4) General literary criticism of the Harry Potter series
There is also another class of books written about the Harry Potter series and these
provide general information on and about the Harry Potter novels and Rowling. They are
designed for the general reader and discuss strengths, weaknesses, themes and issues raised in
the narratives. Authors offer varied perspectives on the series because of the ideologies that
affect their appraisal of them. As McGillis (1996) states: “all reading demands a theoretical
position on the part of the reader” (p. viii). McGillis also makes mention of the different
types of theoretical positions people bring to their reading of literature. These include reading
from a viewpoint based on an understanding of myths and archetypes, feminism, Marxism,
structuralism, formalism and post-structuralism criticism. Authors in this section and the
section below draw on these various theoretical positions to interpret the Harry Potter novels.
The most general of these critical books are: Contemporary classics of children’s
literature: A guide to the Harry Potter novels (Eccleshare, 2002), J. K. Rowling’s Harry
Potter novels: A reader’s guide, (Nel, 2001), and Beacham’s sourcebooks for teaching young
adult fiction: Exploring Harry Potter (Schafer, 2002). Julia Eccleshare (2002) is very general
in her approach to the Harry Potter novels but very perceptive in that she draws from a
variety of theoretical positions in reviewing the series without being overwhelmed by any particularly theoretical approach. She stresses the importance of the mythical hero in the
books and the use of archetypes for good and evil (pp. 17-18) and also speaks strongly on the
political and social views that Rowling supports in the books (pp. 74-93). Yet Eccleshare also
notes, from a feminist perspective, the unfavourable female stereotypes in the books (pp. 84-
88). Philip Nel’s (2001) work is in a similar vein to Eccleshare’s as he comments on the
different ideologies that are apparent in the series including racism, elitism, prejudice and the
abuse of power (pp. 42-46) and he also recognises the importance of the mythical hero in the
narratives (p. 36).
Elizabeth Schafer’s (2002) approach to the books is to analyse them from a number of
perspectives. She provides an overview of the history and cultural effect of the Harry Potter
series, a biography of Rowling, and an analysis of a variety of aspects of the novels including
the characters, themes, settings, school life, food, sports, curriculum, science and moral
codes. Schafer is particularly strong in the way she highlights the importance of myths,
archetypes and symbols in the series and other influences that affect Rowling’s work.
However, one may feel sceptical regarding some of her interpretations. One opinion that this
author was reluctant to agree with was the view that the Weasley’s flying car, which is able
to expand to accommodate the number of people who wish to travel in it as well as
accommodate their luggage (CoS), can be seen as a symbol of the womb (p. 225).
In this category are books that deal with the cultural impact of the Harry Potter series.
These books include Sticks and stones: The troublesome success of children’s literature from
Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter by Jack Zipes (2002) and The irresistible rise of Harry Potter
(2002) by Andrew Blake. Blake (2002) centres his work specifically on the cultural and
political phenomenon of the Harry Potter books and also mentions the importance of the
hero journey and Arthurian legends to the novels. He argues that the series is a product of
their political and cultural climate, which means that they are a reflection of current ideologies in Great Britain. Blake feels that the character of Harry Potter is a “retrolutionary”
(p. 15), rather than a revolutionary, because he represents “aspects of the future through terms
set by the past, in order to make it seem palatable” (pp. 8-9). Blake’s views are relevant as he
stresses that while the Harry Potter series explores the old and uses past literary forms, the
series deals with, under the surface, present concerns (pp. 17-26). However, Blake is limited
in his analysis by his pre-occupation with British society and culture and therefore fails to
provide his readers with an explanation of why the series has had remarkable success in other
parts of the world away from Great Britain. Blake gives many examples of how the series
reflects much of modern Great Britain’s culture and society, including politics, particularly
its consumerism and involvement in New Labour, as well as its nostalgia for its past.
Renowned literary critic Jack Zipes (2002) devotes a chapter of his book to the Harry
Potter series. Zipes work reflects his personal ideologies as he is a Marxist (Nodelman, p.
258), and a feminist interpretist of fairy tales (McGillis, p. 162). He points to the relevance of
the hero journey to the Harry Potter books, the use of fairy tale motifs and the use of
stereotypical female models in the novels. Zipes finds the novels tedious (p. 176) and
provides limited information on themes found in their covers. He feels that the series draws
on established literary traditions and that Harry Potter is just another Hardy boy with a
lightning-shaped scar on his forehead (p. 178). Zipes seeks books that will revolutionise
children’s thinking and provide them with new cultural and social models rather than make
them more acceptable of current social and cultural models (p. 188). He appears to be upset
with Rowling for not showing a new world view and he does not seem to understand that she
may rather be reflecting, through the books, on our current world situation. His research is
also limited in its reliability as he declares: “while children are not adverse to reading the
Harry Potter adventures and other books, they are adverse to spending money on them” (pp.
185-186), but bases this statement on the comments from one child he spoke to. 5) Academic publications critically examining the Harry Potter series
There is a group of books published specifically about the Harry Potter series that
may be classed as academic or scholarly texts. There are five published books in this area
which are: Re-reading Harry Potter, by Suman Gupta (2003), Reading Harry Potter: Critical
essays, edited by Giselle Anatol (2003), Harry Potter’s world: Multidisciplinary critical
perspectives, edited by Elizabeth Heilman (2003), The ivory tower and Harry Potter:
Perspectives on a literary phenomenon, edited by Lana Whited (2002) and Harry Potter and
Philosophy: If Aristotle ran Hogwarts, edited by David Bagget and Shawn Klein (2004). In
each of these books the authors also bring their ideologies to their study of the Harry Potter
series and therefore a wide variety of interpretations of the text and how it speaks to people
are provided.
Gupta’s (2003) book is, in many ways, particularly disappointing. He uses a “text to
world” methodology which has as its key objective “to understand how specific texts and
their readings lead outwards towards and devolve from the world they occur within” (p.22).
This approach assumes “the content of texts and their possible readings have something to do
with their social and political effects, and indicate something of the social and political
effects, and indicate something of the social and political circumstances they derive from” (p.
22). In reality Gupta really only states what has already been stated previously, particularly
by Blake (2002) and Zipes (2002), which is that the Harry Potter series is based on aspects of
Rowling’s own culture and society (pp. 50 – 52). Gupta’s aim is to concentrate on the
“political and social effects that constitute the Harry Potter phenomenon” (p. 14). The book
tells us something about the social and political world we inhabit (p. 13). This includes
observations on gender, class and slavery. Much of Gupta’s book is a simple reflection on the
realities of our world, both good and bad, e.g. the type of advertising we are inundated with is reflected in the world of Harry Potter (pp. 133-140). A large section of the book contains
long statements on academic controversies or on Gupta’s own views on various areas
including his view that “belief in a Christian world-view seems no more ‘real’ than belief in a
magical world view” (p. 74). This is a particularly controversial comment.
The remaining books in this area contain a number of worthwhile articles, too
numerous to analyse individually. All the articles are by scholars and/or teachers and provide
insight into a large number of areas including the cultural phenomena of the Harry Potter
series as well as many literary aspects of it that have been raised by other critics previously
commented on. Heilman’s (2003) book categorises its contents by the perspectives that
contributors have written from. Tammy Turner-Vorbeck, in her article Pottermania: Good,
clean fun or cultural hegemony? takes a Marxist approach, like Zipes, to the series because of
the way in which the novels seem to support a certain cultural and social model and
encourage this model’s continuance (p. 14), while Maria Nikolajeva’s article, Harry Potter-A
return to the romantic hero (2003), takes a literary perspective in looking at the hero journey
in the series.
An article that I found relevant for this study was written by Hollie Anderson (2003),
a Navajo Indian, who took a reader-response perspective to the books. In the article, Reading
Harry Potter with Navajo eyes, she states that she had been sent to boarding school and found
that in reading the series of books she found “many of the themes pertinent to me personally
as an alien student disconnected from the familiar and also to the experiences of my parents,
both of whom attended boarding school” (Anderson, 2003, p. 97). Thus, she responded to the
series on a very personal level. This particular article shows how one person related to the
Harry Potter narrative, they identified with the novels. It is this connection with narratives
that make them a powerful tool in education. If students relate in a similar way to aspects of
the series then they are more likely to learn from it. Whited’s (2002) book also offers a variety of articles but is dominated by seven
articles which take a particularly literary perspective of the Harry Potter novels in seeking to
trace the influences that have led to their creation. A well-written article is Mary Pharr’s
article In medias res: Harry Potter as hero-in-progress (2002). This article looks at the
central character of Harry Potter as being one who brings with him the wisdom of a myriad of
earlier heroes, especially the so-called monomyth, and with each of his adventures he refines
that wisdom with modern knowledge (p. 66). There are also a number of articles on the social
and political aspects of the books including its relationship not just to New Labour but also to
Thatcherism (Westman, 2002), the series’ value as a means of generating income for
commercial enterprises (Borah, 2002) and the contradictions in the series over issues of
equality versus privilege and exceptionalism (Mendlesohn, 2002).
Anatol’s (2003) book also is separated into sections. One section provides articles on
reading the series in relation to childhood theories, another section is on literal influences on
the books and the third section is on morality and social issues in the novels. All the articles
are useful as they provide input into various areas including both Jungian and Freudian
interpretations of the books, how children acquire knowledge in similarity with the characters
in the series, how Harry’s actions and decisions can assist children in the moving from the
simple black and white issues to the more grey areas, issues of racism, materialism and
slavery portrayed in the books, technology and its effect in alienating people, legal concepts
in the magical world, further discussion on the British love of nostalgia as portrayed in the
books, class prejudices and gender issues. Many of these articles offer new light or reinforce
previously-published views.
Bagget and Klein’s book (2004) takes a philosophical view of the Harry Potter series.
It has specific chapters on the ethics in the series particularly the battle between good and evil
(Deavel & Deavel, 2004, Weed, 2004). Mention is also made of Harry’s virtues and their relevance to his success (Morris, 2004, Hsieh, 2004, Walls, 2004, Patterson, 2004). There is
also a chapter by Mimi Gladstein (2004), which strongly supports Rowling’s depiction of
gender. Gladstein feels that the Harry Potter world is “a world where equal opportunity
among the sexes is a given” (p. 49). These four edited books also show how the novels have
made people reflect on the Harry Potter series in regard to their own beliefs.
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