Harry Potter and the racial divide : an ideological and semiotic analysis of racism underlying the Harry Potter novels

Abstract

Children are more easily influenced than adults and therefore need guidance. Consequently, literature intended for them often carries very strong values reflecting society's prevailing concepts and conditions. Hence, ideologies parallel to those within society are found to underlie children's novels, thereby affecting the child's socialisation process. J. K. Rowling' s Harry Potter series became a worldwide phenomenon, globally selling over 195 million copies by the end of February 2003. Knowledge of such a staggering number of sales gives cause for concern about the ideologies inherent in the novels. This dissertation aims to investigate such a concern, focusing on racism. It examines all four novels in the series for implicit ideologies of racism and analyses them for parallelisms with existing racial issues in contemporary Western society. For a wider perspective beyond the constraints of sociological investigation, a qualitative cultural studies approach was adopted in this study. The selected text underwent an ideological and semiotic analysis to allow for a subjective investigation and interpretation of the meanings around the discourse.