摘 要

作为20世纪以来全世界范围内最具影响力的一部文学作品，《哈利·波特》系列丛书吸引了不计其数的儿童和成年读者。这部以魔幻现实主义为题材的小说把魔幻现实主义文学和现实社会完美的结合在一起，于魔幻中揭露社会弊端，反映社会现实，并达到阐发社会和政治理想的目的，表达对人类缺失的真善美等价值观的呼吁和追求。J.K.罗琳在《哈利·波特》系列小说中对魔幻世界和现实主义虚实结合的创作以及淋漓尽致的文字表达让这部系列小说作成为魔幻现实主义的代表作品，为文学评论和文学研究提供了丰富的素材，具有较高的研究价值。通过塑造魔法世界，作者抨击的一些现实世界的现象和价值观，引起人们对现实社会的启发和感思。哈利波特的故事，着眼于“人”本身，用一个充满想象和魔法的世界来对抗物欲横流的现实世界，解放现代人备受压抑的心灵，具有深刻的精神启蒙的意义。本篇论文着眼于评论《哈利·波特》中三种最常见却最深刻的价值导向——英雄主义，歧视现象和女性形象。其中，英雄主义是西方文化作品最受欢迎的主题之一，歧视现象是西方社会乃至于人类社会普遍的社会问题，而女性形象则是《哈利·波特》人物塑造的亮点。

关键词： 《哈利·波特》系列小说；现实意义；价值观；歧视现象；英雄主义

Abstract

As one of the most influential literature works in 20th century, Harry Potter Series have attracted the attention of numerous children and adults all over the world. In fact, the literature of magic realism reflects social reality, exposes social evils, elucidates the social and political ideal and appeals for the pursuit of virtues which human beings are losing. Perfectly combining the magic world and realism, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series become the representative work of magic realism, which provide rich material for the research of literary commentary and literature review. By shaping the magical world, Rowling attacks certain phenomena and values in real world，which arouse readers’ consideration and resonance. The story of Harry Potter focuses on the “man” itself, relaxes the depressed mind of people, so it has profound spiritual-enlightenment significance. Thus, this paper discusses three profound value orientations in Harry Potter series—Heroism, Discrimination and Female Images. Among them, Heroism is one of the most popular themes of western literature works. Discrimination is a prominent social problem in human society. What’s more, female images are the highlights in Harry Potter.

Keywords: Harry Potter Series; practical significances; value orientations; Discrimination phenomenon; Heroism

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Foreign Research 3

2.2 Domestic Research 4

3 Creation Concept of J.K. Rowling 6

3.1 A Brief Introduction of J.K. Rowling 6

3.2 Celtic Culture’s Influence 7

4 Practical Significances of Harry Potter Series 9

4.1 Eulogizing Heroism 9

4.2 Enhancing Female Status 10

4.3 Fighting Against Discrimination 12

5 Conclusion 14

References 15

Acknowledgements 16

On the Practical Significances of

Harry Potter Series

1 Introduction

Harry Potter, a famous fictional character in a novel of the same name, makes millions of children around the world who are lost in video games read books with interest, and also attracts a large number of adult readers. Absolutely, the magic Harry Potter Series creates the great reading in the last 20 years. Written at the beginning of the new century, J.K. Rowling’s masterpiece has caused a unique cultural phenomenon and affected the lifestyle of people in contemporary society.

The idea of Harry Potter is an interesting story. One day, on a train to London, she saw a black-hair scraggy wizard who wore a glass smiling at her, which gave her the inspiration that the young boy was going to study at a wizard school. She noted down all her ideas in a cheap notebook in a hurry when she reached home, which was the first draft of Harry Potter.

Since Rowling’s first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone has been published, Harry Potter, the little wizard having the iconic lightning scar on his head, wearing round glasses and mysterious black robe, and holding a small magic wand, begins to sweep the world. Western critics had once said that one can say that you have never read Harry Potter Series and never watched the adapted films, but he can’t say that you had never heard of Harry Potter because it will be testimony that you have very limited knowledge and scanty information.

Harry Potter Series have seven books, which are Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Dead Hallows respectively. The novel tells the story of the orphan—Harry Potter’s adventure stories of learning and living in the magic school of Hogwarts. Each book records the growth experience of Harry Potter in the school from 11 years old as a freshman to the age of 17 as a graduate student. At the age of eleven Harry Porter is told that he should be a wizard, and receives the invitation from Hogwarts to study magic. In Hogwarts, Harry makes friends with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, who grow up with him and figure out all kinds of adventures and difficulties together. In the process of growing step by step, Harry always shows great determination to fight against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort and his dark power. Ultimately Harry’s heroism and dauntless spirits completely defeat Lord Voldemort, save the magic world and win the peace of the wizard world.

Although the amount of foreign and domestic studies of Harry Potter Series are meaningful, but most focus on the field of illustrating its narrative style, translation skills and the use of language while little emphasis on analyzing the practical significances contained in the works, or not to mention the in-depth research. From this perspective，this paper aims to discuss the great historical significance of Harry Potter Series and tries to analyze the value orientations in modern western society.

The special theme of magic literature reflects the demand and release of the ideological society in many aspects. Harry Potter Series is not only a simple depiction of a magic world, but also a miniature of western culture under a multicultural view. Researches into Harry Potter Series have a long-term practical significance in new period.

2 Literature Review

Harry Potter Series, the masterpieces of England writer J.K. Rowling have caused an international craze in a short time since the first book has been launched. In fact, Harry Potter Series and its cultural phenomenon have been highly concerned because of its representativeness in literature of magic realism.

2.1 Foreign Research

In many western countries, research on Harry Potter Series have been done since early times and have preliminarily formed a certain scale. When Harry Potter Series was originally popular all over the world, however，the academic circles have different opinions about its literary values. When the first book of Harry Potter was published in 1997, Lindsey Fraser，the former Executive Director of Scottish Book Trust wrote the first review of Harry Potter and said in her passage launched in Scotsman that J.K. Rowling’s creative narration told us a thrilling complex story which was thought provoking. (Lindsey, 1997)

The famous British writer A.S. Byatt, the winner of Booker Prize, once wrote Harry Potter and the Childish Adult to New York Times in which she criticized the story of Harry Potter Series was a low-level “fabricated trick”, was a derivative without originality. Harry Potter only catered to those readers whose imaginations suffered dysplasia because the novel was lack of necessary skills and serious attitude that great works of children’s literature need. Adults were obsessed with Harry Potter, because these books could make them psychologically “back” into the comfort area of childhood. (Byatt, 2003) Then, researches on Harry Potter Series have developed into a kind of targeted and directional literary criticism, which is no longer confined in the field of children’s literature. In 2002, Lana A. White’s book the Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon, published as the first academic book. Lana said that the literary value of J.K. Rowling’s Potter books should be studied in a comprehensive multi-level. In 2003, the symposium Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essay analyzed Harry Potter Series from three perspectives: children development theory, history theory and social ethics theory. The symposium pays attention to some social values in Harry Potter Series and some issues such as morality and the rule of law. In 2007, an academic seminar was held to dig out the literary values of Harry Potter in Toronto, Canada with the theme “From the Hero to the Legend”. Finally, many scholars believe that “Harry Potter” can be grouped with Alice in the Wonderland, Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia as classical magic literature. At present, studies on Harry Potter Series have displayed a prosperous scene.