The Literary Merits of Harry Potter Paper Assignment

We’ve studied a number of different themes that occur in the Harry Potter series from a number of different analytical approaches this semester.  Your job is to choose one theme (it can be one specified on our reading calendar or a spin-off, like religion, that you've become interested in on your own) and develop an opinionated, arguable thesis around that theme. Following is a breakdown of the different parts of this assignment:

¨  THE PAPER: After formulating an opinionated thesis statement, you will generate a 6-10 paged paper that uses the novels (I feel sure each of you will use more than one, but there's no specific limit as to the number of novels you need to use) and at least one critical source to support that thesis (even if your source is against your thesis, using it and rebutting it ends up supporting your thesis).  The paper is due by noon on 12/6 through turnitin.com.    

¨  THE OUTSIDE SOURCE: You must use at least one outside critical source in your paper and may use more.  You can find sources in Dacus or online (JSTOR, the MLA Bibliography and Infotrac, all under Databases on Dacus’ homepage, often bring up full-text articles.  you can also try PASCAL and interlibrary loan), and you can also consult the bibliography on our website and request articles based on their titles; I'll be glad to email you the PDF's.  Wherever you find it, you must make sure that your source is a work of criticism, not a mere summary of the plot. 

¨  WORKS CITED: You’ll need to cite any quotations and paraphrases (from the books and from your critical source) using correct MLA parenthetical documentation within the body of your paper (not footnotes).  Make sure you are introducing quotes and paraphrases according to the handout on “The Correct Use of Borrowed Information” (you’ll find a link on my homepage: http://faculty.winthrop.edu/bickfordl).   You will also need a Works Cited page containing bibliographical information, documented according to the new MLA standards, on any outside sources you cite.

¨  Turnitin.com: By noon on 12/6, each of you will need to submit your paper electronically to me using Turnitin.com. If you'd like to receive comments on a hardcopy, you may also bring me one in class on our last day or slide it under my door in Bancroft (234)..  Otherwise, you'll get comments through turnitin and I won't need a hardcopy.

¨        IDEAS: Choose from one of the following to get started or let me know your topic.

1. Problems of gender: where do the books come down on our contemporary ideas of masculinity and/or femininity?  Why?  How do you see attitudes towards gender growing or changing in the series?   (try to go beyond the "are the books sexist?" argument we've hashed out in class).
2. Problems of psychology: How and why do the books represent psychological problems?  What types of solutions do they offer for healing, especially as it pertains to Harry and the trauma he's faced?  There are many other terms and ways we diagnosed characters that could lead you into an interesting exploration of the psyche of one or more characters. Alternately, you might want to look at he phallic broomstick or wand: You might consider this one in terms of gender or even genre (light saber, anyone?), but make sure a good understanding of the Freudian meaning of "phallic" underpins this exploration of the symbol(s).  The converse of this would be to consider yonic symbols in the novels. 
3. Issues of race drive these books and Harry's quest, possibly more than any other issue, yet we've discussed how his defeat of Voldemort does little to eradicate racial inequality within the wizarding world.  Some of you have pointed out that Harry, and even Hermione, are hypocritically racist at times.  Is the series' lack of an answer to racism (neither multicultural nor social justice antiracism changes things on a large scale, in the final analysis) defeatist?  Who gets to decide which is the "supreme" race/species/blood type and how?
4. Class distinctions have also had an effect on our characters; some distinctions are made on the basis of race (which can make a character a “second class citizen”), but many are formed on the basis of money and possessions.  F. Scott Fitzgerald is often quoted as saying the rich are different from the rest of us.  Is Fitzgerald right?  Are the rich characters different from the not so rich?  In what way?  Are their struggles the same?  How or how not, and why or why not?  What things/people are commodified in the wizarding world?  In what ways does this commodification cause harm?  In what ways does it help Harry in his quest/is it show to be positive?
5. We're looking into issues of readerly responses next: how does Rowling's writing force us to "reread" (even if we only read the books once) certain characters and events?  Why?  Is there a lesson to be learned here?  In what specific ways does she "grow" her characters/our experience of them over the course of seven years?  How do some of these other issues (race, gender, maybe even class) play into that growth or change as a result of it? 
6. The phallic broomstick or wand: You might consider this one in terms of gender or even genre (light saber, anyone?), but make sure a good understanding of the Freudian meaning of "phallic" underpins this exploration of the symbol(s).