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the books secret until they were released. One reason for the popularity of the Harry Potter series is that through these works Rowling has subtly changed the nature of long fiction by showing how it can depict psychological development playfully yet insightfully, in great detail and with myriad interconnections.
Biography
The daughter of Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling (who met at King’s Cross
railway station—a major location in the Potter series), Joanne Kathleen Rowling grew up
in various Gloucester villages in England. Her best friend, Sean Harris, later served as one model for her character Ron Weasley. She studied classics at the University of Exeter and later became a researcher for Amnesty International, which pressures governments
around the world to abandon the use of torture and other brutality.
In 1990, much of the characterization and plot of the Harry Potter series occurred to
Rowling as she was traveling by train. After the death of her mother that year, she deepened her sense of Harry’s sorrow at his parents’ demise. In 1992 in Portugal, where she
was teaching, she married a television journalist. The marriage ended in divorce but left her with a baby daughter. She was living in poverty when she finished the first volume of her series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in 1995. Rowling has stated that this was a period when she suffered from depression and even thought of suicide. Eventually,
however, she found an agent and then a publisher for the book.
As late as 1997, Rowling was able to spend her time writing only because she had re-
ceived a monetary grant from the Scottish Arts Council. The next year, the American pub-
lisher Scholastic bid $105,000 for the right to publish the American edition of the first Harry Potter book—this was the first financial record for children’s books that Rowling
set. After that time, Rowling focused on completing the series, serving as an adviser on the very large-budgeted film adaptations that were made from the books, engaging in legal
suits connected to the series, and raising funds for many charities.
Analysis
In various interviews, J. K. Rowling has discussed her intention to furnish her child
characters with increasingly complex abilities and mature emotions with each successive
volume. Although various authors—for example, James Joyce in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)—have experimented with changing style to depict a protagonist’s maturing consciousness, the Harry Potter series does so at extraordinary length and with considerable subtlety while alternating between comedy and adventure in a manner that
prevents the author’s psychological explorations and moralizing from being intrusive.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone begins with its title character extremely isolated. He has no friends or sympathy from his foster parents, the Dursleys. He lives in a 190
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closet under the stairs, and the closest he comes to social life is playing with hand-me-down toys from his bullying cousin Dudley. Despite the fact that Harry is eleven, his psychological situation is typical of someone much younger, who has not yet fully bonded
with parents and has not yet begun to have real companions. For Harry, growing up hap-
pens suddenly, as he is on the way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He ac-
quires the first of a number of benign parental figures in the person of the giant Hagrid as well as acquaintance with the two children who are to become his closest friends, Ron
Weasley and Hermione Granger. For the first time, he is in the care of adults worthy of
trust, but also of some (notably the potions professor, Snape) who arouse suspicion, so
that Harry and friends fall into another of the normal activities of childhood, learning to break suspect rules. He meets his chief obstacle in Rowling’s favorite chapter, “The Mirror of Erised,” in which he resists the temptation to withdraw from his friends and regress to being alone with his daydreams. His victory at the end of the book depends on aid he receives from the school’s headmaster, Dumbledore, as well as from Ron and Hermione.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Whereas the first book in the series demonstrates the importance of finding one’s
group, the next three—each in a darker and more alarming way—show Harry the
fallibility of groups despite the need for them. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, betrayed by his best friend’s sister, Ginny Weasley, he also finds less direct aid from Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore than in the previous ending (although they contribute to the
victory). At the climax, Harry fights as a sword-wielding hero against a dragonlike basi-lisk to save an imprisoned maiden. This is, of course, the realization of a typical adolescent fantasy, which teaches courage and self-reliance.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, these virtues (even when augmented
with teamwork) turn out to be insufficient for total victory in a society where legal processes have become somewhat confused and corrupt. Near the opening, Harry is a fleeing
criminal, expecting to be occupying a cell in the wizard’s prison Azkaban for fighting
back illegally against a viciously harassing aunt. His godfather, Sirius Black, despite being innocent of the mass murder for which he was convicted, has spent years in that prison, escaped, and now might lose his soul if caught.
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling offers a special lesson in dealing with fears so intense that they lead toward depression, personified as Dementors. As one remedy for such fears, Professor Lupin (who has struggled with the terror that the
beast within him will overpower him) teaches children to reimagine whatever they fear
most into a ridiculous form. To counter Harry’s vulnerability to despair, Lupin trains him to employ the even more powerful spell of the “Patronus” (a word derived from the Latin
word pater, which means father). It requires Harry to remember an intense joy, in his case 191
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connected to his parents. It takes the form of the animal into which his father used to transform. Since the book is about overcoming depression by reconnecting with the past, its
plot hinges on the manipulation of time itself via Hermione’s magic amulet.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In the next volume, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the children are no longer as sheltered as they once were from the intricacies and machinations of the commercial
world around them. The book starts with the massively merchandised sporting event the
World Quidditch Cup. Although still at school, Fred and George, Ron’s older brothers,
keep attempting to collect a large wager on the tournament so that they can finance a business. Competition among three schools, conducted with repeated reference to prize
money and betting, also involves publicity and a spying reporter, Rita Skeeter, who lies and twists facts to help her newspaper sell copies. This systematic distortion is worse than the occasional injustices exposed by the previous book.
The first books in the Harry Potter series thus present typical stages of human develop-
ment that most modern people undergo: in the first book, the rise from isolation to com-
panionship; in the second, the transition from dependence to independence; in the third, movement from defiance of law to learning how to deal with its inequities while preserv-ing one’s integrity; and in the fourth, the transition from innocence to understanding of the machinations of the modern, commercial world. The remaining
books present still more
complex visions of human development.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry, terrorized by nightmares that merge with the external world, must comprehend the intricate interrelationship of subjective and objective. He has reached an advanced developmental stage, recognizing that
each person views the world through a unique subjective perspective, so people are not all experiencing precisely the same world but rather subtly different ones, shaped and colored by their viewpoints. Appropriate to this insight is appreciation of diversity. The Order of the Phoenix has a broad membership: a thief and members of the magical police, a
magicless “squib” and professors of magic, a bureaucrat and a werewolf. This volume
shows that cooperation among the members of this diverse group is essential if they are to avoid domination by the reactionary “purebloods”—the enemies of diversity. Both the
sorting hat and Hermione preach this moral. The brightest of the group, she had already
some signs of this stage in the previous volume, but now she campaigns for an alliance of all the school’s houses, and her crusade for oppressed house elves intensifies. Agreeing with her, Dumbledore condemns the arrogance that results in the tyranny of one magical
race over the others. Although not every character achieves this tolerant perspective, the last two books present even less common understandings.
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
At the core of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is what Hermione calls
Golpalott’s Third Law: To counteract a mixture of poisons, an antidote must be more than a sum of antidotes to each poison; the cure must have something to catalyze the individual ingredients into a whole. This lesson in systems dynamics belongs to advanced studies
that most of the students do not grasp at first—Harry among them—but it is the metaphor
running throughout much of the book. As in the battle at the climax of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, members of that Order have been in individual duels with Voldemort’s supporters—that is, have been separate antidotes. To counteract the figurative mixture of poisons with which Voldemort has been corrupting society, something
more than such an accumulation is needed. Dumbledore’s death becomes a catalyst, trans-
forming the situation and (in the next book) inspiring his followers to equal self-sacrifice.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is the application of the complex teachings of the preceding book, as a way to make the wizarding community hale and
whole again. To achieve this unification, each of the main characters must undergo some
deathlike loss of self, so that all can better meld with the community. Snape, Lupin,
Dobby, and Fred Weasley are among those giving their lives. Hermione hides her parents
and disappears from their memory, thus eradicating one foundation for her identity. In a baptism-like plunge, Ron, in dark, cold waters, purges his previous selfishness, a transformation completed only when he overcomes all the nagging fears of being second best that
have limited him. Harry has a near-death experience in which he talks to Dumbledore (or
imagines himself doing so) at King’s Cross. He comes back from this with the authority
and charisma of a self-sacrificing leader (group catalyst), ready to grant magnanimous
forgiveness to any repentant enemy and thus to end the divisions of the society.
This final volume is an inconclusive conclusion built around the idea of the Elder
Wand (which, at one point, Rowling considered mentioning in the book’s title). Dumble-
dore admits to having wasted much of his life in dreams about possessing it, and Harry
must also resist that temptation. It guarantees its rightful master victory in any duel, but this does not keep its possessors from losing—a fact that Voldemort ignores arrogantly,
imagining himself somehow pure, immortal, and all-powerful: a personification of stasis.
Rowling uses her paradox of the vulnerability of the seemingly unconquerable to show
that no power, however magical, can control life, which is fluid, unpredictable, and constantly changing. This is a feature not only of this book’s plot but also of the series—a vast river of words, flowing from one surprise to another and interconnected to a sea of
publicity.
As she was writing the series, Rowling engaged with her readers through the Internet,
giving clues to each future volume; fans of the books tried to guess what would happen
next or wrote their own additional sections of the story. Thereby, they participated in
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Harry’s education. The fans’ interest intensified near the time of the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and it did not stop after the book appeared. In interviews, Rowling continued to add to that book’s epilogue, providing the further fates of characters as well as additional background information—for example, she revealed Dumbledore’s
homosexuality. Rowling thus significantly modified the closure that had long been
assumed to be a characteristic of the novel genre.
James Whitlark
Other major works
children’s literature: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, 2001 (as Newt
Scamander); Quidditch Through the Ages, 2001 (as Kennilworthy Whisp); The Tales of Beedle the Bard, 2008.
Bibliography
Colbert, David. The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter. New York: Berkley Books, 2008.
Provides explanations of the allusions to historical events and myths that Rowling em-
ploys throughout the Harry Potter series.
Granger, John. Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader. Allentown, Pa.: Zosima, 2007. Presents analysis of the themes found in the Harry Potter series, particularly that of alchemy.
Heilman, Elizabeth E., ed. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter. New York: Routledge, 2008. Collection of essays addresses the Harry Potter books from the perspectives of
various academic disciplines, including popular culture and anthropology.
Killinger, John. God, the Devil, and Harry Potter: A Christian Minister’s Defense of the Beloved Novels. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2004. Offers thoughtful arguments defending the books against charges that they are un-Christian.
Nexon, Daniel H., and Iver B. Neumann, eds. Harry Potter and International Relations.
Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Collection of essays by scholars in the
field of international relations focuses on the connections made among various nations
through the international success of the Harry Potter series.
Sexton, Colleen. J. K. Rowling. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2008. Brief, illustrated volume offers biographical information on Rowling.
Thomas, Scott. The Making of the Potterverse: A Month-by-Month Look at Harry’s First Ten Years. Toronto, Ont.: ECW Press, 2007. Presents a history of the media coverage surrounding the Harry Potter series, with particular focus on the film adaptations. Includes interviews.
Trevarthen, Geo. The Seeker’s Guide to Harry Potter. Ropley, England: O Books, 2008.
Provides information on the various symbols that appear in the book series, particu-
larly Celtic ones.
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JOSÉ SARAMAGO
Born: Azinhaga, Ribatejo, Portugal; November 16, 1922
Also known as: José de Sousa Saramago
Principal long fiction
Terra do pecado, 1947
Manual de pintura e caligrafia, 1976 ( Manual of Pai
nting and Calligraphy, 1994) Levantado do chão, 1980
Memorial do convento, 1982 ( Baltasar and Blimunda, 1987)
O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis, 1984 ( The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, 1991)
A jangada de pedra, 1986 ( The Stone Raft, 1994)
História do cerco de Lisboa, 1989 ( The History of the Siege of Lisbon, 1996) O Evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo, 1991 ( The Gospel According to Jesus
Christ, 1993)
Ensaio sobre a cegueira, 1995 ( Blindness, 1997)
Conto da ilha desconhecida, 1997 ( The Tale of the Unknown Island, 1999)
Todos os nomes: Romance, 1997 ( All the Names, 1999)
A caverna, 2000 ( The Cave, 2002)
O homem duplicado, 2002 ( The Double, 2004)
Ensaio sobre a lucidez, 2004 ( Seeing, 2006)
Other literary forms
In addition to his novels, José Saramago (sah-rah-MAH-goh) has written various other
literary works, including several collections of poetry, short stories, plays, and an extensive personal diary. He has translated many European authors’ works, including those of
Colette, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Leo Tolstoy, Charles Baudelaire, Nicos Poulan-
tzas, Guy de Maupassant, Étienne Balibar, Jean Cassou, Henri Focillon, Jacques Rou-
main, André Bonnard, and Raymond Bayer. Saramago has also worked as an editor for
the newspaper Diário de Noticias and later published several newspaper articles.
Achievements
José Saramago received the Prémio Cidade de Lisboa in 1980, an award that is critical
to achieving recognition in Portugal. International acclaim came to Saramago with the
publication of Baltasar and Blimunda in 1982. For this novel, he received Portugal’s most prestigious literary honor, the PEN Club Award (1983 and 1984). This award was followed by the Prémio da Crítica da Associação Portuguesa 1986, an important journalism
prize. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ was nominated for the European Literary Prize (1992), awarded by the European Writers’ Congress, but Saramago’s name was re-195
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