Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Harry Potter 101, or How I Really Knew, for Once and for All, That I'm a Total Dork

This will be especially funny to anyone who's (a) read the Harry Potter books at least once, and (b) studied literary theory. (That's pretty much everyone, right?)
3. Post structuralism: Harry Potter and the violent hierarchies of opposition
Deconstruct the Voldemort character. To what extent does he exhibit Derrida's theory of binary opposites? Include in your analysis a discussion of how "his" power is everywhere and nowhere, how He Who Should Not Be Named has no physical or solid identity and how he represents "pure" evil. To what extent is Azkaban influenced by Foucault's Discipline and Punish?
Hee!

4 comments:

Emily said...

Oh Foucault! Why do you continue to haunt me?

Anonymous said...

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/07/harry_potters_big_con_is_the_p.html

I'm not sure how effective it is to deconstruct Harry Potter. A bit late, really. I do have to say that The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman is the most amazing example of modern children's lit that parents can enjoy, too. My son and I both could not wait to get to it every night. And as far as I know, it stands up to the critiques.

b*babbler said...

Ooh too funny. Definitely brings bac, way to many memories of university: compare and contrast. Discuss.

Carrie Ann said...

We had to do a character analysis in my sophomore Personality Psych course, and I chose Harry Potter. I think I used Jungian analysis. Maybe Freudian. When I reread the paper, I felt so dirty finding all that sexual symbolism in the very first book.