Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Discourse on the purity of Blood and Harry Potter

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  • Discourse on the purity of Blood and Harry Potter: How do the novels play with the thesis of pure blood (Master Race) giving an anti-thesis by belonging protagonists to half-blood / Mud-blood? What sort of synthesis is sought in this discourse in Harry Potter series?



  •                                               The wizarding world has its own sociopolitical hierarchy, with purebloods (wizards born to two wizard parents) at the top, followed by half-bloods (wizards with one Muggle parent), Muggle-borns (wizards born to nonmagical parents who are occasionally referred to by the slur “mudblood”), and squibs (nonmagical people born to wizard parents). Muggles are below all of these. However, despite the breadth of the Potter empire, Rowling never dives into the biases inherent among wizards that make these distinctions necessary or examines the tendency to look the other way when oppression is happening under our noses.



                                                      I would explore many other directions with this book series. One such possibility for future study is a Freudian investigation of the “lost boys,” that is: Harry, Snape and Voldemort. Another research idea with potential is to study the etymology of the many terms and names used (or created) for this series; even a cursory glance at those words reveal that there are some language patterns present, though the definitions and uses of the words themselves would be interesting to look more closely into.


                                                       Other important areas of study include a feminist approach (perhaps investigating how the female characters function in the story), a look at the representation (or lack thereof) of LGBTQ characters – other than Dumbledore, because surely the lack of adolescents with such identities are not representative of real life - or, rather, a look at the pedagogical methods and changes that occur within Hogwarts, but another question, and perhaps one of the hardest questions to answer, would be to look at the problematic nature of how Rowling’s anti-racist sentiments are designed; that is, should we be discussing (as I have done) the work itself, or her treatment of the work?


                                                      Though the outlook of this series includes optimistic messages of equality 54 and ethnic diversity, Rowling has received quite a bit of criticism for the lack of diversity presented in her human characters. However, as the literary merit of the series becomes more established, and more widely used in schools (from primary to university levels), it is probably most beneficial to examine how this young adult series might be further adapted for classroom use and discussion.
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