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    "Beasts," "Beings," and Everything Between: Environmental and Social Ethics in Harry Potter

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    Fettke_ku_0099M_12103_DATA_1.pdf (254.6Kb)
    Issue Date
    2012-05-31
    Author
    Fettke, Sarah
    Publisher
    University of Kansas
    Format
    46 pages
    Type
    Thesis
    Degree Level
    M.A.
    Discipline
    English
    Rights
    This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
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    Abstract
    This paper examines J.K. Rowling's fictional textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, alongside the Harry Potter series, exploring how Rowling questions official academic discourse that defines boundaries between the human and nonhuman. By creating magical characters that straddle the line between "beast" and "being," as defined by fictional scholar Newt Scamander, Rowling blurs the boundary between human and animal and questions the treatment of the nonhuman as subhuman that results from such firm boundaries. At the same time, in other areas of her novels Rowling seems to reiterate the division of the human from the nonhuman, and seems to maintain a hierarchy of power that positions fully human characters over their nonhuman - and "part-human" - counterparts. The weakened boundary between beast and being complicates any discussion of the novels' social agenda, particularly regarding what many critics have perceived as Rowling's racial stereotyping of her part-human characters according to white, imperialist tropes. The result is an ambiguous code of environmental and social ethics that hinges on the question of what it means to be a being - human - as opposed to a beast - animal - and whose right it is to define these important legal and social categories.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10648
    Collections
    • English Dissertations and Theses [449]
    • Theses [3828]

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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