Representations of Disability and Difference in the Harry Potter UniverseGotta be there? Well, get to Salem, Massachusetts, this weekend (6-10 October) for "The Witching Hour," a symposium on the Harry Potter phenomenon. Elsewhere on the program are Heather Lyda, speaking on "Harry Potter: Disability Fantasy," and Shannon White speaking on "Luna Lovegood as Holy Fool."
9:00 am - 10:45 am
Alicia Verlager (that's "Kestrell")
Mike Gill
Heeral Mehta-Parekh
Maria Molnar
(I believe this is my second Harry Potter reference in this blog--maybe I should explain that I've never read or owned any of the books, and only watched one of the movies. My reading kid is still a little too young for Potterdom; but I know, I know, the day is coming... --PLR)
3 comments:
I suppose the muggle/magic divide could be construed as a form of disability/difference dyad, but I can't think, offhand, of a single other useful reference. I've read them all (mostly because my spouse and certain members of my family love them; I tolerate them), and this has to be a serious stretch.
Hmmm, not having read them myself, I can't say in detail, but I know there's been some discussion on DS-HUM about how Hogwarts might compare to a school for the deaf, for example, where a whole culture, incomprehensible to some of the students' families, is transmitted. (Deaf kids with Deaf parents would compare to Harry's friend Ron, from a family of magicians, who arrive with much of the cultural knowledge already.)
Harry's lightning scar is a visible mark, and there's been a lot of disability studies scholarship on visibility of bodily difference. It might also hark back to the old maternal-impressions theory of etiology (a "hare lip" means mom saw a rabbit while pregnant, for example).
Probably best to check in with Kestrell or Mike Gill--they're both moderators of DS-HUM, both panelists, and could easily be persuaded to explain further...
Well, I posted a comment to Kestrell's site, which you linked to. Obviously she's going to be busy this weekend, but perhaps she'll get back to it at some point.
Thanks.
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