Race, gender and class in Harry Potter: a dialogical analysis of the discourse

Author(s)

Ana Carolina Siani Lopes

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Araraquara. 2022-08-01.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências e Letras. Araraquara
• Defense date: 2022-05-23
• Advisor: Luciane de Paula

Abstract

The present work aimed to develop a dialogic analysis of discourse in the literary work Harry Potter, focusing on the materialization of race, gender and class relations in the magical world presented by the narrative. From the axiological microcosm of the work, we understand that such relationships are intertwined and intersected in a “race-gender-class” node, constituting indexes of identities and differences that underpin the social structure of the magical world. The study took place through the theoretical-methodological assumptions of the thought of the Bakhtin Circle’s and its dialogical conception of language, as well as the bakhtinian considerations about the relationship between life and art. In this way, we conceive the work Harry Potter as a concrete enunciation in its active and responsive character, choosing the comparation as an analytical gesture to understand the constitution of subjects and/or groups within the narrative, as well as the ideological threads of the work as a whole. The results demonstrate that the materialization of the “race-gender-class” node occurs through a clash between values and worldviews (social voices) embodied by the characters-subjects and their conflicts throughout the narrative. As a unit of meaning, the work is constituted by a relation of forces, as a reflection and refraction of the pluridiscoursive terrain from which every artistic enunciation is born, marked by a certain framework of alterity and difference, evidenced by the linguistic-discursive construction of the work that reframe the hero's (Harry) relationship with his others wizards. The relevance of the investigation lies in its potential approach to the social role of art and literature as forms of language, as well as allowing a discursive study of prejudice, based on an investigation into the way in which Harry Potter, a world cultural phenomenon, reveals social clashes of the contemporary world (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/27061-0 - Race, gender and class in Harry Potter: a dialogical analysis of discourse
• Grantee: Ana Carolina Siani Lopes
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate