Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollowness: A Narratological and Ideological Critique of J. K. Rowling's Magical System

Despite its phenomenal success, and in some cases because of it, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has provoked unease in some readers on both aesthetic and ideological grounds. This essay seeks to supplement the important contribution of scholars like John Pennington, Suman Gupta, Elizabeth Teare, Jack Zipes, Elaine Ostry and Michael Ostling by foregrounding what I see as a still under-examined issue: Rowling's decision not to install her wizards and witches in a distinct secondary world. I argue for a systematic connection between this key narratological option and Rowling's conflicted ideological commitments across the seven books. The lack of a self-coherent fantasy realm, I suggest, leads Rowling into severe pragmatic confusion on several fronts, with a host of ideological as well as narrative anomalies arising symptomatically to trouble her text.