The Harry Potter Generation: Essays on Growing Up with the Series ed. by Emily Lauer and Balaka Basu

Paul A. Thomas

doi:10.1353/uni.2021.0019

The Harry Potter Generation: Essays on Growing Up with the Series. Edited by Emily Lauer and Balaka Basu

International Research in Children s Literature ◽

10.3366/ircl.2021.0381 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 108-110

Author(s):

Leone Betts

Keyword(s):

Harry Potter ◽

Growing Up

Download Full-text

Nuorten lokerointi ja kehittyminen Salla Simukan nuortendystopiaromaaneissa Jäljellä ja Toisaalla

Sananjalka ◽

10.30673/sja.70037 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 60 (60.) ◽

pp. 204-216

Author(s):

Maria Laakso

Keyword(s):

Coming Of Age ◽

Current System ◽

Harry Potter ◽

Growing Up ◽

Contemporary Society ◽

Genre Fiction ◽

Young Audiences ◽

Near Future ◽

Critical Consideration

Coming of age and classification of adolescents In Salla Simukka’s YA-dystopias Jäljellä and Toisaalla Finnish YA-author Salla Simukka takes a current societal problem into the center of her novel pair Jäljellä (Left Over, not translated, 2012) and Toisaalla (Elsewhere, not translated, 2012). These novels criticize the current system, where even young children are forced to choose specialized studies and make decisions that affect their whole future. This is a consequence on a modern western information society, where branches of knowledge are differentiated. These theme Simukka’s novels handle with the methods off dystopic fiction. Both novels depict a dystopic world, where adolescents are classified into groups based on their personality and their talents. Both novels depict a world very much like our own, but the time of the story lies in the near future. As usual to the dystopic fiction the author pics up some existing progressions from the reality and then extends those conditions into a future, and this way the flaws of the current conditions are revealed. In my article I claim, that Simukka’s novels take under critical consideration the whole Western concept of coming of age. Especially crucial is the idea of growth as being something controllable. In western cultures the growing up of an individual is standardized and regulated by institutions and fields of science such us daycare, school, medicine, and psychology. In Simukka’s novels this idea is exaggerated but still recognizable. The motif of classifications or sorting the adolescents has lately been popular in YA-fantasy and YA-dystopia. Simukka’s novels borrow from two bestsellers: J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter -series (1997–2007), and Veronica Roth’s Divergent-series (2011–2013). These examples seem to prove, that the idea of adolescents of being sorted or being classified is important in contemporary genre fiction targeting young audiences. Sorting or classification as motifs seem to be connected to the contemporary understanding of youth and growing up. In this article I consider the classification motif in Simukka’s novel. I consentrate especially to the connections between the motif and the wider theme of growing up. I examine the motif beside the Western ideas of growth and coming of age. Besides that I also study the different genre frames Simukka’s novels use to discuss of growing up in contemporary society. These genre traditions include dystopic fiction, YA-literature and fairytale. In this article I propose, that the classification motif allegorizes the demands set to adolescents in contemporary society but also appeals to the young readers as a fantasy of belonging to the group.

Download Full-text

Growing Up to Save the World: Christ and the Fantasies of Boyhood

Exchange ◽

10.1163/1572543x-12341251 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 68-85 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Vandana Saxena

Keyword(s):

General Trend ◽

World Order ◽

Harry Potter ◽

Social Intervention ◽

Careful Study ◽

Growing Up ◽

The World ◽

The Sacrifice

Abstract This paper explores the intricate link between the story of Christ and the contemporary constructions of adolescence boyhood through a careful study of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Though the success of the series can be seen in terms of the general trend of the resurfacing of religion in the current world order, the paper argues that the series attempts to revise and reconfigure the scriptural narrative by integrating the themes of boyhood and bringing in contemporary cultural and secular concerns. The story of boy-to-man transition echoes the story of Christ: his life, the temptations, the ordeals, and ultimately the sacrifice and resurrection. Linked with discourses of adolescent angst and defiance, the scriptural story acquires a potential for active political and social intervention.

Download Full-text