloods: The Ambivalent Social Vision in J.K. Rowling’s Fairy
Tales,” in Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays, ed. Giselle Liza Anatol (Westport, Connecticut:
Praeger, 2003).
Discussion Questions
1. Who are the “others” existing outside the system in the Harry Potter series? What are the
instances of reifying their “otherness” in the series (brought out through student
presentations from the books). By standing up for their “rights”, does Harry Potter
endear himself to these groups?
2. What are social parallels in the Indian caste system? What common criteria can we distill
from these projections?
3. How is the giving of a sock symbolic in the Harry Potter series? How does it correspond
with affirmative action / positive discrimination policies?
4. Are there further parallels to be drawn between the disabled and squibs?
Student Presentations
Presentations from the Harry Potter series on instances and stories of oppression and
discrimination against the “others” by the magical community. These could include, among
others, house elves, goblins, giants, muggles, mud-bloods and squibs.
Week 15: Review