Finding Dumbledore's Mother: Harry Potter in the (Native) American Context

Dr. Amy H. Sturgis will speak based on her article that will be published in the 2013 scholarly collection "Harry Potter for Nerds: Volume 2" edited by Travis Prinzi.

Hollie Anderson's 2002 essay "Reading Harry Potter with Navajo Eyes" first challenged readers to note the applicability of J.K. Rowling's stories to FIrst Nations readers. Anderson, however, had neither the full benefit of the final books in Rowling's saga, nor the many interviews Rowling later gave that highlight the centrality of issues such as the historic oppression and displacement of minorities to her books. How are we to understand the dispossession of the giants, who lost their homeland and much of their population? What are we to make of the marginalization of the goblins, whose works are now turned against them? And why did Rowling choose to make one of the most mysterious, misunderstood, and maligned characters of all - Dumbledore's mother, Kendra - of apparent Native American descent? From the "textbooks" Rowling has published to complement her novels, we learn of Rowling's interest witchcraft and wizardry in North America. It's time to look for the inspirations Rowling found - and the resonances her novels have - with "Muggle" Native America.

Date: Mon. Oct. 29, 2012

Time: 10:00am-10:50am

Location: Belk Centrum