Tag: Harry Potter

Harry Potter and the Gothic: Plot Tropes

Around this time last year, in honor of Harry’s birthday, I wrote a blog post on “Gothic Elements in Harry Potter.” Earlier this month, I expanded on that post to do a full panel about “Gothic Influences on Harry Potter” for a convention called MISTI-Con. I’ve found working on this topic to be so much fun that I wanted to share with you a bit more of what I’ve learned. This post may even become part of a series as I continue to explore the connections between my favorite genre and the books that kicked off my early love for literature.

Last time, I touched on some of the Gothic settings, themes, and motifs in J.K. Rowling’s books. Now I want to examine in more depth a few specific plot tropes that Harry Potter borrows from the Gothic. Continue reading Harry Potter and the Gothic: Plot Tropes

The Witch Literary Canon

I’ve been thinking lately about a certain iconic character that crops up again and again in gothic literature: the witch. Witches embody the greatest fears of the societies they belong to, from devil worship to the idea of women wielding power. They are some of literature’s most controversial figures, and some of my favorite to read about. Thus, I felt they deserved their own literary canon. (Click here to see the other literary canon lists I’ve done.) Below are a few of the central texts in the body of witchy literature: Continue reading The Witch Literary Canon

Gothic Elements in Harry Potter

Today is July 31—both Harry Potter’s and J. K. Rowling’s birthday! The Harry Potter series truly sparked my love of reading as a child, and has continued to be important to me as I grow older. In fact, I’ve recently been getting more involved in the fandom and just started a reread of the series. Reading the books again as an adult, I find that I get something new out of them every time. This time, I started looking at them through the Gothic lens. While I would by no means suggest that “gothic” is the primary genre of the Harry Potter series, I did find a surprising amount of overlap and borrowed elements:

Harry, Hermione, and Ron as goths. Can’t find the original creator of this image, but I love it!

Continue reading Gothic Elements in Harry Potter