Harry Potter studies

Harry Potter i (rzekomo) martwe języki, czyli o tłumaczeniach powieści J. K. Rowling na języki klasyczne

by Aleksandra Kleczar

published in Nowy Filomata X, 2006 (4), p. 271-282

This paper is an analysis of two translations of JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels into classical languages: Latin... more This paper is an analysis of two translations of JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels into classical languages: Latin translation by Peter Needham (Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis,  Bloomsbury 2003) and the koine Greek translation by Andrew Wilson (Hareios Poter kai he tou philosophu lithos, Bloomsbury 2004).

Harry Potter, a Latin Speaker?

by Aleksandra Kleczar

Published in Biuletyn Glottodydaktyczny, No. 7, 2003, p. 77-89

The paper is an attempt to analyse the use of Greek and Latin terms, names and formulae in the novel of J. K. Rowling... more The paper is an attempt to analyse the use of Greek and Latin terms, names and formulae in the novel of J. K. Rowling (volumes I-IV).

“Suffering in Utopia: Testing the Limits in Young Adult Novels.”

by Rebecca Totaro

Utopian and Dystopian Writing for Children and Young Adults. Eds. Carrie Hintz and Elaine Ostry. NY: Routledge, 2003. 127-138.

http://www.amazon.com/Utopian-Dystopian-Children-Childrens-Literature/dp/0415940176/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296875770&sr=1-1

Never tickle a sleeping bookworm: how readers devour Harry Potter

by Anthony Patterson

« Harry Potter en latin »

by Jacques Elfassi

dans : Anabases, 7, 2008, p. 231-237.

Cet article se propose d’analyser la traduction latine des deux premiers tomes de Harry Potter de J.K. Rowling. Après... more Cet article se propose d’analyser la traduction latine des deux premiers tomes de Harry Potter de J.K. Rowling. Après avoir rappelé le rôle, pédagogique mais aussi ludique, des traductions latines récentes, il étudie les moyens par lequel le traducteur, Peter Needham, résout les principales difficultés : la traduction des réalités modernes, l’adaptation des noms propres aux déclinaisons du latin, les jeux de mots et les effets stylistiques.

This article proposes to analyse the latin translation of the first two volumes of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. After remindinf the pedagogical but also playful function of recent Latin translations, it studies the ways by which the translator, Peter Needham,solved the main difficulties : the translation of modern realities, the adaptation of proper nouns to Latin declensions, the plays on words and the stylistic effects.

" You're A Wizard, Harry!" Consumer Response to the Harry Potter Phenomenon, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 33, pp.155-160, 2006

by Anthony Patterson

"Either Must Die at the Hand of the Other:" Religious Reactions to Harry Potter

by Leo Ruickbie

The Sociology of Harry Potter, ed. Jennifer Sims (Zossima, 2012).

Harry Potter was banned. Harry Potter was burnt. Why was the religious reaction to JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series so... more Harry Potter was banned. Harry Potter was burnt. Why was the religious reaction to JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series so strong? Why did it seem like we were again about to relive the witch hunts of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

Intended as an innocent and educative tale for children (and adults), Harry Potter clearly became a battleground for certain expressions of religiosity that re-ignited pre-established antagonisms towards paganism and magic. Rowling’s liberal messages of racial equality and the necessity of fighting tyranny, were supplanted by a focus on magic, a magic that was the root of all evil. What is shocking is how much force this backlash could assume in our supposedly globalised, multicultural world.

Nor is it simply a question of Christianity’s reaction to Harry Potter. Perceptions of the multimedia series have become a nexus of competing conflicts ranging from Islam to atheism to Wicca. Then we have a shift in some religious reactions that seemed to bear out the old adage that ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’. Harry Potter was being co-opted and resold as a Christian message. How could that come about and is it sustainable? Is this assimilation, by its distortion of the original material, yet another form of persecution?

Is it the case that in the conflict between certain elements of current religiosity and Harry Potter that ‘either must die at the hand of the other’?

Hermione Granger, or, A Vindication of the Rights of Girl

by Katrin Berndt

IN: Heroism in the Harry Potter Series. Eds. Katrin Berndt and Lena Steveker. Farnham: Ashgate, April 2011: 159-176.

“‘Your soul is whole and completely your own, Harry’: The Heroic Self in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter.”

by Lena Steveker

IN: Heroism in the Harry Potter Series. Ed. Katrin Berndt and Lena Steveker. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011. 69-83.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is deeply indebted to the tradition of Gothic literature. Not only are the novels... more J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is deeply indebted to the tradition of Gothic literature. Not only are the novels set in an enchanted castle complete with ghosts and hidden chambers, they also heavily depend on two key motifs of the Gothic tradition – the doppelganger and the split character.
Voldemort is set up as Harry’s doppelganger; due to the parallel structures used to construct both characters; he functions as Harry’s dark mirror image. In addition, Voldemort is represented as a split character in the very sense of the word since he has split his soul into seven Horcruxes, with which he hopes to defeat mortality. Harry is also sketched as a split character as he loses control over his own consciousness from time to time and enters Voldemort’s mind. In short, Voldemort and Harry can be seen as two rewritings of conventional stereotypes of the Gothic tradition.
However, the motif of the split character has an additional function in the Harry Potter series because it can be analysed to negotiate a specific concept of self as well as the relationship between self and ‘other’ which Rowling’s texts outline. As this essay will argue, her novels – especially Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) – conceptualise the self as a closed unity. Harry eventually succeeds in establishing his self when he is eventually able to purge himself from the part of Voldemort’s soul lodging inside himself. Since their hero is established as a separate, autonomous self, the novels can be seen to enter the philosophical discourse of ethics that negotiates the relationship between self and other. In contrast to such influential late 20th-century philosophers as Paul Ricoeur and Emmanuel Levinas, Rowling constructs a concept of self that denies any connection between self and ‘other.’ The Harry Potter series rather privileges a humanist notion of self which can only be called nostalgic from the perspective of 21st-century literary and cultural criticism.

How To Make A Horcrux

by Leo Ruickbie

Paranormal, 55, January 2011, pp. 20-4

[Beliefs and practices concerning the idea of the external soul in folklore and magic]

The Horcrux is a... more [Beliefs and practices concerning the idea of the external soul in folklore and magic]

The Horcrux is a gruesome mystery at the heart of the later Harry Potter books. In 'How To Make A Horcrux' we will go where Magick Moste Eville fears to tread and reveal the secrets of spirit capture and containment.

In folklore, folk cutsom and magic there is a long tradition of what is known as the 'external soul', whereby the spirit/soul can be removed from the physical body for protection or harm. This article explores that tradition from Koschei the Deathless to Haitian Zombie Bottles.


Please note that for contractual reasons I can only upload a sample page from the article.

Harry Potter och barnlitteraturens hemligheter

by Maria Nikolajeva

(“Harry Potter and the secrets of children’s literature), Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap 2003:4

Adult Heroism and Role Models in the Harry Potter Novels

by Maria Nikolajeva

In Heroism in the Harry Potter Series. Eds. Katrin Berndt and Lena Steveker.
Farnham: Ashgate, 2011: pp. 193-205. ISBN 978 1 4094 1244 1

Harry Potter and the Secrets of Children's Literature

by Maria Nikolajeva

In Harry Potter's world: Multidisciplinary critical perspectives, ed. Elizabeth Heilman, New York, Routledge, 2008

NOTE: this is a completely new article as compared to the first edition of the book

Harry Potter—A Return to the Romantic Hero

by Maria Nikolajeva

In Harry Potter's World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives, ed. Elizabeth Heilman. New York: Routledge, pp. 125-140.

Harry Potter—A Return to the Romantic Hero

by Maria Nikolajeva

In Harry Potter's World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives, ed. Elizabeth Heilman. New York: Routledge, pp. 125-140.

Some syntactic structures in the Welsh translation of Harry Potter

by Júda Ronén

Final assignment for the course ‘Problems in the Theory of Translation’, Summer 2008