The Representation Of Women In The Harry Potter Novels

Examination Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics - English - Applied Geography, grade: 1,5, University of Paderborn (Kulturwissenschaften), language: English, abstract: "I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's totally for myself." - Joanne K. Rowling Harry Potter - quite a simple name that has become famous throughout the whole world within just a few years. Shattering numerous publishing records, the seven books of the series written by Joanne K. Rowling have, up until now, sold over 400 million copies worldwide; a sales number that is only topped by the bible (Dammann). [...]

For over a decade, the Harry Potter books have become ubiquitous early texts for children, and are also a popular choice for many adults. Indeed, an entire generation of children has now grown up in the midst of "Pottermania." But beyond the books, movies, web sites, and more, this significant cultural phenomenon also constitutes a powerful form of social text, and speaks volumes about the intersections of ideology, popular culture, and childhood. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter provided the first sustained analyses of the iconic status of the Potter books, bringing together scholars from various disciplines to examine the impact of the series. This thoroughly revised edition includes updated essays on cultural themes and literary analysis, and its new essays analyze the full scope of the seven-book series as both pop cultural phenomenon and as a set of literary texts. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, Second Edition draws on a wider range of intellectual traditions to explore the texts, including moral-theological analysis, psychoanalytic perspectives, and philosophy of technology. The Harry Potter novels engage the social, cultural, and psychological preoccupations of our times, and Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, Second Edition examines these worlds of consciousness and culture, ultimately revealing how modern anxieties and fixations are reflected in these powerful texts. ("DISCLAIMER: This book is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., or anyone associated with the Harry Potter books or movies.")

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2020 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Literatur, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The portrayal of women in the Harry Potter series could be considered a highly controversial topic, especially among feminist advocates. Firstly, J. K. Rowling herself has faced discrimination based on the fact that she is a woman, which is why she ultimately was pressured into releasing the Harry Potter series under a pen name. This was done in order to get the support of a publishing company after getting rejected a total of twelve times. Despite this, many argue that she has portrayed some of the most significant characters within the Harry Potter series in stereotypical to even harmful ways. As there are some, who, especially due to Rowling’s public actions, believe women are not portrayed in a favorable or feminist way in the Harry Potter series, it is the aim of this paper to take a closer look at the seventh, and arguably most important, part of the series to determine whether or not specific characters are portrayed in a stereotypical and sexist ways. I will briefly take on the notion of sex and gender, explained by Connel, West and Zimmerman, as well as gender stereotypes and the way gender is portrayed in children’s literature, introduced by Wilma J. Pyle. Furthermore, I will take a look at the seventh book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and briefly put its content into context. Lastly, I will take on specific female characters and explain, how i. e. through specific language and behavior patterns, they are portrayed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow. In a separate chapter, I will take a closer look at the female protagonist Hermione Granger to discuss, whether she is presented in a stereotypical, sexist way or not and how the way she is portrayed is recognizable in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Females and Harry Potter is a deconstruction of the representations of women's agency in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Using critical discourse analysis and focusing on five themes (rule following and breaking, intelligence, validating and enabling, mothering, and resistance), Mayes-Elma explores the construction of traditional gender roles in the book. Additionally, the author locates the foundations of feminist epistemology--binary oppositions, gender boundaries, and woman as "other"--that is deeply embedded within the book's themes. Traditional gender constructions of both men and women are found throughout the Sorcerer's Stone. Ultimately, the book explores the sexism inherent in the Harry Potter series: a hero and his male friends are the focus and center of activity and the female characters are enablers--at best. Passive and invisible female characters exist only as bodies, "bound" by traditional gender conventions; they resist evil, but never gender stereotypes. Mayes-Elma concludes with a discussion of the implications for development of school curricula that enable students to critically deconstruct these texts.

Examination Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Women Studies / Gender Studies, grade: 2,0, University of Duisburg-Essen (Anglistik), language: English, abstract: In this thesis I want to show that the social injustices present in the magical world of Harry Potter mirror our own society’s problems. Furthermore, it will be shown that these injustices are not only part of the wizarding world, but that Rowling uses her books to suggest how to overcome these problems. This hypothesis will be discussed with the help of two examples of oppression: the oppression of women and the subjugation of magical creatures.

This edited collection brings together contemporary research that uses corpus linguistics to carry out discourse analysis. The book takes an inclusive view of the meaning of discourse, covering different text-types or modes of language, including discourse as both social practice and as ideology or representation.

Since the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out in the United States in 1997; it and the six subsequent volumes have been on the New York Times bestsellers list continuously. Harry Potter no longer solely exists in books; he is everywhere dominating our world and our children's worlds, which is why it is important to analyze just what Harry Potter is teaching our children. Although the Harry Potter series has been critiqued and analyzed by journalists and academics alike, there are fascinating gaps in the analyses. Perhaps the most rousing of these gaps is the virtual lack of attention to the ways in which J. K. Rowling has constructed gender, and the agency of the female characters, within the texts. The purpose of this book is to address this rousing gap, by critically deconstructing the representation of women's agency by the female characters in the Harry Potter books 2-6. The study draws on all of the pre-existing theories, frameworks, underpinnings and themes that came out of the analysis that were set forth in the pilot study/first book that critically deconstructed the first Harry Potter book. There are many different books that discuss the Harry Potter phenomenon, but rarely do they analyze the books through a social justice lens, specifically looking at gender.

Taking up the various conceptions of heroism that are conjured in the Harry Potter series, this collection examines the ways fictional heroism in the twenty-first century challenges the idealized forms of a somewhat simplistic masculinity associated with genres like the epic, romance and classic adventure story. The collection's three sections address broad issues related to genre, Harry Potter's development as the central heroic character and the question of who qualifies as a hero in the Harry Potter series. Among the topics are Harry Potter as both epic and postmodern hero, the series as a modern-day example of psychomachia, the series' indebtedness to the Gothic tradition, Harry's development in the first six film adaptations, Harry Potter and the idea of the English gentleman, Hermione Granger's explicitly female version of heroism, adult role models in Harry Potter, and the complex depictions of heroism exhibited by the series' minor characters. Together, the essays suggest that the Harry Potter novels rely on established generic, moral and popular codes to develop new and genuine ways of expressing what a globalized world has applauded as ethically exemplary models of heroism based on responsibility, courage, humility and kindness.