The Harry Potter series, although primarily written for young adults has managed to be widely popular amongst readers of different ages. The series has been able to entice both young and adult readers all over the world as it provides readers with ample opportunities for self-recognition and thus even self-reflection. Other than providing readers with opportunities for self-recognition the series also provides multiple examples of different important real-world issues such as mental health, othering, discrimination, and the stereotype threat.           In the Harry Potter series, readers are introduced to a whole new world filled with magic, witches, wizards, and other magical beings. The magical world is, however, still very similar to our world; it follows the same timeline as the real world, showcases different teenage problems as well as similar social structures and issues.           In today’s society immigrants and students from different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds are very common, leading to othering, stereotyping and prejudices being real issues that need to be addressed in today’s multicultural classes. Students are in need of support and encouragement to better understand and handle these issues in their everyday life.           Drawing on these ideas this essay will, by using a thematic analysis of the Harry Potter series, focus on the depth of the prejudices presented in the series by examining the underlying structural understanding of othering and racialization which readers are not always aware of being prejudiced against and how these prejudices are presented in the series. The aim is to show how the issues of unconscious biases and othering in the Harry Potter series are presented through the themes and characterization and how they can be used in eliciting empathy by alerting students to the fact that othering and discrimination are often based on unconscious biases found within the society.

The diploma thesis is focused on the problems of children readership and its main aim is to reveal the influence of the literary work that is very popular among readers on the interpretation of concrete literary text. By the means of research it tries to detect how the work Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling and its popularity affect the perception of literary text with respect to pupils of the 6th grade in primary school and students of 1st year in secondary school. The defined aim is studied mainly through reader's perception of literary characters in the concrete literary text; the main focus is aimed at perception of character hierarchy, creation of relationships with characters and perception of the main character of the work Harry Potter. Thanks to these findings it is possible to say whether the children readers are able to perceive the concrete literary text independently on the work by J. K. Rowling and its popularity or whether they are constantly under its influence and are not able to free themselves from its dominance. According to final discoveries it is possible to approach the work within the context of literary classes and overall literary education. Summarizing the results, the research has revealed that the influence of the phenomenon called Harry Potter and its popularity is quite...

Harry Potter och värdegrunden - Hur Harry Potter kan användas i arbetet om värdegrunden för skolans år 4-6, syftade till att undersöka vilken värdegrund som går att utläsa i Harry Potter och de vises sten. Undersökningen utgick från de tre kategorierna människans frihet och integritet, alla människors lika värde och jämställdhet mellan kvinnor och män. Vidare undersöktes huruvida den gestaltade värdegrunden förhåller sig till den svenska skolans värdegrund, Lgr 11. Studien utgick från en kvalitativ textanalys med ett hermeneutiskt förhållningssätt där händelser i boken citerades och analyserades ur ett värdegrundsperspektiv. Studien utgick främst från skolmiljön i boken om Harry Potter, där samspelet mellan elever sinsemellan och mellan elever och lärare för att lyfta fram beteenden som går emot den svenska skolans värdegrund. Dessa citat och analyser är tänkta att inspirera undervisningen för att tydligare förankra värdegrunden i undervisningen, och att eleverna med detta ska få en större förståelse för varandra oberoende av kön, etnicitet och klass. / <p>Godkänt datum 2021-01-17</p>

Bullying is a phenomenon faced by students worldwide, and bibliotherapy is one viable classroom strategy to teach students how best to respond to bullying behavior. Although ample research exists on appropriate picture books with bullying themes, few studies have analyzed the content of middle-grade books for effective responses to bullying, despite the prevalence of bullying among middle school students. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was selected due to its accessibility, its instances of responses to bullying, and its reader demographics. Researchers created a coding instrument to document all textual instances of bullying, victim responses, peer responses, and adult responses. Coders used this documentation to tally the frequency of various response types among victims, peers, and adults. Results from this frequency count were used to compare response types in the novel with research on response effectiveness--responses that reduce bullying and/or support the victim. Findings reveal that the most common response among victims, peers, and adults is "no response described."Among textual responses, victims commonly respond ineffectively through revenge-seeking, peers respond ineffectively by participating in the bullying, and adults respond effectively by listening to the victim or giving advice. Therefore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone represents a wide range of effective and ineffective responses to bullying, both of which can be presented in bullying discussions with students. Researchers include a table with bullying response examples from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to aid education stakeholders in using the novel for these bibliotherapeutic discussions

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka didaktiska möjligheter Harry Potter-serien av J.K. Rowling kan ha i årskurs F – 3. För att undersöka detta har vi genomfört en kvalitativ samtalsintervju med två elever i årskurs 2 kring deras tankar och erfarenheter av Harry Potter-serien, samt en läsvaneenkät som 62 elever i årskurs 2 deltog i. Utöver dessa datainsamlingar valde vi även att analysera två fan fiction-texter baserade på Harry Potter-serien skrivna av samma elever som vi intervjuade. Den teoretiska grund vi tagit avstamp i är Alkestrands avhandling Magiska möjligheter – Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl och Cirkeln i skolans värdegrundsarbete (2016) och Langers Litterära föreställningsvärldar: litteraturundervisning och litterär förståelse (2017).Frågeställningarna vi utgått från i vår undersökning lyder: Hur ser elevers erfarenheter och tankar kring Harry Potter-serien ut i årskurs F – 3? Hur ser de föreställningsvärldar som eleverna skapar sig kring Harry Potter-serien ut? Vilken didaktisk potential kan Harry Potter-serien och fantasylitteraturen innehålla?Slutsatsen vi kan dra av våra analyser av enkätsvaren, samtalsintervjun och elevernas fanfiction samt genom den teori vi utgått från är att Harry Potter-serien har didaktisk potential i årskurs F – 3. Vårt främsta argument för detta är att det hos eleverna som deltagit i vår undersökning finns ett stort intresse för serien eftersom många sedan tidigare har erfarenhet av den. Att använda elevers erfarenheter som utgångspunkt för lärande är ett fenomen som kallas för erfarenhetspedagogik, vilket blivit ett centralt begrepp för oss i skrivandet av vårt examensarbete eftersom det understryker skönlitterära texters didaktiska potential.Nyckelord: fan fiction, fantasylitteratur, Harry Potter, läsning, erfarenhetspedagogik, undervisning, litteraturdidaktik, F – 3

The aim of this thesis was to deepen our understanding of how audiences represent male and female dark fictional characters (DFCs) by exploring how Harry Potter fans discuss four of these characters on Reddit. Drawing on affective disposition theory as a guiding framework as well as previous investigations of gender representation and online fan cultures, I collected and analyzed 117 posts (containing 9,693 comments) about four DFCs from the Harry Potter franchise. I chose two male DFCs (Lord Voldemort and Severus Snape) and two female ones (Bellatrix Lestrange and Dolores Umbridge) for my investigation. The data were analyzed using a productive hermeneutics approach. Fans’ representation of these characters intersected with the extent which the characters’ fictionality was salient, how they were visualized, the online culture of Reddit, and fans’ presumed identification with these characters. Bellatrix was defined by her portrayal by Helena Bonham Carter in the films and her combination of valuable masculine and feminine traits. Moreover, she was a figure of pure fantasy, which allowed fans to love her depravity. Umbridge and Snape, by contrast, were hated for intruding into the fantasy that Harry Potter offered, reminding fans of bullying and overly controlling teachers. Snape, however, was redeemed by his complexity and embodiment of geek masculinity. Voldemort was valued for his intellect and power but also criticized as a peer failing to rise to his intellectual potential; fans at turns identified with and undercut him through humor. Taken together, the results indicate a need to qualitatively explore how DFCs are received by audiences, as it can add further nuance to our understanding of how morality and gender influence media consumption.

You can't judge a book by its cover. The cliche may be trite, nonetheless it is applicable to Harry s. Truman. The feisty Missourian wrested greatness from the hands of his challengers who would have denied it to him because of his background. His lack of a college degree seemed to rankle the press, and as far as they were concerned disqualified him as President of the United States. Based largely on contemporary accounts, this thesis traces the color and drama of Truman's 1948 campaign. In order to appreciate fully the triumph of the President’s victory, it was necessary to follow his career from the time of his unexpected ascendancy to the highest office in the land to his ultimate triumph in 1948. The developments on the international and domestic scene, fraught with danger and anxiety for the American public, provided the backdrop which enabled Truman to prove his resourcefulness and courage. This thesis does not pretend to solve the mystery of the 1948 election. Rather it has proven to be an exercise in research instead of a revealing analysis of the presidential campaign. No new material has been made available to the public which would help answer the question of why the press was so consistently wrong in its analysis of the outcome. Nor has the press admitted to an unreasonably biased view of Harry Truman. They maligned him unmercifully, still he prevailed. He was indeed the "uncommonest of common men."

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This study examines how pop culture fandoms are formed, based on five communications theories: Escapism, Mood Management, Parasocial Relationships, Identification, and Social Capital. The researcher examined the Harry Potter fandom specifically because of its global pervasiveness. Using Q Methodology, 47 respondents fell into one of four categories: Relationship Experts, Happy Introverts, Identifying Isolationists, and Isolated Self-regulators. Relationship Experts like Harry Potter because of parasocial relationships with the characters as well as the story's capacity for escapism, and Happy Introverts focus on liking Harry Potter for their own enjoyment (not that of others) and mood management. Identifying Isolationists like Harry Potter because they identify with the characters and enjoy discussing the books with those around them, while Isolated Self-regulators do not have any parasocial relationships and focus on the books' mood management capacity. It is interesting to note that Escapism played a supporting (but never leading) role in each of these Factors. All respondents agree that Harry Potter has been, and will continue to be, an important part of their lives. It is hoped that this conclusion can form the foundation of future popular culture studies.