Harry Potter and the Middlebrow Pedagogies of Teachers and Reviewers

Abstract

Pottermania consumed the world at the turn of the twenty-first century. J. K. Rowling’s series of seven books about the young wizard Harry Potter, which began in 1996 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was one of the fastest and highest selling series in global publishing history. The launch of each new novel was a major worldwide event, counted down by the media and celebrated with midnight parties at bookshops. The novels spawned a series of eight movie adaptations, the last of which was released in 2011, as well as Harry Potter websites, videogames, Lego sets, action figures, Coca Cola cans and an amusement park. Harry Potter’s success led to widespread piracy in China, a landmark copyright case in the United States, and a sub-plot in the Hollywood movie The Devil Wears Prada. Pottermania was the first major collaboration between the world of publishing and the networked systems of twenty-first century globalized capitalism. The question for this chapter is how Pottermania intersects with the new literary middlebrow.

There will be books written about Harry — every child in our world will know his name!

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, pg. 13.