Fantasy fiction and a pivotal role of myth in it

CONTENTS

Introduction…………………………………………………………………...4

CHAPTER 1. FANTASY FICTION AND A PIVOTAL ROLE OF MYTH

IN IT……………………………………………………………………………….....8

1.1. Fantasy Fiction as a Genre............................................................................8

1.2.Myth as an Ingrained Psychostructure and a Form of Human Cognition...13

CHAPTER 2. MYTHOLOGICAL PARADIGM IN J.K. ROWLING'S HARRY POTTER SERIES…………………………………………………………………...18

2.1. Mythologism of the Imaginary World Penetrating Different

Elements of Fiction in the Harry Potter Series.............................................18

2.2. Greek Mythology allusions in the heptalogy.…….......................................21

2.3. Archetypes Impersonated by the Principal Characters.…............................25

2.4. Magical Creatures and Objects Pervading

the Harry Potter Universe.……....................................................................35

Conclusions……………………………………………………………………47

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………......……………………………………...49

Introduction

Joanne Rowling (born 31 July 1965), pen names J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, is a British novelist best known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. The books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold more than 400 million copies.

J. K. Rowling's heptalogy comprises the following novels: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007).

The series chronicles the adventures of a young wizard, Harry Potter, the titular character, and his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's quest to overcome the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who aims to become immortal, conquer the wizarding world, subjugate non-magical people, and destroy all those who stand in his way, especially Harry Potter.

The Harry Potter novels fall within the genre of fantasy literature; however, in many respects they are also bildungsromans, or coming of age novels, and contain elements of mystery, adventure, thriller, and romance. They can be considered part of the British children's boarding school genre, which includes Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co., Enid Blyton's Malory Towers, St. Clare's and the Naughtiest Girl series, and Frank Richards's Billy Bunter novels: the Harry Potter books are predominantly set in Hogwarts, a fictional British boarding school for wizards, where the curriculum includes the use of magic. The stories are told from a third person limited point of view. In the middle of each book, Harry struggles with the problems he encounters, and dealing with them often involves the need to violate some school rules. If students are caught breaking rules, they are often disciplined by Hogwarts professors. However, the stories reach their climax in the summer term, near or just after final exams, when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death–a point underlined, as the series progresses, by one or more characters being killed in each of the final four books. In the aftermath, he learns important lessons through exposition and discussions with head teacher and mentor Albus Dumbledore. In the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and his friends spend most of their time away from Hogwarts, and only return there to face Voldemort at the denouement.

The Harry Potter series employs mythological elements, eternal icons and symbols and are full of cultural meanings and references. That is one of the reasons it drew attention of the literary critics.

Early on, after publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Rowling received positive reviews from the Scottish newspapers, such as The Scotsman, which said it had "all the makings of a classic", and The Glasgow Herald, which called it "Magic stuff", and The Mail on Sunday rated it as "the most imaginative debut since Roald Dahl".

However, by the time of the release of the fifth volume, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the books began to receive strong criticism from a number of literary scholars. Yale professor, literary scholar, and critic Harold Bloom raised criticisms of the books' literary merits, saying, "Rowling's mind is so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing." A. S. Byatt, an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner, called Rowling's universe a "secondary secondary world, made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature". Michael Rosen, a novelist and poet, advocated the books were not suited for children due to the complexity of the themes. Ursula K. Le Guin said, "I have no great opinion of it. When so many adult critics were carrying on about the 'incredible originality' of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid's fantasy crossed with a "school novel", good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited."

Nonetheless, J.K.Rowling received a lot of positive reviews. The literary critic A. N. Wilson praised the Harry Potter series in The Times, stating: "There are not many writers who have JK's Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep —openly, with tears splashing — and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokes ... We have lived through a decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest, scariest and most moving children's stories ever written".

Stephen King called the series "a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable", and declared "Rowling's punning, one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humor" to be "remarkable". However, he wrote that despite the story being "a good one", he is "a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle", the formulaic beginning of all seven books. He does however predict that Harry Potter "will indeed stand time's test and wind up on a shelf where only the best are kept; I think Harry will take his place with Alice, Huck, Frodo, and Dorothy and this is one series not just for the decade, but for the ages".

The Mythgard Institute dedicated an academic course to the Harry Potter series, that was conducted by Professor Amy H. Sturgis.

Despite a wide array of the literary criticism Harry Potter series has received, the problem of the mythological sources of J.K. Rowling's writing, and particularly, their role in creating the imaginary world, is still to be clarified and needs a closer examination. The author successfully integrates traditional mythological themes and archetypes into fiction. It requires identification of some of the mythical elements employed, primarily archetypes that contribute to the inner integrity and self-consistency of the Harry Potter universe.

Thus,the topicality of this paper deals with the necessity of analyzing and systematizing the mythological roots of J.K. Rowling's writing.

The objective of the work is studying the sources of imaginary world creation in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

To achieve this aim we should fulfil the following tasks:

1) to give an outline of the researches of the myth as an ingrained psychostructure and a form of human cognition paying attention to C. Jung’s and J. Campbell’s concepts of myth as an ingrained psychostructure;

2) to research the Harry Potter seriesas fulfilment of certain mythological paradigm emphasizing the influence of the world's mythical traditions (chiefly, Ancient Greek);

3) to identify some of the universal archetypes in J.K. Rowling's writing which prove timelessness of archetypal images in general.

The object under study is J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, and the subject of the present thesis can be defined as the sources of imaginary world creation in this heptalogy.

In the course paper the following methods were used: the method of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, the historical and literary method, the descriptive, comparative, structural, and mythological approaches.

The scientific novelty of the paper deals with the systematization of the researches on the mythologisation in the Harry Potter series.

The practical importance of the paper: its results can be used for the lectures and seminars on foreign literature, conducting research on myth and its role in the Harry Potter series.

The course paper consists of the introduction, two chapters, conclusions and the bibliography. The total number of pages is 50; the list of literature embraces 27 sources.

CHAPTER 1.

FANTASY FICTION AND A PIVOTAL ROLE OF MYTH IN IT