Reading Harry Potter Again: New Critical Essays

by Giselle Liza Anatol

Overview

Reading Harry Potter Again: New Critical Essays extends the discussion of the Harry Potter books by covering the entire series in one new and comprehensive volume.

As was argued in Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays (Praeger, 2003), interpreting the underlying messages and themes of the Harry Potter series is vital for understanding the ways in which we perceive and interact with each other in contemporary society. The novels and corresponding film adaptations have broken records with their astonishing sales and widespread acclaim. They have also generated a plethora of writing—by critics, academics, and fans. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books could easily be called this generation's most formative narratives, and thus certainly warrant critical attention.

This new volume of essays covers the entire seven-book sequence. Contributors consider myriad themes from a variety of perspectives. Areas addressed include religion, morality, race, magic, and other themes popular in discussing the books. With this book in hand, fans of the series—indeed anyone interested in the Harry Potter phenomenon—will better appreciate and understand Rowling's work and the impact of her stories on our culture and on our times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313361975
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/19/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Giselle Liza Anatol is Associate Professor of English at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. She is the editor of Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays (Praeger, 2003), and has published several jourbanal articles, book chapters, and other publications.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Giselle Liza Anatol
1. Harry the Teenager: Muggle Themes in a Magical Adolescence
Lisa Damour
I. Religion and Morality
2. The Lightning Bolt Scar as a Lightning Rod: J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series and the Rhetoric of the Extreme Right
Rebecca L. Stephens
3. The Potterverse and the Pulpits: Beyond Apologia and Bannings
Peggy Lin Duthie
4. Causation, Prophetic Visions, and the Free Will Question in Harry Potter
Patricia Donaher and James M. Okapal
5. Harry Potter and Narratives of Destiny
Lisa Hopkins
6. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Lies in Harry Potter
Chantel M. Lavoie
II. The Politics of Harry Potter: Issues of Gender, Race, and Class
7. Happily Ever After: Harry Potter and the Quest for the Domestic
Ximena Gallardo C. and C. Jason Smith
8. The Replication of Victorian Racial Ideology in Harry Potter
Giselle Liza Anatol
9. A Marxist Inquiry into J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series
Shama Rangwala
10. Secret Domination or Civic Duty: The Source and Purpose of Magical Power in Harry Potter
Margaret J. Oakes
III. The Socio-Cultural Impact of the Harry Potter Series
11. Hermione and the House-Elves Revisited: J.K. Rowling, Antislavery Campaigning, and the Politics of Potter
Brycchan Carey
12. (Dis)Order and the Phoenix: Love and Political Resistance in Harry Potter
Tracy L. Bealer
13. Militant Literacy: Hermione Granger, Rita Skeeter, Dolores Umbridge, and the (Mis)use of Text
Leslee Friedman
14. Doubling, Transfiguration, and Haunting: The Art of Adapting Harry Potter for Film
Michael K. Johnson
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Editor and Contributors