Book Review: The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter (long)

Tue Dec 31 19:59:37 UTC 2002

No: HPFGUIDX 49031

Hi all --

I hope many of you will enjoy the following book review.  I'm pleased to
note that precious few of the issues touched on in these essays by scholars
would be new to this group; we've discussed many of these issues and themes
off-and-on for over three years now.  The book will be of interest to many
of you though, and it's definitely a great investment for the obsessed HP
fans among us.

Note: The one surprising thing about this collection of 16 essays is the
scanty and superficial discussion of Snape.  It's a very strange omission,
judging from the level of discussions he's inspired among our members.

The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon,
edited by Lana Whited (University of Missouri Press 2003).

Whited's work is a thought-provoking collection of essays and critiques of
J.K. Rowling's highly successful and popular, yet frequently criticized,
Harry Potter series.  Whited, along with a number of the contributing
authors, address the overall questions of: (a) are the Harry Potter novels,
marketed primarily to children to date but highly successful with adult
readers as well, worthy of critical study and acclaim, (b) are they destined
to be classics or are they merely a passing popular phenomenon, and (c)
perhaps most importantly for this particular audience, is there any merit to
charges by critics such as William Safire that the HP books are a waste of
adult reading time?

Although it will make this review lengthier than might be customary, I've
decided to give comments on each individual article included within the
collection.

1.                  "Harry Potter and the Secret Password: Finding our Way
in the Magical Genre" by Amanda Cockrell.

Cockrell argues that HP is successful largely because of Rowling's humor and
ambiguous and multi-dimensional characters.  She compares the books to some
literary antecedents and concludes that Rowling is writing a story about a
young boy's journey into selfhood and identity.  She too takes issue with
the criticisms of Safire, Bloom and other critics that the series is not
worth adult attention, and notes that as the characters age, the series
becomes even more complex and adult.

2.                  "The Education of a Wizard: Harry Potter and his
Predecessors" by Pat Pinsent

Pinsent compares HP with the works by Ursula Le Guin, Jill Murphy, Diana
Wynne Jones, Anthony Horowitz and Roald Dahl.  While she concludes that
Rowling may be consciously or unconsciously melding elements from these and
other works into her novels, she has certainly taken a fresh approach to
both the fantasy and school story genres.

3.                  "In Medias Res: Harry Potter as Hero-in-Progress" by
Mary Pharr -

Pharr compares Harry as hero with other heroic literary figures: Gilgamesh,
King Arthur, Clark Kent and Luke Skywalker.  She views the series as a
bildungsroman, a hero's journey and spends time examining the role each
principal character plays in Harry's development (the Potters as the
foundation, the Dursleys as the counterpoint, Dumbledore as mentor and
guardian, Sirius as the family tie and Ron and Hermione as friends).  Pharr
believes the HP books are novels with much to offer both adult and child
readers and is critical of the New York Times decision to relegate the HP
books to their newly-created childrens' bestseller lists.  Emphasizing Harry
as a very human and touching hero, Pharr concludes that Rowling's works have
much to teach us all about moral action and choices made through exercise of
free will.

4.                  "Of Magicals and Muggles: Reversals and Revulsions at
Hogwarts" by Jann Lacoss -

Lacoss posits the wizarding world as a folk group with its own set of
folklore.  She argues that each year at Hogwarts represents a rite of
passage toward membership in the adult folk group of wizarding society.
Much of this article is devoted to an in-depth examination of Rowling's
effective use of "reversals" in the HP books: things that are turned around
so that they seem to do the opposite of what they are intended to do.

5.                  "Harry Potter: Fairy Tale Prince, Real Boy and
Archetypal Hero" by M. Katherine Grimes -

In this article, Grimes makes an effective case for HP as a truly
cross-generational series: Harry is a fairy tale prince to young readers, a
"real boy" to adolescent fans and an archetypal hero to adult readers.
Grimes examines each one in turn, using Bettelheim's criteria in her fairy
tale analysis.  She compares/contrasts HP with various other classic
"realistic" novels read by adolescents and adults ("Oliver Twist," "To Kill
a Mockingbird," "Huckleberry Finn," "Jane Eyre," "Emma" and others).  By
reading "realistic" literature, teenagers learn that they can survive
tribulations that life throws them and still succeed.  Grimes also makes
note of the extraordinary popular appeal of HP with adults.  In her
archetypal hero analysis, Grimes finds that HP meets 9 of the 10 elements of
Otto Rank's criteria for an archetypal hero.  She analyzes each of Harry's 6
father figures in turn, noting that archetypal heroes typically must
reconcile with or exact vengeance against their father or father figure.
Grimes then turns to a discussion of the themes of birth and rebirth in the
series.  She concludes with an overarching question: will Rowling follow
Rank's formula and end the series happily with Harry as triumphant hero or
the Lord Raglan model and end it with the death of our hero?

6.                  "Harry Potter and the Extraordinariness of the Ordinary"
by Roni Natov -

Natov examines Harry as "Every Man."  She argues that the magical setting of
the HP novels casts the awe and wonder of ordinary life into greater
clarity.

7.                  "Harry Potter, Tom Brown, and the British School Story:
Lost in Transit?" by David K. Steege -

This article compares the contemporary HP novels with the 19th-century
classic boarding school books by Thomas Hughes, "Tom Brown's School Days."
Steege believes that the HP series is an example of the post-Empire boarding
school genre.

8.                  "Crowning the King: Harry Potter and the Construction of
Authority" by Farah Mendlesohn -

Mendlesohn takes a close look at the structure of authority within the
universe of the HP books, concluding that Rowling advocates a traditional
and conservative hierarchial system that maintains the status quo.  She
paints Harry as a passive hero who is successful largely due to "inherited"
talents and assistance from others, a "gentleman scholar" (a star on the
playing field and passably bright).  She argues that the Sorting Hat
reinforces the destinarian nature of elitist Hogwarts and is not at all
about personal choices.  Mendlesohn also takes a dim view of wizarding
society on the whole.  As one example, given that Hogsmeade is the only
non-Muggle village in all of the UK, she believes that the only logical
explanation for the wizarding world's general ignorance of Muggle life is
that that the wizards employ segregationist and imperialist hierarchies in
daily life.

While this piece is without question the most critical of the HP series in
Whited's book, it is thought-provoking and worthy of further discussion.  I
do note, however, that many of Mendlesohn's arguments are undermined by her
misinterpretations of the text or reliance on factual inaccuracies.

9.                  "What Would Harry Do?  J.K. Rowling and Lawrence
Kohlberg's Theories of Moral Development" by Lana Whited -

Whited evaluates the HP characters within the framework of Lawrence Kohlberg
's scheme of moral maturation (two stages at each of the three levels of
Preconventional, Conventional and Post-Conventional for a total of 6
possible stages of development).  People operating at the Post-Conventional
level recognize that laws and rules can be broken for higher principles or
moral laws.

Whited believes that both Dumbledore and Sirius Black operate at this level
and that Sirius Black may even arguably reach Stage 6 reasoning during the
pivotal scene in the Shrieking Shack of PoA.  She finds that both Harry and
Hermione (by year 4) are operating comfortably at the Post-Conventional
level. She points out that while children often regress to earlier stages of
development within Kohlberg's schematics, it is rare for regressions to
occur once an individual is operating at the Stage 5 level.  Whited
concludes that the HP series serves as an excellent means of encouraging
children and adolescents to begin thinking at the post-conventional level.

10.              "Hermione Granger and the Heritage of Gender" by Eliza T.
Dresang -

Dresang begins her critique of the treatment of gender in the HP series by
tracing the various "Hermiones" of mythology and literature, concluding that
all of Hermione Granger's literary antecedents are strong, intellectual and
resilient individuals.  She uses the post-modernist approach of evaluating
Rowling's female characters as they *were* written (rather than how they
*might* have been written).

Dresang concludes that Rowling's descriptive adjectives and verbs often
place Hermione at odds with her core character (the whining and shrieking
doesn't mesh at all with what we the readers know about Hermione's
strength).  This use of stereotypical descriptive language is perhaps
Rowling's greatest weakness with respect to her female characters.
Nevertheless, Dresang is overall very optimistic about Hermione's
self-determination and role in the series.  Dresang notes that Hermione has
played a decisive role in all the key events of each novel in the series and
she sticks to her principles.  She does, however, believe that Hermione and
McGonagall are the only truly developed female characters thus far.  Dresang
takes issue with critics Mendlesohn (see above) and Schoefer for their
appraisals of Minerva McGonagall, noting that McGonagall is depicted as
wise, fair, capable of disregarding rules for higher principles and
empowered within the otherwise largely male hierarchy of Hogwarts.  Dresang
believes Rowling has depicted a realistic view of gender that mirrors that
of the current muggle world, though she reserves some criticism for Rowling'
s desciptive language as applied to the female characters.

11.              "Locating Harry Potter in the 'Boy's Book' Market" by Terri
Doughty -

Doughty compares HP to other young adult fiction that appeals to males.  She
sees the series as becoming darker and more complex, with GoF marking the
beginning of Harry's passage into adulthood.  She concludes that the fantasy
genre, represented by novels such as HP, may be more popular than other
"realistic" problem-based books available to adolescent boys.

12.              "You say 'Jelly.'  I Say 'Jell-O?'  Harry Potter and the
Transfiguration of Language" by Philip Nel -

Nel evaluates the "translation" of British English to American English in
both HP and other books.  He argues that in many cases, the *meaning* was
changed and that the assertion by Scholastic's Levine (and confirmed by
Rowling) that the intent was to ensure that American children had the same
reading experience as British children is flawed.  Nel asserts that
Scholastic's versions of the first 3 books in the series are an example of
cultural imperialism.  He wasn't able to discern any more than we have
whether the significantly fewer changes to Scholastic's GoF version was the
result of lack of time or a dawning realization by Scholastic that the
public preferred that the texts not be "Americanized."  He does concede that
in some instances, the changes clarified the text and even anticipated
reader questions to great effect (and he argues that these changes should be
adopted into later Bloomsbury printings).

However, he overall believes that the "Americanization" of the Scholastic
versions was misguided.  Nel is particularly critical of context changes
(bogey changed to booger), equivalent word changes (motorbike changed to
motorcycle) and onomatopoetic word changes (splutter changed to sputter).
Nel cautions that with such intricately-plotted novels, all the details
count and that seemingly minor changes may have greater ramifications in
future novels than the editors realize.

13.              "Harry Potter and the Tower of Babel: Translating the
 Magic" by Nancy K. Jentsch -

Jentsch examines the challenges to translating the HP books into different
languages.  She notes that class issues are an important issue in the books
and present particular challenges for translators.  Jentsch evaluates the
French, German and Spanish translations fairly extensively.

14.              "Specters of Thatcherism: Contemporary British Culture in
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series," by Karin E. Westman

Westman takes issue with the prevalent pre-GoF notion that the HP books were
a nostalgic throw-back, Edwardian.  She believes that the books are meant to
mirror post-Thatcher Britain.  Contrary to popular opinion, Westman asserts
that the first 3 books clearly laid the foundation for many of the racial
and class tensions readily apparent in GoF.  Westman makes a strong case for
the inclusion of the long QWC sequence in GoF thematically.  She believes
that the conflicting ideas about muggle-wizard relations apparent in the
wizarding world parallel the racially-motivated conflicts in contemporary
Britain.  Westman argues that Rowling's "sharpest critique of racial
prejudice and materialist politics appears through Ron Weasley."  She
contends that while the House Elves will suggest the slavery of American
past to American readers, the House Elves will suggest class issues in
contemporary Britian to British readers.  Westman concludes that Rowling is
not writing a *parallel* universe so much as one that mirrors the problems
facing our own muggle world.

15.              "Harry Potter and the Technology of Magic" by Elizabeth
Teare -

Teare evaluates the HP books in terms of the "commodity culture" of modern
children, noting that the wizarding world is just as commercialized and
obsessed with technologies and material possessions as we muggles.

16.              "Apprentice Wizards Welcome: Fan Communities and the
Culture of Harry Potter" by Rebecca Sutherland Borah -

Borah asserts that the HP fandom is more diverse than any other fandom.  She
notes that the books have a large (possibly even approaching a majority)
following among adult readers.  She examines the controversy between Warner
Bros. and fan website owners in some detail.  Borah also comments on the
question of what makes some people fans as opposed to just readers or
members of an audience, concluding that fans are people who read, re-read
and interpret the source texts many times over (seeking out other fans to
discuss and reshape their readings).  Unfortunately, Borah doesn't seem to
have found our group (or any of the thriving adult fandom sites for that
matter), so her evaluation of our fandom is focused mainly based on message
boards frequented by child and adolescent fans.

********

While we welcome discussion of the substantive issues raised by this review
or the articles/essays included in the Ivory Tower book on the main list,
please take any questions about acquiring a copy, borrowing a copy, pricing,
etc. to our OT-Chatter list.

Hope you enjoyed this - I'm planning to write similar reviews of other HP
secondary sources in the coming month.

Penny