Essay: A History of Magic; The Historical Imagination in the Harry Potter Series
I have absolutely no idea if I should be posting this on my journal. But I have just got my essay back from my history tutor so decided it would be okay. All work you see here is mine, unless it is clearly cited to be by someone else. I will not take kindly to this being stolen for whatever purpose. I put a lot of work into this assignment. I was going to put this as friends only but I don't see the point as I don't really have many friends on here. There are a lot of mistakes in this, I know. For example, the stuff about postmodernism is VERY wishy washy and incorrect and was really the only flaw my tutor found in the essay so yay! I get far too confused about the whole topic. Oh well. Also not sure how the formatting and citations are going to go on LiveJournal so *fingers crossed*
This was written for my history class - 'Myth-history; Science Fiction, Fantasy and the Historical Imagination'
A History of Magic
The Historical Imagination in the Harry Potter Series
Throughout the seven novels that make up the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling has created an incredibly detailed work of fantasy that manifests the Historical Imagination in several ways. Released in a time of serious social and political change, the series clearly reflects the culture from which it has emerged. Rowling has created a work that explores the issues of this society in a way that is easily accessible to a postmodern audience, allowing for postmodern ideas about history to be seen. The Historical Imagination is further enriched through the history within the novels, which sees parallels drawn to real world history, particularly fascist ideologies of and since the 20th Century. From this, and the strong focus on the past and the history of the Wizarding world, Harry Potter makes a statement about the importance of understanding our personal and world history.
Harry Potter has arguably been the biggest fantasy release in recent times, having “sold 325 million copies worldwide” [1] since the first novel was released in 1997. While it cannot be stated whether or not J.K. Rowling was attempting to teach or influence her readers, the fact stands that with the sheer popularity of the series, it has had the power to do so. Development in communication technologies in recent decades have made it possible for these books and the historical ideas that they explore to be more influential than ever. These technologies have allowed for a change in how fans react to the books and the message, as well as how they interact with each other [2]. Due to the millions of people around the world that have read these books (and/or seen the movie adaptations), and the ability to seek more information and a continuation of the story through various mediums, it can be said that Rowling has managed to “adapt an inherently conservative genre for her own progressive purposes” [3]. The series has thus emerged as a social and political statement in a postmodern society eager for this exact kind of fantasy.
A key aspect of the historical imagination within Harry Potter is its references to classic myths and folklore and the implications that this has within a postmodern society. Various researchers have previously discussed the accessibility of Rowling’s work to the contemporary audience, stating that it is this reworking of myths and folklore, particularly the Camelot story, that creates an ideal work for a postmodern audience that is eager “for accessible but fantastic heroism” [4] and “a contemporary mythology supported by an ethical foundation” [5]. As the contemporary society that receives these novels responds and learns from the history and recognizable mythology that is presented within them they “develop a ‘competence’ in reading/seeing themselves in…the historical consciousness in which they participate” [6] - they are apart of the history that is being created, and they come to locate themselves within this. This lends itself to the conclusion that Harry Potter represents a postmodern philosophy of history, in which “historians participate in a social process of historical production” [7], allowing a fiction author such as J.K. Rowling to produce a work that creates such a strong sense of history, and works with a postmodern audience to do so. As such, the audience uses the accessible nature of the mythology in the Harry Potter stories to gain a better understanding of the historical world around them.
From the idea of Harry Potter’s audience as a postmodern audience, Pharr discusses this culture and “its obsession with the fantastic, its need to blend characters as well as narratives, and its inability to unite behind a moral and theological canon.” [8] This culture is reflected in the nature of the Wizarding world of the Harry Potter series - it is a fractured society, much like the postmodern audience that accepts it. An example of this is seen in the fourth book of the series, the Goblet of Fire, where the characters attend the World Cup for the popular wizard sport, Quidditch. This quickly descends into chaos, littered with political overtones and racist warfare, with the Death Eaters torturing a non-magic family, openly reflecting the breakdown in values of contemporary society [9]. In the same installment, the innocent character Cedric Diggory is murdered by the leader of the Death Eaters, Voldemort, simply because he is “the spare” [10], resonating with the death of innocence of the real world, as could be said to have happened with the change from the 20th to the 21st century.
With the first book being released in 1997, and the last not until ten years later, J.K. Rowling was writing Harry Potter in a varied and constantly changing social, political and historical context. The steadily developing world within the series presents a contemporary historical parallel, as the Wizarding world sees three different Ministers for Magic and a divided society in the chaos of a civil war, filled with social and political anxieties. [11] These issues can clearly be linked to the world in which the novels were written; particularly with the installments that were released after the 2001 Terrorist attacks. Grossman likens the “borderless semi-civil war with a shadowy hidden leader” that is seen in Harry Potter to contemporary political issues and the “pervasive threat of terrorism” [12] that has characterized western civilization in the past decade. Rowling’s novels reflect on the state of Britain during the time she was writing; clearly being influenced by the deep fears within society of terrorism and immigration, themes that have translated to institutionalized racism and the previously mentioned civil war.
More than just a representation of the contemporary political situation may be read here. Many have said that these stories encourage readers to question authority, as the characters are constantly breaking the rules in order to save themselves or defeat the powers of evil working against them. In Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and his best friend Hermione are encouraged to break “one of the most important Wizarding laws” [13] and defy the Ministry of Magic to in order to save a magical creature and Harry’s godfather, who have been sentenced to execution for crimes they did not commit [14]. Stypczynski uses Professor Lupin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in Prisoner of Azkaban and prominent ‘good guy’, as a further example of this. He states that “Lupin advocates violating rules and social restrictions on several occasions” and that this is sometimes a “necessity for individual and social development.” [15] This apparent call to question authority can clearly be read as a response to the political tension of the past decade within Britain and right around the world.
The various representations of history within the series all help to add to the historical imagination that can be explored. One of the most prominent aspects of the this in Harry Potter is the parallels that can be drawn to real world ideology of fascism, particularly the similarities between Nazism in World War II and Voldemort’s actions against Muggles and Muggle-born magical people. The control that Voldemort and his Death Eaters hold over the Wizarding world is clearly modeled after the totalitarian regimes and “dark-zeniths of other destructive leaders” [16] of the 20th Century and is a “deliberate allegory…of the institutionalism of anti-Semitism after Hitler’s rise to power” [17]. This institutionalization of racism is explored greatly in Deathly Hallows, where we learn that Dolores Umbridge is the head of the ‘Muggle-Born Registration Commission’ to which all wizards born to non-magical parents must report for interrogation. The Commission is also producing pamphlets that mirror real world propaganda such as the document titled “MUDBLOODS and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society” [18]. A further example of the representation of racism is the ‘Magic is Might’ statue that stands in the foyer of the Ministry of Magic, which is described as follows:
…mounds of carved humans: hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies, men, women and children, all with rather stupid and ugly faces, twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed wizards. [19]
This description creates images of the victims of the Nazi camps that horrified the world upon liberation at the end of World War II, making these images and ideas accessible to a new generation, who through these stories come to learn about the horrors of certain ideologies that were so prominent in the 20th Century. [20]
The history and continuation of racist ideologies and prejudice in general are explored through more than the obvious reflection of Nazism in Voldemort and his followers. The treatment of part-human characters or “half-breeds” [21] is used throughout Harry Potter in order to make a statement about bigotry within contemporary society. Various species are represented throughout the series - such as house-elves, centaurs, giants and half giants - but it is through the werewolf Remus Lupin that much can be said about the “socialized and nurtured” racism that is present in the society in which these books were written [22]. As one of the leading members of the Order of the Phoenix (the organization working against Lord Voldemort’s anti-Muggle campaign) the marginalization that he receives at the hands of his supposed allies, “describes something like the truth of our world” [23]- even the good characters are seen to have prejudices and bigotry is present on every side. Three of the main good characters, Harry, Ron and Hermione, are disgusted to discover that Lupin is a werewolf, all reacting with anger and horror, while Ron exclaims “Get away from me, werewolf!” [24] These characters react negatively due to preexisting prejudices despite previously adoring Lupin as a professor and as a person. Further examples of the sense of superiority of all wizards are seen in the patronizing tone with which Muggles are often referred to. This overriding issue of bigotry resonates strongly with the politics of race that “has subsumed and continues to subsume our world” [25] and adds another layer to the Historical Imagination that is developed in the series.
J.K. Rowling has created a world within Harry Potter that places extreme importance on history, by filling the novels with a rich and detailed past and expanding the world of the series with companion texts. The strong back story, constantly mentioned in passing with comments in regards to such things as the “International Statute of Secrecy of 1689”, goblin rebellions throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, and Harry writing an essay in response to the question “Witch-Burning in the Fourteenth Century was completely pointless - Discuss” [26] imparts in the readers a sense of realism and an emphasis on the past. The history of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is something that plays a large role, with the founders of the school and the four houses, beginning a strong tradition of house rivalries within the school. In the final battle at Hogwarts, the various house ghosts and the characters knowledge of the relationships between the founders of Hogwarts come to be vital to the defeat of Voldemort. This knowledge of history, in the blatant way that it affects the final battle, and in the more subtle, frequent references to the detailed past of the Wizarding world, is just one way in which the Harry Potter novels place such importance on understanding and learning from history in order to progress and succeed in the present.
The importance of personal and societal history, and on having knowledge of our past in order to move forward, is more significantly discussed through the explicit exploration of Harry, Voldemort and Severus Snape’s personal pasts. Through the theme of inheritance, we see Harry’s debt to history and all that he must learn from the past in order to save the world from Voldemort. Annette Wannamaker has previously discussed this idea:
…We all inherit a world we did not create, a world created for us by our ancestors. We, who also will eventually pass this world on… must work with what we have in order to build a present and future. [27]
Harry is thrown into the role of hero as he inherits the battle that his parents and other members of the Order of the Phoenix began against Voldemort before he was even born. The character accepts his debt to history, and the historical responsibility to the world that he has inherited. Furthermore, in order for Harry to be triumphant over Voldemort, he must first learn all there is to know about his own past, the history of Wizarding and Muggle relations, as well as Voldemort’s past and what makes him so evil. This is explicitly shown, through Harry’s trips into the pensieve (a magical device that allows people to witness their own and others memories) in the Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows, where he learns about Voldemort’s horcruxes, and then by visiting Snape’s memories, his own role as a horcrux. [28] Harry must accept his past, present and future and sacrifice himself in order to defeat Voldemort. He accepts his history and his debt to history in order to save the future. “Like rain on a cold window, these thoughts pattered against the hard surface of the incontrovertible truth, which was that he must die. I must die. It must end” [29] - Statements such as this reaffirm the importance of the idea that there is no escaping the past or what must be done to save the future. [30]
Through engaging the Historical Imagination, Rowling has presented a reflection of the current political and social state of the world and made strong statements about the importance of history to an entire generation who have been brought up and who come to learn a great deal about what is right and wrong through these characters (even if the message is as simple as “it is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities” [31]). The Harry Potter series manifests the Historical Imagination by reflecting the world that it was created within, by exploring postmodern ideas, representing notions of history and encouraging its readers to learn from the past.
[1] As of 11th of July 2007, see M. Rich, ‘Potter has Limited Effect on Reading Habits’, The New York Times, , 2007 (accessed 2 October 2011).
[2] The Harry Potter “fandom” has expanded to include thousands of fansites, a genre of music called ‘Wizard Rock’ and fan organized conventions dedicated entirely to the books such as the annual ‘Leakycon’. The popularity of such fansites led to some writing their own books, notably Mugglenet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7, USA, Ulysses Press, 2006 and M. Anelli, Harry, A History, USA, Pocket Books, 2008. Finally, information and communication technology has made it possible for a group of college students to become internet celebrities when their musical adaptations A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel went viral on YouTube.
[3] L. Grossman, ‘J.K. Rowling Hogwarts and All’, Time, Vol. 166, Issue 4, 2005, pp60-65.
[4] M. Pharr, ‘A Paradox: The Harry Potter series as both Epic and Postmodern’ in K. Berndt and L. Steveker (eds), Heroism in the Harry Potter Series, Ashgate, 2011, p9;
[5] A. Wannamaker, ‘Specters of Harry Potter: Inheritance in the Harry Potter Series’, in D. Bice (ed.), Elsewhere: Selected Essays from the “20th Century Fantasy Literature: From Beatrix to Harry” International Literary Conference, USA, University Press of America, 2003, p47. See also - G. Westfahl, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works and Wonders, USA, Greenwood Press, Vol. 3, p1010; A. Blake, The Irresistible Rise of Harry Potter, Essex, Verso, 2002, p17; D. Bice ‘From Merlin to Muggles’, in D. Bice (ed.), Elsewhere: Selected Essays from the “20th Century Fantasy Literature: From Beatrix to Harry” International Literary Conference, USA, University Press of America, 2003, pp29-35.
[6] J.E. Toews, ‘A New Philosophy of History? Reflections on Postmodern Historicizing’, History and Theory, Vol. 36, 1997, pp235-248.
[7] Toews, ‘A New Philosophy of History?’
[8] Pharr, ‘A Paradox’, p19.
[9] J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Great Britain, Bloomsburg, 2000, pp106-129.
[10] Rowling, Goblet of Fire, p553.
[11] These ideas are explored throughout the entire series, notably with the distrust of Dumbledore and Harry in Order of the Phoenix. See also, S. Gupta, Re-Reading Harry Potter, Palgrave MacMillan, 2009, pp99-100 (for discussion regarding social and political anxieties).
[12] Grossman, ‘J.K. Rowling Hogwarts and All’.
[13] J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Great Britain, Bloomsburg, 1999, p291.
[14] “We’ve got to fly Buckbeak up to the window and rescue Sirius! Sirius can escape on Buckbeak - they can escape together!” - Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, p290.
[15] Stypczynski, ‘Wolf in Professor’s Clothing’.
[16] K. Rothman, ‘Hearts of Darkness: Voldemort and Iago with a Little Help from their Friends’, in J. Heit (ed.), Vader, Voldemort and Other Villians: Essays on Evil in Popular Media, USA, McFarland, 2011, p209.
[17] S.F. Winters, ‘From Satan to Hitler: Theological and Historical Evil in C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling’, in S. Buttsworth and M. Abbenhuis (eds), Monsters in the Mirror: Representations of Nazism in Post-War Popular Culture, USA, Praeger, 2010, p62.
[18] J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 2007, pp. 204-205.
[19] Rowling, Deathly Hallows, p199.
[20] Further than these fascist parallels, J.K. Rowling places Wizarding history firmly in real world history - “Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945” (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 1997, p77) - showing an intrinsic link between the two worlds and cementing the allegory of fascist history.
[21] The character Dolores Umbridge makes constant derogatory references to ‘half-breeds’ such as the half-giant Hagrid and the centaurs that reside in the Forbidden forest - “the great half-breed oaf”, “a magical creature who is deemed to have near-human intelligence”, “Filthy half-breeds!...Beasts! Uncontrolled animals!” (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 2003, pp662-665.
[22] B. Stypczynski, ‘Wolf in Professor’s Clothing: J.K. Rowling’s Werewolf as Educator’, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 20, 2009, pp. 57-69.
[23] Gupta, Re-Reading Harry Potter, p106.
[24] Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, p253.
[25] Gupta, Re-Reading Harry Potter, p103.
[26] Rowling, Deathly Hallows, p261; Rowling, Order of the Phoenix, p30; Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, p7.
[27] Wannamaker, ‘Specters of Potters’, p49.
[28] Chapters 10, 13, 17, 20 and 23 in J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 2005, pp184-204, 242-261, 327-349, 396-419, 460-479; and Chapter 33 in Rowling, Deathly Hallows, pp529-553.
[29] Rowling, Deathly Hallows, p556.
[30] Harry never once considers not facing his fate, he immediately takes on his role as hero, further agreeing with this idea; “Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into death’s welcoming arms.” (Deathly Hallows, p554); “How many [heartbeats] would there be time for? Would it hurt to die?” (Deathly Hallows, p554).
[31] J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 1998, p245.
This was written for my history class - 'Myth-history; Science Fiction, Fantasy and the Historical Imagination'
A History of Magic
The Historical Imagination in the Harry Potter Series
Throughout the seven novels that make up the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling has created an incredibly detailed work of fantasy that manifests the Historical Imagination in several ways. Released in a time of serious social and political change, the series clearly reflects the culture from which it has emerged. Rowling has created a work that explores the issues of this society in a way that is easily accessible to a postmodern audience, allowing for postmodern ideas about history to be seen. The Historical Imagination is further enriched through the history within the novels, which sees parallels drawn to real world history, particularly fascist ideologies of and since the 20th Century. From this, and the strong focus on the past and the history of the Wizarding world, Harry Potter makes a statement about the importance of understanding our personal and world history.
Harry Potter has arguably been the biggest fantasy release in recent times, having “sold 325 million copies worldwide” [1] since the first novel was released in 1997. While it cannot be stated whether or not J.K. Rowling was attempting to teach or influence her readers, the fact stands that with the sheer popularity of the series, it has had the power to do so. Development in communication technologies in recent decades have made it possible for these books and the historical ideas that they explore to be more influential than ever. These technologies have allowed for a change in how fans react to the books and the message, as well as how they interact with each other [2]. Due to the millions of people around the world that have read these books (and/or seen the movie adaptations), and the ability to seek more information and a continuation of the story through various mediums, it can be said that Rowling has managed to “adapt an inherently conservative genre for her own progressive purposes” [3]. The series has thus emerged as a social and political statement in a postmodern society eager for this exact kind of fantasy.
A key aspect of the historical imagination within Harry Potter is its references to classic myths and folklore and the implications that this has within a postmodern society. Various researchers have previously discussed the accessibility of Rowling’s work to the contemporary audience, stating that it is this reworking of myths and folklore, particularly the Camelot story, that creates an ideal work for a postmodern audience that is eager “for accessible but fantastic heroism” [4] and “a contemporary mythology supported by an ethical foundation” [5]. As the contemporary society that receives these novels responds and learns from the history and recognizable mythology that is presented within them they “develop a ‘competence’ in reading/seeing themselves in…the historical consciousness in which they participate” [6] - they are apart of the history that is being created, and they come to locate themselves within this. This lends itself to the conclusion that Harry Potter represents a postmodern philosophy of history, in which “historians participate in a social process of historical production” [7], allowing a fiction author such as J.K. Rowling to produce a work that creates such a strong sense of history, and works with a postmodern audience to do so. As such, the audience uses the accessible nature of the mythology in the Harry Potter stories to gain a better understanding of the historical world around them.
From the idea of Harry Potter’s audience as a postmodern audience, Pharr discusses this culture and “its obsession with the fantastic, its need to blend characters as well as narratives, and its inability to unite behind a moral and theological canon.” [8] This culture is reflected in the nature of the Wizarding world of the Harry Potter series - it is a fractured society, much like the postmodern audience that accepts it. An example of this is seen in the fourth book of the series, the Goblet of Fire, where the characters attend the World Cup for the popular wizard sport, Quidditch. This quickly descends into chaos, littered with political overtones and racist warfare, with the Death Eaters torturing a non-magic family, openly reflecting the breakdown in values of contemporary society [9]. In the same installment, the innocent character Cedric Diggory is murdered by the leader of the Death Eaters, Voldemort, simply because he is “the spare” [10], resonating with the death of innocence of the real world, as could be said to have happened with the change from the 20th to the 21st century.
With the first book being released in 1997, and the last not until ten years later, J.K. Rowling was writing Harry Potter in a varied and constantly changing social, political and historical context. The steadily developing world within the series presents a contemporary historical parallel, as the Wizarding world sees three different Ministers for Magic and a divided society in the chaos of a civil war, filled with social and political anxieties. [11] These issues can clearly be linked to the world in which the novels were written; particularly with the installments that were released after the 2001 Terrorist attacks. Grossman likens the “borderless semi-civil war with a shadowy hidden leader” that is seen in Harry Potter to contemporary political issues and the “pervasive threat of terrorism” [12] that has characterized western civilization in the past decade. Rowling’s novels reflect on the state of Britain during the time she was writing; clearly being influenced by the deep fears within society of terrorism and immigration, themes that have translated to institutionalized racism and the previously mentioned civil war.
More than just a representation of the contemporary political situation may be read here. Many have said that these stories encourage readers to question authority, as the characters are constantly breaking the rules in order to save themselves or defeat the powers of evil working against them. In Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and his best friend Hermione are encouraged to break “one of the most important Wizarding laws” [13] and defy the Ministry of Magic to in order to save a magical creature and Harry’s godfather, who have been sentenced to execution for crimes they did not commit [14]. Stypczynski uses Professor Lupin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in Prisoner of Azkaban and prominent ‘good guy’, as a further example of this. He states that “Lupin advocates violating rules and social restrictions on several occasions” and that this is sometimes a “necessity for individual and social development.” [15] This apparent call to question authority can clearly be read as a response to the political tension of the past decade within Britain and right around the world.
The various representations of history within the series all help to add to the historical imagination that can be explored. One of the most prominent aspects of the this in Harry Potter is the parallels that can be drawn to real world ideology of fascism, particularly the similarities between Nazism in World War II and Voldemort’s actions against Muggles and Muggle-born magical people. The control that Voldemort and his Death Eaters hold over the Wizarding world is clearly modeled after the totalitarian regimes and “dark-zeniths of other destructive leaders” [16] of the 20th Century and is a “deliberate allegory…of the institutionalism of anti-Semitism after Hitler’s rise to power” [17]. This institutionalization of racism is explored greatly in Deathly Hallows, where we learn that Dolores Umbridge is the head of the ‘Muggle-Born Registration Commission’ to which all wizards born to non-magical parents must report for interrogation. The Commission is also producing pamphlets that mirror real world propaganda such as the document titled “MUDBLOODS and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society” [18]. A further example of the representation of racism is the ‘Magic is Might’ statue that stands in the foyer of the Ministry of Magic, which is described as follows:
…mounds of carved humans: hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies, men, women and children, all with rather stupid and ugly faces, twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed wizards. [19]
This description creates images of the victims of the Nazi camps that horrified the world upon liberation at the end of World War II, making these images and ideas accessible to a new generation, who through these stories come to learn about the horrors of certain ideologies that were so prominent in the 20th Century. [20]
The history and continuation of racist ideologies and prejudice in general are explored through more than the obvious reflection of Nazism in Voldemort and his followers. The treatment of part-human characters or “half-breeds” [21] is used throughout Harry Potter in order to make a statement about bigotry within contemporary society. Various species are represented throughout the series - such as house-elves, centaurs, giants and half giants - but it is through the werewolf Remus Lupin that much can be said about the “socialized and nurtured” racism that is present in the society in which these books were written [22]. As one of the leading members of the Order of the Phoenix (the organization working against Lord Voldemort’s anti-Muggle campaign) the marginalization that he receives at the hands of his supposed allies, “describes something like the truth of our world” [23]- even the good characters are seen to have prejudices and bigotry is present on every side. Three of the main good characters, Harry, Ron and Hermione, are disgusted to discover that Lupin is a werewolf, all reacting with anger and horror, while Ron exclaims “Get away from me, werewolf!” [24] These characters react negatively due to preexisting prejudices despite previously adoring Lupin as a professor and as a person. Further examples of the sense of superiority of all wizards are seen in the patronizing tone with which Muggles are often referred to. This overriding issue of bigotry resonates strongly with the politics of race that “has subsumed and continues to subsume our world” [25] and adds another layer to the Historical Imagination that is developed in the series.
J.K. Rowling has created a world within Harry Potter that places extreme importance on history, by filling the novels with a rich and detailed past and expanding the world of the series with companion texts. The strong back story, constantly mentioned in passing with comments in regards to such things as the “International Statute of Secrecy of 1689”, goblin rebellions throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, and Harry writing an essay in response to the question “Witch-Burning in the Fourteenth Century was completely pointless - Discuss” [26] imparts in the readers a sense of realism and an emphasis on the past. The history of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is something that plays a large role, with the founders of the school and the four houses, beginning a strong tradition of house rivalries within the school. In the final battle at Hogwarts, the various house ghosts and the characters knowledge of the relationships between the founders of Hogwarts come to be vital to the defeat of Voldemort. This knowledge of history, in the blatant way that it affects the final battle, and in the more subtle, frequent references to the detailed past of the Wizarding world, is just one way in which the Harry Potter novels place such importance on understanding and learning from history in order to progress and succeed in the present.
The importance of personal and societal history, and on having knowledge of our past in order to move forward, is more significantly discussed through the explicit exploration of Harry, Voldemort and Severus Snape’s personal pasts. Through the theme of inheritance, we see Harry’s debt to history and all that he must learn from the past in order to save the world from Voldemort. Annette Wannamaker has previously discussed this idea:
…We all inherit a world we did not create, a world created for us by our ancestors. We, who also will eventually pass this world on… must work with what we have in order to build a present and future. [27]
Harry is thrown into the role of hero as he inherits the battle that his parents and other members of the Order of the Phoenix began against Voldemort before he was even born. The character accepts his debt to history, and the historical responsibility to the world that he has inherited. Furthermore, in order for Harry to be triumphant over Voldemort, he must first learn all there is to know about his own past, the history of Wizarding and Muggle relations, as well as Voldemort’s past and what makes him so evil. This is explicitly shown, through Harry’s trips into the pensieve (a magical device that allows people to witness their own and others memories) in the Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows, where he learns about Voldemort’s horcruxes, and then by visiting Snape’s memories, his own role as a horcrux. [28] Harry must accept his past, present and future and sacrifice himself in order to defeat Voldemort. He accepts his history and his debt to history in order to save the future. “Like rain on a cold window, these thoughts pattered against the hard surface of the incontrovertible truth, which was that he must die. I must die. It must end” [29] - Statements such as this reaffirm the importance of the idea that there is no escaping the past or what must be done to save the future. [30]
Through engaging the Historical Imagination, Rowling has presented a reflection of the current political and social state of the world and made strong statements about the importance of history to an entire generation who have been brought up and who come to learn a great deal about what is right and wrong through these characters (even if the message is as simple as “it is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities” [31]). The Harry Potter series manifests the Historical Imagination by reflecting the world that it was created within, by exploring postmodern ideas, representing notions of history and encouraging its readers to learn from the past.
[1] As of 11th of July 2007, see M. Rich, ‘Potter has Limited Effect on Reading Habits’, The New York Times, , 2007 (accessed 2 October 2011).
[2] The Harry Potter “fandom” has expanded to include thousands of fansites, a genre of music called ‘Wizard Rock’ and fan organized conventions dedicated entirely to the books such as the annual ‘Leakycon’. The popularity of such fansites led to some writing their own books, notably Mugglenet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7, USA, Ulysses Press, 2006 and M. Anelli, Harry, A History, USA, Pocket Books, 2008. Finally, information and communication technology has made it possible for a group of college students to become internet celebrities when their musical adaptations A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel went viral on YouTube.
[3] L. Grossman, ‘J.K. Rowling Hogwarts and All’, Time, Vol. 166, Issue 4, 2005, pp60-65.
[4] M. Pharr, ‘A Paradox: The Harry Potter series as both Epic and Postmodern’ in K. Berndt and L. Steveker (eds), Heroism in the Harry Potter Series, Ashgate, 2011, p9;
[5] A. Wannamaker, ‘Specters of Harry Potter: Inheritance in the Harry Potter Series’, in D. Bice (ed.), Elsewhere: Selected Essays from the “20th Century Fantasy Literature: From Beatrix to Harry” International Literary Conference, USA, University Press of America, 2003, p47. See also - G. Westfahl, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works and Wonders, USA, Greenwood Press, Vol. 3, p1010; A. Blake, The Irresistible Rise of Harry Potter, Essex, Verso, 2002, p17; D. Bice ‘From Merlin to Muggles’, in D. Bice (ed.), Elsewhere: Selected Essays from the “20th Century Fantasy Literature: From Beatrix to Harry” International Literary Conference, USA, University Press of America, 2003, pp29-35.
[6] J.E. Toews, ‘A New Philosophy of History? Reflections on Postmodern Historicizing’, History and Theory, Vol. 36, 1997, pp235-248.
[7] Toews, ‘A New Philosophy of History?’
[8] Pharr, ‘A Paradox’, p19.
[9] J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Great Britain, Bloomsburg, 2000, pp106-129.
[10] Rowling, Goblet of Fire, p553.
[11] These ideas are explored throughout the entire series, notably with the distrust of Dumbledore and Harry in Order of the Phoenix. See also, S. Gupta, Re-Reading Harry Potter, Palgrave MacMillan, 2009, pp99-100 (for discussion regarding social and political anxieties).
[12] Grossman, ‘J.K. Rowling Hogwarts and All’.
[13] J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Great Britain, Bloomsburg, 1999, p291.
[14] “We’ve got to fly Buckbeak up to the window and rescue Sirius! Sirius can escape on Buckbeak - they can escape together!” - Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, p290.
[15] Stypczynski, ‘Wolf in Professor’s Clothing’.
[16] K. Rothman, ‘Hearts of Darkness: Voldemort and Iago with a Little Help from their Friends’, in J. Heit (ed.), Vader, Voldemort and Other Villians: Essays on Evil in Popular Media, USA, McFarland, 2011, p209.
[17] S.F. Winters, ‘From Satan to Hitler: Theological and Historical Evil in C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling’, in S. Buttsworth and M. Abbenhuis (eds), Monsters in the Mirror: Representations of Nazism in Post-War Popular Culture, USA, Praeger, 2010, p62.
[18] J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 2007, pp. 204-205.
[19] Rowling, Deathly Hallows, p199.
[20] Further than these fascist parallels, J.K. Rowling places Wizarding history firmly in real world history - “Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945” (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 1997, p77) - showing an intrinsic link between the two worlds and cementing the allegory of fascist history.
[21] The character Dolores Umbridge makes constant derogatory references to ‘half-breeds’ such as the half-giant Hagrid and the centaurs that reside in the Forbidden forest - “the great half-breed oaf”, “a magical creature who is deemed to have near-human intelligence”, “Filthy half-breeds!...Beasts! Uncontrolled animals!” (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 2003, pp662-665.
[22] B. Stypczynski, ‘Wolf in Professor’s Clothing: J.K. Rowling’s Werewolf as Educator’, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 20, 2009, pp. 57-69.
[23] Gupta, Re-Reading Harry Potter, p106.
[24] Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, p253.
[25] Gupta, Re-Reading Harry Potter, p103.
[26] Rowling, Deathly Hallows, p261; Rowling, Order of the Phoenix, p30; Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, p7.
[27] Wannamaker, ‘Specters of Potters’, p49.
[28] Chapters 10, 13, 17, 20 and 23 in J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 2005, pp184-204, 242-261, 327-349, 396-419, 460-479; and Chapter 33 in Rowling, Deathly Hallows, pp529-553.
[29] Rowling, Deathly Hallows, p556.
[30] Harry never once considers not facing his fate, he immediately takes on his role as hero, further agreeing with this idea; “Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into death’s welcoming arms.” (Deathly Hallows, p554); “How many [heartbeats] would there be time for? Would it hurt to die?” (Deathly Hallows, p554).
[31] J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Great Britain, Bloomsbury, 1998, p245.