The Ethos of Harry
Potter: Art, Influence, Delight
Chair: Anne Hiebert Alton
Department of
English, Anspach Hall 228,
E-Mail: Anne.Hiebert.Alton@cmich.edu
Phone: 989-774-3560
Abstracts
Gretchen Papazian,
“Candy, Books, and
Broomsticks: Consuming (in) Harry Potter
Through extended scenes of shopping and scenes of eating,
the Harry Potter series teaches (young) readers the joys of consumer
practices. In this, the series
constructs pleasure as consumption. In
fact, as readers experience pleasure in reading, one might argue that they are
being primed to participate in the Harry Potter franchise—to buy Harry Potter
stuff, to attend Harry Potter movies, and to buy more books.
However, the series’ use of consumer practices is more
complex than mere crass exploitation of the reader-base as a way of sustaining
itself. The series constructs readers,
as well as consumers. And, in creating
(young) readers, the Harry Potter series does not merely maintain itself; it
empowers those readers, in part by by giving them
power in consumer society—that is, it gives them the power to consume, it
legitimizes them as consumers (rather than exploiting them as consumers).
Ultimately, the paper is interested in thinking about the
implications and possible consequences of such an endeavor. Do children’s series (such as Harry Potter)
suggest that being a consumer the only power one can have in a consumer
society? Are consumer practices the only
way one can construct identity in a consumer society? Does being the consumer exempt one from being
the consumed? Do consumer practices
serve purposes other than acquisition or ingestion (therapeutic, for example,
as suggested by scholars like T.J. Jackson-Lears)?
Rochelle Harris,
“Composing a
Wizard/Revealing a Culture: A Rhetorical
Analysis of the Struggle for Ethos in Harry
Potter”
The earliest conceptions of ethos in rhetorical theory come from the Greco-Roman tradition, primarily Aristotle and Quintillian, in which ethos was defined as the trust a speaker conveyed during a speech and/or the moral authority of the speaker. Contemporary theories of ethos regard it as a function of discourse where speakers can deliberate from situated, contextualized, and contingent social identities.
How does such a study of the meanings and uses of the rhetorical concept of “ethos” get us closer to an understanding of how the character of Harry Potter is composed and to what ends? By studying the rhetorical composition of key scenes from earlier and later books in Rowling’s series—including wand selection at Olivander’s (Book One) and a conversation with Sirius in the fire (Book Five)—I reveal that Harry is positioned between competing ethos, like the schoolboy, the human/Muggle, being famous, and the wizard. The identity of wizard is consistently the ethos Harry is asked to choose, even against versions of the wizard identity, like being a schoolboy at Hogwarts or a talented Quidditch player. I argue that the movement between different ethos that Harry makes not only allow us to expand the concept of ethos itself but also to give us a clue as to why audiences read him so carefully. These are the shifts we, in our postmodern profusion of racialized, gendered, and class identities, have to make. We are drawn to Harry’s search, choices, and deliberate choosing of a radical and socially-aware ethos.
Susan Larkin,
“Do You Believe in
Magic?: Considering Power, Agency, and Wizardry in the
Harry Potter Novels”
The students at Hogwarts, some readers and critics, and most notably many who call for the censorship of Harry Potter, see magic as the source of power in the novels, but I will argue that while the wizardry adds an element of fun and fantasy to the book, it actually has little tangible value for the characters. Moreover, power and agency in the novels come most often to the characters at Hogwarts when they realize that the magical skills that they are learning are merely tools that are of little use without the other qualities that we see extolled throughout the novels such as wisdom, love, knowledge, loyalty, and patience.
What the presence of magic does do quite effectively is to make transparent the adolescent struggles to claim power and agency. This struggle is the core of adolescence, as Roberta Seelinger Trites explains in Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Fiction, “Without experiencing gradations between power and powerlessness, the adolescent cannot grow. Thus, power is even more fundamental to adolescent literature than growth” (x). As Harry and the students at Hogwarts work to learn Transfiguration, Divination, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, they are really learning how to recognize and exert their power as well as the extent of their powerlessness, and how to deal with both sides of the continuum.
This paper will examine magic not only as a tool for the characters, but also for the readers, and the role that it plays in this fantasy world of J.K. Rowling’s. In addition to Trites, I will also consider the work of theorists such as Judith P. Robertson, Elizabeth E. Heilman, and Maria Nikolajeva as I explore the relationship between magic and power in the Harry Potter books.
Anne Hiebert Alton
“Mere Entertainment or Art for the Ages?: The Genius of Harry
Potter ”
Since its first appearance in 1997, J. K. Rowling’s Harry
Potter series has become one of
the most popular series, as well as one of the most intriguing phenomena, of
our time. In addition to featuring in six books with his name on them, Harry
Potter and his friends have appeared in four full-length feature films (with a
fifth currently in progress) and on the covers of Time, Newsweek, Vanity
Fair, and even Mad magazines. They have been the subjects of
innumerable ‘highbrow’ academic studies as well as many more popular websites
and on-line discussion groups and blogs; their images
have appeared on posters, bookmarks, magnets, t-shirts, backpacks, and all of
the other ephemera of popular culture, from action figures to Christmas
ornaments to expensive jewelry. This radical mix of ‘highbrow’ and ‘lowbrow’ reactions to the series,
however, creates a puzzle when attempting to achieve some sort of consensus
about the books: in the end, while Harry
Potter has certainly provided popular entertainment for the masses, what
significance does the series have for those who consider literature one of the
classical arts?
“Mere
Entertainment or Art for the Ages?: The Genius of Harry Potter ”
addresses this question through applying current genre theory to Rowling’s
series, and argues that the overwhelming success of the series can be traced to Rowling’s
incorporation of not only mainstream genres such as fantasy, adventure, and
epic but also popular genres such as pulp fiction, detective stories,
gothic literature, and sports tales. This paper evaluates the extent to which
the series’ mosaic of genres contributes to its tremendous success, and addresses the ultimate question asked by both
popular readers and critics alike: is the Harry
Potter series art – and does it matter?