Heroism in the Harry Potter Series Edited by Katrin Berndt and Lena Steveker Heroism in tHe Harry Potter series ashgate studies in Childhood, 1700 to the Present Series Editor: Claudia Nelson, Texas A&M University, USA this series recognizes and supports innovative work on the child and on literature for children and adolescents that informs teaching and engages with current and emerging debates in the field. Proposals are welcome for interdisciplinary and comparative studies by humanities scholars working in a variety of fields, including literature; book history, periodicals history, and print culture and the sociology of texts; theater, film, musicology, and performance studies; history, including the history of education; gender studies; art history and visual culture; cultural studies; and religion. topics might include, among other possibilities, how concepts and representations of the child have changed in response to adult concerns; postcolonial and transnational perspectives; “domestic imperialism” and the acculturation of the young within and across class and ethnic lines; the commercialization of childhood and children’s bodies; views of young people as consumers and/or originators of culture; the child and religious discourse; children’s and adolescents’ self-representations; and adults’ recollections of childhood. also in the series Framing Childhood in Eighteenth-Century English Periodicals and Prints, 1689–1789 anja müller Conceptualizing Cruelty to Children in Nineteenth-Century England Literature, Representation, and the NSPCC monica Flegel The Writings of Hesba Stretton Reclaiming the Outcast Elaine Lomax Educating the Child in Enlightenment Britain Beliefs, Cultures, Practices Edited by Mary Hilton and Jill Shefrin The Nineteenth-Century Child and Consumer Culture Edited by Dennis Denisoff Heroism in the Harry Potter Series Edited by Katrin BErnDt University of Bremen, Germany Lena steveker Saarland University, Germany © katrin Berndt and Lena steveker 2011 all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Katrin Berndt and Lena Steveker have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work. Published by ashgate Publishing Limited ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7Pt Vt 05401-4405 england Usa www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Heroism in the Harry Potter series. – (ashgate studies in childhood, 1700 to the present) 1. rowling, J. K. – Criticism and interpretation. 2. rowling, J. K. – Characters. 3. Potter, Harry (Fictitious character) 4. Heroes in literature. 5. Masculinity in literature. i. Series ii. Berndt, Katrin. iii. Steveker, Lena, 1976- 823.9'14-dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Berndt, Katrin. Heroism in the Harry Potter series / Katrin Berndt and Lena Steveker. p. cm. – (ashgate studies in childhood, 1700 to the present) includes bibliographical references and index. iSBn 978-1-4094-1244-1 – iSBn 978-1-4094-1245-8 (ebook) 1. rowling, J. K. – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Heroes in literature. 3. Courage in literature. 4. Masculinity in literature. 5. Potter, Harry (Fictitious character) i. Steveker, Lena, 1976- ii. title. Pr6068.O93Z538 2011 823'.914–dc22 2010044259 iSBn 9781409412441 (hbk) iSBn 9781409412458 (ebk) Contents List of Abbreviations vii Notes on Contributors ix Acknowledgements xiii introduction 1 Katrin Berndt and Lena Steveker Part I HeroISm In GenerIC PerSPeCtIve 1 a Paradox: the Harry Potter Series as Both Epic and Postmodern 9 Mary Pharr 2 Harry Potter and the Battle for the Soul: the revival of the Psychomachia in Secular Fiction 25 Rita Singer 3 the Diffusion of Gothic Conventions in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003/2007) 39 Susanne Gruss 4 Harry and his Peers: rowling’s Web of allusions 55 Lisa Hopkins Part II tHe FormatIon oF tHe Hero 5 ‘Your soul is whole, and completely your own, Harry’: the Heroic Self in J.K. rowling’s Harry Potter Series 69 Lena Steveker 6 Harry Potter’s archetypal Journey 85 Julia Boll 7 Harry Potter – the Development of a Screen Hero 105 Jennifer Schütz vi Heroism in the Harry Potter Series 8 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), or, How Harry Potter Becomes a Hero 123 Nadine Böhm Part III HeroIC orIGInaLS, FrIenDS anD FoeS 9 Harry Potter and the idea of the Gentleman as Hero 141 Christine Berberich 10 Hermione Granger, or, a Vindication of the rights of Girl 159 Katrin Berndt 11 the influence of Gender on Harry Potter’s Heroic (trans)Formation 177 Karley Adney 12 adult Heroism and role Models in the Harry Potter novels 193 Maria Nikolajeva 13 Heroism at the Margins 207 Kathleen McEvoy Index 225 List of abbreviations Harry Potter novels PS Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997) CoS Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998) PoA Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999) GoF Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) OoP Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003) HBP Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) DH Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) all quotations are taken from the respective first British hardcover editions of the Harry Potter novels, published by Bloomsbury (see individual Works Cited sections for details). Harry Potter Films Stone Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Warner Bros, 2001) Chamber Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Warner Bros, 2002) Prisoner Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Warner Bros, 2004) Goblet Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros, 2005) Order Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Warner Bros, 2007) Prince Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros, 2009) For detailed filmographic information please see the Works Cited sections of the individual chapters. This page has been left blank intentionally notes on Contributors Karley adney earned her PhD from northern illinois University. She specializes in sixteenth and seventeenth century British literature, with an emphasis on Shakespearean studies. She is an assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Marathon County. adney has published extensively on the Harry Potter series, and also presented a number of papers on ‘Potter studies’ at various conferences. She is co-author of the Critical Companion to J.K. Rowling. Christine Berberich is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK. Her research interest focuses mainly on national identity and she has published widely on the notion of Englishness as well as the authors Julian Barnes, Kazuo ishiguro, W.G. Sebald and James Hawes. Her monograph, The Image of the English Gentleman in Twentieth-Century Literature: Englishness and Nostalgia was published by ashgate in December 2007. Katrin Berndt is assistant Professor at the Chair for British and anglophone Literatures at the University of Bremen. Her research interests include narrative theory; african literature; Canadian writing; and popular music. She published Female Identity in Contemporary Zimbabwean Fiction (2005), Yoko Ono – In Her Own Write (1999) and co-edited Words and Worlds: African Writing, Literature, and Society (with Susan arndt, 2007). at present, she is working on a project dealing with friendship in the British novel of the eighteenth century. nadine Böhm holds a PhD from the Friedrich-alexander University at Erlangen- nuremberg, where she works as a Lecturer in British Literary and Cultural Studies. She is interested in intersections of different fields of knowledge, and has published on the role of religious and ethical discourses in contemporary popular film and literature. Her most recent project deals with nineteenth-century texts combining scientific and aesthetic discourses. Julia Boll is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, where she researches the representation of war and conflict in contemporary drama, teaches literature and drama and is director of the scottish Universities’ international summer School. She is also an editor of newleaf magazine. She has published on the relation between new war theory and contemporary plays on civil war and on contemporary adaptations of Euripides’ Women of Troy.