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Harry Potter and the Hero Myth

This guide provides resources and ideas for the ENG 214 class.

Very Helpful Databases for Mythology Research

While you may be researching a wide range of hero topics, you may find these library databases helpful. Let us know if you need some help accessing any of them. We'll see what we can do!

  • ARTstor provides access to many of the world's premiere examples of fine arts. The images are highly interactive, the collections are easily searched and browsed, and ARTStor provides all of the necessary info you need to propery cite each image.
  • Credo Reference offers thousands of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference sources about a number of topics, including extensive entries about characters and ideas from mythology and religion.
  • Films on Demand: The Myth and Hero Playlist has been created by Stanley Library just for you! Check out short films about mythology and ideas of the "hero" here. 
  • JSTOR is an especially extensive collection held by the library that contains scholarly articles about literature, religion, mythology, and popular culture and should make your research in these areas quite a bit easier.
  • Humanities International Complete offers a variety of full text articles and journals, with worldwide content pertaining to literary, scholarly and creative thought.

Very Helpful Print Resources in the Library

Call number ranges that are your friends in this class include: 

                  BL - Religions, Mythology, Rathionalism

BL 300 - BL 325 - The Myth, Comparative Mythology

G - Geography, Anthropology, Folklore, Recreation

GR - Folklore

GR 74 - Folktales. General works

GR 550 - Fairy tales. General works

GR 552 - Fairy tales. Collections of texts

PN 3437 - Prose, Prose fiction. Special topics. Fairy tales.

PQ 637 .F27 - Literary history and criticism. History of French literature. Special topics. Fairy tales

PQ 1877 - Modern French literature. Individual authors. Perrault, Charles, 1628-1703

PR 888 - History of English literature. Prose. Fairy tales

The following Suggested Reading titles can be found in Stanley Library!

'Harry - yer a wizard!'

J.K. Rowling's ""Harry Potter"" series (1997-2007) has turned into a global phenomenon and her Potterverse is still expanding. The contributions in this volume provide a range of inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to various dimensions of this multifacetted universe. The introductory article focuses on different forms of world building in the novels, the translations, the film series and the fandom. Part I examines various potential sources for Rowling's series in folklore, the Arthurian legend and Gothic literature. Further articles focus on parallels between the ""Harry Potter"" series and Celtic Druidism, the impact Victorian notions of gender roles have had on the representation of the Gaunt family, the reception of (medieval and Early Modern) history in the series and the influence of Christian concepts on the world view expressed in the novels. Part II focuses on a range of prominent political and social themes in the series, including conspiracy, persecution and terror, racism as well as the role of economic, social and cultural capital. Other articles explore the concept of a Magical Criminal Law and its consequences as well as the significance of secrets and forbidden places. The articles in Part III go beyond the novels by taking the stage play ""Harry Potter and the Cursed Child"", the movie ""Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"", Pottermore and fan fiction into account. Main topics in this part include trauma theory/PTSD, queerbaiting, a 'post'-colonial analysis of the representation of Native Americans in Rowling's ""History of Magic in North America"" and the depiction of violence, incest and rape in fan fictions. The concluding article highlights the diversification of the Potterverse and analyses strategies informing its ongoing expansion.

'Critical Insights The Harry Potter Series'

This book provides in-depth critical discussions of Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, plus complimentary, unlimited online access to the full content of this great literary reference. Over the last twenty years, J. K. Rowling has captured the hearts and imaginations of readers around the world with her inimitable Harry Potter series, an adventurous tale of a young wizard's coming of age. Over the course of seven books, this epic fantasy saga tells the story of Harry Potter, a young wizard at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Together with his friends, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, as well as other various modern-day wizards, witches, and Muggles, Harry fights an ongoing battle against Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard with an obsessive quest for power and immortality. Edited by M. Katherine Grimes (Associate Professor of English, Ferrum College) and Lana A. Whited (Professor of English and Director of the Boone Honors Program, Ferrum College), this volume provides fourteen insightful essays that dig deep at the heart of Rowling’s magnum opus. Included in these new compilation are surveys of the books’ critical responses; comparisons to Arthurian legend and the entire scope of Western literature; analyses of the portrayals of men, women, goodness, and godliness; suggestive possibilities for theoretical engagement; and an answer to the question, “What motivated youth to read the Harry Potter series?”

'The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon'

The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter is the first book-length analysis of J. K. Rowling's work from a broad range of perspectives within literature, folklore, psychology, sociology, and popular culture. A significant portion of the book explores the Harry Potter series' literary ancestors, including magic and fantasy works by Ursula K. LeGuin, Monica Furlong, Jill Murphy, and others, as well as previous works about the British boarding school experience. Other chapters explore the moral and ethical dimensions of Harry's world, including objections to the series raised within some religious circles. In her new epilogue, Lana A. Whited brings this volume up to date by covering Rowling's latest book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

'Of Bread, Blood, and the Hunger Games : Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy'

This collection of fresh essays on Suzanne Collins's epic trilogy spans multiple disciplines. The contributors probe the trilogy's meaning using theories grounded in historicism, feminism, humanism, queer theory, as well as cultural, political, and media studies. The essayists demonstrate diverse perspectives regarding Collins's novels but their works have three elements in common: an appreciation of the trilogy as literature, a belief in its permanent value, and a need to share both appreciation and belief with fellow readers. 

'The Hero With a Thousand Faces'

Since its release in 1949,The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell's revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In these pages, Campbell outlines the Hero's Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world's mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

'Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays'

J.K. Rowling achieved astounding commercial success with her series of novels about Harry Potter, the boy-wizard who finds out about his magical powers on the morning of his eleventh birthday. The books' incredible popularity, and the subsequent likelihood that they are among this generation's most formative narratives, call for critical exploration and study to interpret the works' inherent tropes and themes. The essays in this collection assume that Rowling's works should not be relegated to the categories of pulp fiction or children's trends, which would deny their certain influence on the intellectual, emotional, and psychosocial development of today's children. The variety of contributions allows for a range of approaches and interpretive methods in exploring the novels, and reveals the deeper meanings and attitudes towards justice, education, race, foreign cultures, socioeconomic class, and gender.

'Heroism in the Harry Potter Series'

Taking up the various conceptions of heroism that are conjured in the Harry Potter series, this collection examines the ways fictional heroism in the twenty-first century challenges the idealized forms of a somewhat simplistic masculinity associated with genres like the epic, romance and classic adventure story. The collection's three sections address broad issues related to genre, Harry Potter's development as the central heroic character and the question of who qualifies as a hero in the Harry Potter series. Among the topics are Harry Potter as both epic and postmodern hero, the series as a modern-day example of psychomachia, the series' indebtedness to the Gothic tradition, Harry's development in the first six film adaptations, Harry Potter and the idea of the English gentleman, Hermione Granger's explicitly female version of heroism, adult role models in Harry Potter, and the complex depictions of heroism exhibited by the series' minor characters. Together, the essays suggest that the Harry Potter novels rely on established generic, moral and popular codes to develop new and genuine ways of expressing what a globalized world has applauded as ethically exemplary models of heroism based on responsibility, courage, humility and kindness.

'Literary Allusion in Harry Potter'

Beatrice Groves's Literary Allusion in Harry Potter ruminates upon the role of intertextuality in J. K. Rowling's series and how "allusion brings a momentary incursion of the 'real' world into the fictional" (x). Groves reveals how the Harry Potter series is in conversation with works by Homer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and other writers and artists. In eight chapters, she draws attention to the significance and renderings of Harry Potter characters and their names, magical objects, the inclusion of religious themes as well as themes of death and loss, the use of tragedy and humor, and the cyclical structure of the seven books within the series.

'Harry Potter and the Other : Race, Justice, and Difference in the Wizarding World'

Race matters in the fictional Wizarding World of the Harry Potter series as much as it does in the real world. As J. K. Rowling continues to reveal details about the world she created, a growing number of fans, scholars, readers, and publics are conflicted and concerned about how the original Wizarding World—quintessentially white and British—depicts diverse and multicultural identities, social subjectivities, and communities. Harry Potter and the Other: Race, Justice, and Difference in the Wizarding World is a timely anthology that examines, interrogates, and critiques representations of race and difference across various Harry Potter media, including books, films, and official websites, as well as online forums and the classroom. Included essays examine the failed wizarding justice system, the counterproductive portrayal of Nagini as an Asian woman, the liberation of Dobby the elf, and more, adding meaningful contributions to existing scholarship on the Harry Potter series. As we approach the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s StoneHarry Potter and the Other provides a smorgasbord of insights into the way that race and difference have shaped this story, its world, its author, and the generations who have come of age during the era of the Wizarding World.