Inside the World of Harry Potter

Many scholars recognize the importance of Harry Potter as a vehicle for discussions about society—from race relations and gender studies to economic, political, religious and educational applications of the texts.
This interdisciplinary collection of new essays brings to the forefront a critique of modern Western society, using Harry’s world as a mirror to our own. Covering issues surrounding parenting and family relations, social class, life and death, the link between identity and morality and even the risks of time travel, this collection provides many jumping-off points for scholars and nonscholars alike to spark discussions about both Harry’s world and our own.

Christopher E. Bell is an associate professor of media studies in the department of communication at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, specializing in the study of the ways in which race, class and gender intersect in different forms of children’s media. He is a TED speaker, a diversity and inclusiveness consultant for Pixar Animation Studios, a 2017 David Letterman Award winning media scholar and the 2017 Denver Comic Con Popular Culture Educator of the Year.

Edited by Christopher E. Bell
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 191
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2018
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7355-4
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3413-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Introduction (Christopher E. Bell) 1
Gone but Not Forgotten: The Missing Mothers of the Wizarding World
(Kate Fulton and Alicia L. Skipper) 7
“Beyond the veil”: The Narrative Functions of Death (Samantha J. Vertosick) 21
“I don’t think you’re a waste of space”: Activity, Redemption and the Social Construction of Fatness (Tolonda Henderson) 33
Of the Patil Twins (Soma Das) 44
Time Travel and the Cursed Child (Elizabeth Morrow Clark) 59
Frisky, Risky Firewhisky: The Rhetorical Function of Alcohol (Lauren Camacci) 76
Pure-Bloods, ­Half-Bloods and Mudbloods (Camilla Schroeder) 92
“You have your mother’s eyes”: Inheritance and Social Class (Alison Baker) 103
The First Gift: Owls as Paragons of the ­Non-Human (Keri Stevenson) 116
Dangerous Depictions of Adoption in Rowling’s Wizarding World Narratives (Tara Moore) 130
Harry Potter and the Paradoxes of Fidelity (Jelena Borojević) 147
What Is a Hero?: An Analysis of Legacy Symbolism (Marley ­Stuever-Williford) 161
About the Contributors 177
Index 181