“Potter Stinks”: J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series Gets Woke

Name
Keridiana Chez, Associate Professor

Department
English

Type of Leave
Fellowship Award for Research
Full year starting Fall 2021

Project Description

More than two decades after the publication of the Harry Potter series, which boasts 500 million in global sales, the Washington Post declared that “there has never been a better time to read J.K. Rowling’s books” (9/24/2020). An unusually “plugged in” author, Rowling has also retained control over a powerful platform the likes of which few authors can boast, expanding the scope and influence of what’s known as the “Potterverse.” What inspired the Post’s declaration was Rowling’s recent use of her platform to make a series of anti-trans statements, sparking a controversy that fractured her previously devoted fanbase. Many diehard fans have embraced her “cancelation” and expressed disbelief that the same person who authored works that promote empathy and tolerance could also hold such views.

The current controversies over Rowling’s online posts have been interpreted by many as a surprising contradiction to her published works, yet the evidence of her problematic views on gender—and sexuality, race, class, and species—have been embedded in the texts since their initial publication. Looking at the original books and films and Rowling’s post-publication embellishments to the wizarding world, “Potter Stinks”: J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series Gets Woke offers a counternarrative to the trend in Harry Potter studies in the past two decades to ignore and/or downplay the limits to Rowling’s liberalism as manifested in the series.

This wildly popular young adult series indelibly influenced its first generation of readers, and if ongoing sales are any indication, continue to be voraciously consumed by new readers—and its messages absorbed, apparently with the same fanfare for its supposedly far-reaching messages of empathy and tolerance. As my tentative subtitle suggests, this book project aims to compel Harry Potter studies to “get woke”: to both celebrate what remains worthy of celebration and acknowledge the limitations of Harry Potter’s liberal messages. In exploring with hindsight the achievements and limitations of the 1990s liberal discourses that the Harry Potter series embodies, this book will shed light on some very current cultural wars and contribute to a much-needed conversation about the tensions between liberalism and “wokeness.” The book will also further literary scholarship, exploring why children’s literature remains relatively underexplored and undertheorized, and querying how we engage with the art of artists with problematic views.