| Last updated at 8:40 AM on 21/01/09 |
Hooked on Harry 
J.K. Rowling's school of wizards and witches has reached around the world. As folklore PhD candidate Contessa Small is discovering, 'Harry Potter' is spawning a whole new tradition.
TARA MULLOWNEY
The Telegram
|
Why would a folklorist choose to study Harry Potter? For a whole bunch of reasons, says Contessa Small.
Small is a PhD candidate in folklore at Memorial University, and has recently completed a study on how children participate in their own literary fandom, using British author J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series as a case study.
Small, a fan in her own right, decided to focus on the little wizard because it's a "global phenomenon and not just something local."
The books, a series of seven fantasy novels (so far), tell of the adventures of child wizard Harry Potter and his friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry's nemesis is Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents in an attempt to rule both the wizard and non-wizard world, and left him an orphan in the care of his cruel aunt and uncle.
To date, the series has sold more than 400 million copies, has been translated into 63 different languages, including Latin, and has been turned into a series of movies.
Small's research including attending the last book launch at a local bookstore, interviewing children in their homes, and attending a Halloween party at an elementary school, where children had dressed in character costumes.
"I found that children do participate in their own fandom, despite being controlled by their parents or corporations," Small said. In doing this, she found, children often combine pop culture with folk traditions.
At the Halloween party, Small found that while many children were wearing the store-bought Harry Potter costumes, others were wearing homemade versions, including magic wands made from sticks picked up on the playground, lighting-bolt forehead scars drawn on with lipstick or eyeliner, and old burgundy and yellow scarves saved by uncles who went to Brother Rice high school, since the colours match those of Gryffindor, one of the four houses at Hogwarts.
When it came to games, a group of children played their own version of the classic Tag - instead of being tagged "It," they were tagged "Snape," one of the meaner characters in the series.
"They weren't obsessed with having official merchandise," Small explained. "They were using their imagination and folk traditions combined with popular culture to express who they are."
Young Harry Potter fans use acting, art and creative writing to express themselves and who they are, and these activities, too, are often a combination of pop culture and folk traditions, Small said.
The Harry Potter adventures themselves are a part of folklore, she said, since they follow the traditional, well-used theme of a hero on a mission to save the world.
"The children write fan fiction, and often put themselves in the role of Harry Potter and write about things like divorce or cancer, or sexual exploration," she said.
"It's all about the hero quest story - Harry Potter is a child, an orphan, and they identify with him. He's a child, but he gets power, and they want to be like Harry Potter.
"They're finding their own way, despite adults agendas."
These agendas are varied, Small said: parents are often fearful of pop culture and the affect it could have on their children, and attempt to limit their children's exposure to it.
Corporations out to make money try to control the way children experience it and express themselves with it. Teachers generally see the Harry Potter series as a valuable tool to encourage children to read, while some religious groups see the books as a bad influence, fearing it will encourage children to read dark literature.
At the end of the day, Small said, children need some pop culture in their lives. It's about storytelling, she explained, and gives them a way to understand the world.
"To be ethically responsible to them, you have to understand them as a minority, oppressed by the majority, which is adults," she explained.
"Children need play, even during the most difficult horrible times. They need their story to help them understand. In Nazi Europe, there are stories of children playing 'gas chamber,' and mimicking people's cries. They need play to make sense of the world, and it's ultimately about finding their own power."
tbm@thetelegram.com
|
