Creating Magical Worlds

A huge success in both bookshops and cinemas, the Harry Potter-series has drawn millions of readers and viewers into its magical world. In constructing this world, however, J. K. Rowling has created Harry and his friends in sharp contrast to other members of the magical and non-magical world. Creating Magical Worlds: Otherness and Othering in Harry Potter argues that the identities of the heroes are mainly based on delimitation from and rivalry to other characters: the Slytherins and Deatheaters, foreign students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, magical races such as the house-elves and centaurs, Muggles and Squibs as well as, to a certain extent, girls and women. Apart from explaining the social psychological and psychoanalytical reasons behind this exclusion, Creating Magical Worlds also shows in how far this delimitation is necessary for the action and the plot of the series.

Author Biography

The Author: Marion Rana studied British and American Studies, Pedagogy and Political Science at the University of Mainz as well as Creative Writing in Chichester (UK). At the moment, she is working on her Ph.D.thesis about gender roles and ideology in contemporary children’s literature. She is the publisher of interjuli – Internationale Kinder und Jugendliteraturforschung, an interdisciplinary magazine for international studies in children’s and young adults’ literature.