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The wisdom of Harry Potter : what our favorite hero teaches us about moral choices / Edmund M. Kern.
Van Pelt Library PR6068.O93 Z735 2003
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Kern, Edmund M., 1963-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Rowling, J. K--Ethics.
- Rowling, J. K.
- Harry Potter.
- Didactic fiction, English--History and criticism.
- Didactic fiction, English.
- Children's stories, English--History and criticism.
- Children's stories, English.
- Fantasy fiction, English--History and criticism.
- Fantasy fiction, English.
- Rowling, J. K--Characters--Harry Potter.
- Potter, Harry (Fictitious character).
- Potter, Harry.
- Ethics in literature.
- Ethics.
- Physical Description:
- 296 pages ; 23 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 2003.
- Summary:
- In this original interpretation of the Harry Potter sensation, Kern argues that the attraction of these stories to children comes not only from the fantastical elements embedded in the plots, but also from their underlying moral messages.
- Contents:
- 1. Imaginatively Updating an Old-Fashioned Virtue 17
- A Welcome Surprise and a Perilous Burden 17
- Popularity and Criticism 21
- What the Books Have to Offer 24
- Imagination at Play 26
- Imagination at Work 32
- The Kids in Your Life 40
- 2. Plot Threads and Moral Fibers 45
- Little Whinging 45
- The Sorcerer's Stone 49
- Flight from Death 53
- The Chamber of Secrets 56
- House-Elves and Mudbloods 61
- The Prisoner of Azkaban 63
- A Law unto Himself 71
- The Goblet of Fire 75
- That's Not How It's Supposed to Work 86
- 3. Harry Potter's Morality on Display: A Primer on Stoic Virtue 89
- Frustration 89
- Ambiguity 93
- Hard Questions and Adult Mentoring 102
- Constancy in the Face of Evil, and Other Virtues 106
- Growing Up, Growing Pains 119
- 4. Greed, Conventionality, Demonic Threat 129
- Kids among the Critics 129
- A Culture of Consumerism 138
- Familiar (and Unexamined) Assumptions 147
- The Big Deal about Witchcraft 158
- Pluralism 175
- 5. Imagination, History, Legend, and Myth 179
- The Familiar and the Fantastic 179
- The Uses of History, Legend, and Myth 190
- Social Realism 208
- The Problem of Evil 212
- Stoicism and Religion 219
- Being Enchanted 222
- Afterword: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 229.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-280) and index.
- ISBN:
- 1591021332
- OCLC:
- 52514356
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