Potterversity: Essays Exploring the World of Harry Potter presents a written companion to the popular, "Hermione-Approved" MuggleNet podcast by the same name. Selected from the top Potter Studies scholars in the field, the diverse authors in the volume provide a range of interpretations of wizarding world stories. Essays include analysis of genre conventions, literary and religious symbolism, the role of games in the series, pedagogical approaches, and politically challenging issues like U.S. race relations, colonialism, and gender and sexuality--including direct attention to J.K. Rowling's controversial statements about trans people. Grouped into the sections "Occult Knowledge," "Ancient Magic," "A Question of Character," "Self and Other," "Playing Potter," and "Teaching, the Hogwarts Way," partnered essays precede transcripts of podcast conversations, led by the hosts of Potterversity. The book's essays and conversations aim to engage not only the mind but the spirit as well--the emotional, personal, and moral responses the Potterverse has evoked in so many people around the world. Fundamentally, this book demonstrates that the characters, stories, and situations of the magical realm promote thinking that helps us navigate our more mundane but no less dangerous world. Perhaps even more importantly, they help us to recognize the magic amid our everyday Muggle realities.

In her follow-up to The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter, Lana A. Whited has compiled a new collection of essays analyzing the books, films, and other media by J. K. Rowling. This includes pieces on the Harry Potter books and movies, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (films), The Cursed Child (play), as well as her writing outside the wizarding universe, such as The Ickabog, The Casual Vacancy, and the Cormoran Strike series. Many of the chapters explore works that influenced the Harry Potter series, including Classical epic, Shakespearian comedy and tragedy, and Arthurian myth. In addition to literary comparison, the volume delves into topics like political authoritarianism, distrust of the media, racial and social justice, and developments in fandom. It’s fair to say that much has changed in regard to Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling scholarship in the twenty years since the first volume’s publication. While it was once considered a universally beloved book series, the relationship between HP and its fans has grown more complicated in recent years. As its readers have grown older and Rowling’s reputation has wavered in the public eye, Whited and her contributors consider the complicated legacy of Harry Potter and its author and explore how the series will evolve in the next twenty years.

Discover the brooms of the Wizarding World in this gorgeous sequel to the best-selling Harry Potter: The Wand Collection. Every broom has a story of its own. In the Harry Potter films, wizarding broomsticks are magical artifacts that enable their riders to soar from one place to another. They can be used to dodge dragons, escape Death Eaters and other Dark forces, or take to the skies for an action-packed Quidditch match. Harry Potter: The Broom Collection is a visual guide to these magical artifacts, their makers, and their riders. Profiles of each broom feature stunning new illustrations of the original props, insights from cast and crew, and other filmmaking secrets from the Warner Bros. archive. Also included are fascinating entries on Quidditch, illustrated with prop photography and concept art, with profiles on everything from the Golden Snitch to the Quidditch World Cup. This collectible volume is an ideal resource, both for veteran fans seeking to learn the history behind these beloved items and for a new generation just beginning their journey into the wizarding world.

Although rule breaking in Harry Potter is sometimes dismissed as a distraction from Harry’s fight against Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter and Resistance makes the case that it is central to the battle against evil. Far beyond youthful hijinks or adolescent defiance, Harry’s rebellion aims to overcome problems deeper and more widespread than a single malevolent wizard. Harry and his allies engage in a resistance movement against the corruption of the Ministry of Magic as well as against the racist social norms that gave rise to Voldemort in the first place. Dumbledore’s Army and the Order of the Phoenix employ methods echoing those utilized by World War II resistance fighters and by the U.S. Civil Rights movement. The aim of this book is to explore issues that speak to our era of heightened political awareness and resistance to intolerance. Its interdisciplinary approach draws on political science, psychology, philosophy, history, race studies, and women’s studies, as well as newer interdisciplinary fields such as resistance studies, disgust studies, and creativity studies.

Potterversity: Essays Exploring the World of Harry Potter presents a written companion to the popular, "Hermione-Approved" MuggleNet podcast by the same name. Selected from the top Potter Studies scholars in the field, the diverse authors in the volume provide a range of interpretations of wizarding world stories. Essays include analysis of genre conventions, literary and religious symbolism, the role of games in the series, pedagogical approaches, and politically challenging issues like U.S. race relations, colonialism, and gender and sexuality--including direct attention to J.K. Rowling's controversial statements about trans people. Grouped into the sections "Occult Knowledge," "Ancient Magic," "A Question of Character," "Self and Other," "Playing Potter," and "Teaching, the Hogwarts Way," partnered essays precede transcripts of podcast conversations, led by the hosts of Potterversity. The book's essays and conversations aim to engage not only the mind but the spirit as well--the emotional, personal, and moral responses the Potterverse has evoked in so many people around the world. Fundamentally, this book demonstrates that the characters, stories, and situations of the magical realm promote thinking that helps us navigate our more mundane but no less dangerous world. Perhaps even more importantly, they help us to recognize the magic amid our everyday Muggle realities.

Before she was a renowned children's author, J.K. Rowling was an educator. Her bestselling series, Harry Potter, places education at the forefront, focusing not only on Harry, Ron, and Hermione's adventures but also on their magical education. This multi-author collection shines a light on the central role of education within the Harry Potter series, exploring the pedagogical possibilities of using Harry Potter to enhance teaching effectiveness. Authors examine topics related to environments for learning, approaches to teaching and learning, and the role of mentorship. Created for scholars, teachers, and fans alike, this collection provides an entry into pedagogical theories and offers critical perspectives on the quality of Hogwarts education--from exemplary to abusive and every approach in between. Hogwarts provides many lessons for educators, both magical and muggle alike.

Harry Potter fans contribute their immaterial and affective labor in multiple arenas: as peer-to-peer marketers via fan sites and social media; as participants in amateur fan festivals; or as activists for social change. Fans' participation in the Harry Potter universe has contributed to its success. This Element examines how fans' labor might continue to support the franchise for future readers. Starting with the context and theoretical frameworks that support a multidimensional analysis of the Harry Potter fan experience, this Element examines tensions between fans and Warner Bros., as fan participation tests the limits of corporate control.

Contributions by Lauren R. Carmacci, Keridiana Chez, Kate Glassman, John Granger, Marie Schilling Grogan, Beatrice Groves, Tolonda Henderson, Nusaiba Imady, Cecilia Konchar Farr, Juliana Valadão Lopes, Amy Mars, Christina Phillips-Mattson, Patrick McCauley, Jennifer M. Reeher, Jonathan A. Rose, and Emily Strand Despite their decades-long, phenomenal success, the Harry Potter novels have attracted relatively little attention from literary critics and scholars. While popular books, articles, blogs, and fan sites for general readers proliferate, and while philosophers, historians, theologians, sociologists, psychologists, and even business professors have taken on book-length studies and edited essay collections about Harry Potter, literature scholars, outside of the children’s books community, have paid few serious visits to the Potterverse. Could it be that scholars are still reluctant to recognize popular novels, especially those with genre labels “children’s literature” or “fantasy,” as worthy subjects for academic study? This book challenges that oversight, assembling and foregrounding some of the best literary critical work by scholars trying to move the needle on these novels to reflect their importance to twenty-first-century literary culture. In Open at the Close, contributors consciously address Harry Potter primarily as a literary phenomenon rather than a cultural one. They interrogate the novels on many levels, from multiple perspectives, and with various conclusions, but they come together around the overarching question: What is it about these books? At their heart, what is it that makes the Harry Potter novels so exceptionally compelling, so irresistible to their readers, and so relevant in our time?

The social relations, societal structures and existential conundrums in the world of Harry Potter novels reflect our own. When the authoritarianism of Hogwarts falls upon Harry, it is an echo of disciplinary practices in real-world high schools. The economic inequities of the wizarding world mirror those of modern societies. The art, literature and mass media of wizard society reveal our deep-rooted fears. Harry's world is our world. This collection presents new essays by contributors across a range of disciplines, bringing fresh perspectives on one of the most influential texts in modern history.

Discover the wands of your favorite Harry Potter characters. In the Harry Potter films, each wand is as unique as the witch or wizard who wields it. From Hermione Granger’s elegant, vine-wrapped wand to the bone-inlaid wands of the Death Eaters, each was designed and crafted by the filmmakers to reflect its owner’s identity. Harry Potter: The Wand Collection is a visual guide to these magical wands, their makers, and the characters who mastered them. Profiles of each wand feature stunning new photography of the original props, wand statistics, insights from the cast and crew, and other filmmaking secrets from the Warner Bros. archive. This collectible volume is an ideal resource for both wand-wielding veteran fans seeking to learn the history behind these beloved items and a new generation just beginning their journey into the wizarding world.