Re-Reading Harry Potter [Hardcover]

Suman Gupta (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

Re-reading Harry Potter is the first extended analysis of the social and political implications of the Harry Potter phenomenon. Arguments are primarily based on close readings of the first four Harry Potter books and the first two films, and a "text-to-world" method is followed. This study does not assume that the phenomenon concerns children alone, or should be lightly dismissed as a matter of pure entertainment as the amount of money, media coverage, and ideological unease involved indicates otherwise. The first part of the study provides a survey of responses (both of general readers and critics) to the Harry Potter books. The second part examines the presentation of certain themes, including gender, race, and desire, with a view to understanding how these may impinge on social and political concerns of our world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

J.K. Rowling's young wizard has already conquered dozens of languages (along with the silver screen), building a durable brand and a fan base of perhaps unprecedented scope: it's past time for academics to seek their share. Though this volume is not (as Gupta acknowledges) the first academic study of "the Harry Potter phenomenon," it attempts new critical ground: where other critics look at Rowling's life, her books in the context of writing for children, or their specifically British meaning, Gupta seeks a "text-to-world" interpretation focused on Hogwarts' potential "social and political effects" anywhere the books are read. Fully half this relatively short volume outlines the theoretical approaches Gupta rejects, with sometimes extensive reference to their champions (Wolfgang Iser, Tzvetan Todorov, Roland Barthes). Actual readings of the Potter books move quickly through chosen, sometimes obvious, topics ("servants and slaves," sex, advertising), mixing attractive insights with responses to previous Potter critics and very broad, sometimes unconvincing claims. Gupta concludes that the books' antiracist themes conceal a crypto-imperialist paternalism (wizards will always dominate Muggles); that attempts to map Rowling's world onto ours often fail (house-elves, for example, have no real-world analog); and, finally, that the "books are an extended celebration of unthinking courage and luck at the expense of seeking explanations and using rational principles." Though Gupta (Marxism, History and Intellectuals) has produced a useful, well-meant contribution to an expanding academic field, general readers who enjoy both the Potter books and well-written, careful literary criticism will probably be disappointed.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"...a useful, well-meant contribution to an expanding academic field..."--Publishers Weekly Annex

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403912645
• ISBN-13: 978-1403912640
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,480,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Missing the point?, September 26, 2003

By 

A. Williams (Southampton, Hampshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Re-Reading Harry Potter (Paperback)

I did enjoy parts of this book very much. I'm afraid, though, that it was often for the wrong reasons. At times I suspected that it was an elaborate and extended send-up of academic squabbling over literature. I'm still not quite sure, but I *think* it is serious.

The first chapter 'Book Covers' ("I begin as most readers must, with book covers") contains the delightful story of Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish. Mr Iser proposes an "implied reader" who has a dialectical relationship with the text and who, we are warned, "is not to be identified with any real reader." This concept gives rise to "a series of disagreements." Mr Fish thinks that Mr Iser is "missing the point" and introduces the concept of "interpretive strategies" which make it "questionable whether a particular text can be said to have any discrete and determinative existence at all." Gupta, in a tongue twisting turn of phrase, comments that, "A waspish exchange followed between Iser and Fish." Some unkind people may consider that both Iser and Fish, and possibly also Gupta, have missed the point.

The chapter entitled 'Religious Perspectives' comes to the remarkable conclusion that Christian belief (as he understands it from a study of Richard Abanes book) is just as fanciful as anything in Harry Potter's world, and that both are equally far removed from the real world of the social and political. This gives us an insight into Mr Gupta's world view but, sadly, none into his subject. Perhaps this is because he fails to refer directly to the text under discussion at all in this chapter, but devotes it to a complaint that he feels excluded from the religious debate because he is not religious.

The one chapter that stands head and shoulders above the rest is the one entitled 'Repetition and Progression'. This chapter is based around the insight that the books in the Harry Potter series achieve a rare balance of repeating themes and increasing complexity. It notes how the initial themes are introduced, then elaborated, developed and deepened at each repetition. This is an intriguing chapter and does not seem to fit comfortably with the rest of the book. It is also very brief -only four pages. I would have found it interesting to see this explored in more depth.

For a very much more perceptive and thorough, although less self-consciously academic, analysis of both the literary and religious perspectives I would highly recommend John Granger's book The Hidden Key to Harry Potter.

36 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Uninsightful vamping, December 25, 2003

By 

Sydney (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Re-Reading Harry Potter (Paperback)

The other reviewer is spot on, this is a dreary trudge through every fashionable tourist-spot of contemporary criticism. It barely engages with the actual books, pausing at the actual experience of reading only long enough to spot the landmark heresies: sexism (check), racism (check), imperialism (check)... flip through the index and compare the references to characters in the books, vs. the references to vogue theorists, and you'll get the idea. As expected, there is considerably more space made for academic squabbles than for any recognizable experience, human or literary. The inquisitor wraps up this excericize in scholasticism with the shocking announcement that Rowling has been discovered to be (gasp!) a bourgouise liberal. Light the pyres!

A witch-hunt indeed. Yuck.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring and Superficial, July 27, 2006

By 

blibberinghumdinger (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Re-Reading Harry Potter (Hardcover)

Even if I agreed with Gupta's arguments, I would still have to admit this is a dry, dull, pompous tome that will bore the pants off anyone. As it is, his arguments are ridiculous. They are vague, airy, tenuous attempts to link Harry to some sort of notion of contemporary culture but its never definate. It is amazing how much time he spends pontificating instead of analyzing. If you can see through all the smoke and mirrors, he has stumbled upon a few good categories for looking at the series (like "Blood"), but his analyses are very superficial and condescending. Worst of all, as others have noted, his reading of the books is completely inadequate. He's barely read them, beyond being able to recite the basic plot, and sometimes wrongly. He has merely attached a few of his own ideas vaguely to the Harry Potter series, with absolutely no sensitivity or real engagement. Gupta is yet another (male) critic who has been able to get a lazy book on Harry Potter published. This is a complete waste of time and money: keep reading Harry on your own and wait for some good studies to come out. (The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter is pretty good).