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Resumen
Resumen
Now available in paper, The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter is the first book-length analysis of J. K. Rowling's work from a broad range of perspectives within literature, folklore, psychology, sociology, and popular culture. A significant portion of the book explores the Harry Potter series' literary ancestors, including magic and fantasy works by Ursula K. LeGuin, Monica Furlong, Jill Murphy, and others, as well as previous works about the British boarding school experience. Other chapters explore the moral and ethical dimensions of Harry's world, including objections to the series raised within some religious circles. In her new epilogue, Lana A. Whited brings this volume up to date by covering Rowling's latest book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
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Reseña de Horn Book
It was only a matter of time till Harry Potter entered the Ivory Tower, or until the tower opened its doors to Harry. In Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter (2001), Jack Zipes tried to explain the popularity of Rowling's books by tracing the market and cultural conditions that fueled Harry's rise to success. Enlightening as this explanation is, it seems to leave adult readers dissatisfied, feeling as though there just has to be more to Harry than a winning formula. There has to be some key to explain Harry Potter as literature, something one can take back to the classroom, library, children. In this volume, sixteen critics make valiant attempts to see Harry Potter and its surrounding controversies through the haze of popularity, commercialism, and commodification. Many of these essays will feel familiar--in concept and conclusion--to those who have been teaching, reading, and talking about the novels. The essays trace the mythic patterns of fantasy as specified by Otto Rank and Vladimir Propp; they examine Harry as an archetypal hero rooted in folklore and legend; and they compare his education as a wizard to other wizards of repute. They look at Harry's literary relatives--Hercules, Oedipus, Huckleberry Finn, and Oliver Twist among them. One critic finds in the Potter sequence just another articulation of the traditional school story and finds that the books ""embody inherently conservative and hierarchical notions of authority clothed in evangelistic mytho-poeic fantasy."" Another applies Lawrence Kohlberg's six stages of moral development to argue that the novels offer characters at each stage; thus, the books themselves can provoke readers' moral growth. In examining gender roles, Eliza Dresang writes about the types and limits of self-determination and agency allowed to Hermione Granger and briefly considers other significant female models, whereas Terri Doughty looks at how boyhood takes shape in the novels. Two essays consider translations of the Potter books: Philip Nel addresses English language changes, literal and figurative, when the novels moved from Great Britain to the United States in order to question the motives of such alterations; and Nancy K. Jentsch writes a comparative analysis of English, French, German, and Spanish translations that highlight the artistic choices embedded in Rowling's style. It is not surprising that the last section of this book finds three essays again asking about ""commodity and culture in the world of Harry Potter,"" including Rowling's challenges to Thatcherism and the rise of the Potter fan culture that rivals those of Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Overall, the essays make for a variegated reading experience with moments of delightful surprise at a particularly telling detail or perspicacious reading, many nods in agreement at what one already knew or suspected, and a little bit of trepidation that these scholars (already) have so much to say. A single bibliography of sources for all essays and an index conclude the volume. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
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Whited's collection of lively, well-written essays heightens appreciation of a classic in the making, addressing the international phenomenon of J.K. Rowling's books. One contributor writes: "Nearly 10 million copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire were in print by the time the film version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was released in November 2001.... When VHS and DVD versions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone were offered for 'presale,' it shot to the top of Amazon.com's and Barnes&Noble.com's video bestsellers list--nearly three months before copies [were] available." The contributors consider criticism of the books raised by conservative Christians--especially for what they see as Rowling's "unflattering depiction of nonmagical people" ("Muggles")--and, briefly, a suit for copyright infringement brought by Nancy Stouffer in 1999. Various essays situate Harry Potter in the traditions of children's stories and boys' books, showing him as "hero-in-progress," "fairy-tale prince," and inheritor of conservative, hierarchical social patterns of the "British school story" (especially Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days, 1857). One essay takes on representation of Hermione Granger (whom Rowling calls a "caricature" of herself), Minerva McGonagall, and other female characters in terms of such feminist concerns as empowerment and stereotypical treatment. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. All collections. J. J. Benardete emerita, CUNY Hunter College