9ROXPH,,,,VVXH,,,0D\,661 The Magic of Magic and Imagination in Fantasy Literature: A Study Based on J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series
Mohammad Kawish Haider Research Scholar English Department, Bharathiar University Research and Development Centre Coimbatore India
Abstract
Fantasy has the longest and richest literary heritage of all forms of genre fiction. Indeed, fantasy could be said to be the progenitor of other forms of literature. It has been distinguished from other forms of literature by its style, its constituents, and its freedom of expression where an author has the choice to use any story telling element to strengthen the narrative. Different writers, scholars, and critics have defined fantasy in different ways and manners. Fantasy is an amalgam of different genres of literature which gives immediate delight to its readers. It has a deep relation with imagination and magic. J. K. Rowling has created a sensation in the literary world by writing Harry Potter series which has attracted people of all age groups. Her fantastic adventurous creation has infused different imaginations in readers of varying age groups – from children to adults. The literary tsunami suggests Harry Potter as not a passing fad. Harry Potter is an epitome of mysterious and miraculous magical realism, and adventurous and suspicious fantasy, with conjuring supernatural and surrealistic imagination. The study aims at defining fantasy and imagination in literature and in Harry Potter series with the association of magic.
Key Words: Fantasy, Imagination, Magic, Fairytales, Love
5HIHUHHG 3HHU5HYLHZHG -RXUQDO KWWS ZZZLMHOOKFRP 9ROXPH,,,,VVXH,,,0D\,661 “Fantasy lacking in the full character of reality can have compensatory strengths” (Manlove, 26).
Fantasy is a genre of literature that commonly employs supernatural elements as the primary plot or setting. It comprises of heart throbbing and penetrating influence. It transcends a make-belief world with uncanny moments. Fantasy is defined as “the literature of unreality,” (Jackson, 9) or as “literature which does not give priority to realistic representation” (Jackson, 13). Usually, works of fantasy genre take place in an imaginary world, or another world beyond our actual real world with metaphysical existence where magical and supernatural creatures are common and prevalent. In the context of literature, fantasy may be described as an imaginative fiction dependent for effect on strangeness of setting (such as other worlds or times) and characters (such as supernatural beings). The human mind has the capability to form different mental images that do not exist in reality. The ability of gestating the images is known as imagination. According to Eagan, “Imagination is the creative capacity for thinking of things “as possibly being so” (43). The term, “imagination” is frequently conflated with fantasy. The structure of a fantasy work is build up on imagination. Zipes claims that, “[fantasy] plays upon the imagination not to open it up to escape into a never-never land but to make greater contact with reality” (141). All human beings have the faculty to conjure new images. Man uses his brain to retrieve his past or explore the future in order to make new images. The function of human brain to make new images is known as creativity or creative art. This creative faculty, grounded on ability of brain to explore elements, is known as imagination as well as fantasy in psychological way. From the general definition of fantasy and imagination, people consider it as opposite of reality. But imagination is not opposite of reality. Every aspect and dimension of life is affected by imagination. Without imagination, no new invention and discovery would be possible. Imagination and fantasy are related to stream-of-consciousness technique as both can travel back and forth narrative with hallucinations. They can co-mingle past, present, and future with supernatural and symbolic elements. As Thedule Ribot says, “every invention, whether large or small, before being implemented, embodied in reality, was held together by the imagination alone. It was a structure erected in the mind through the agency of new combinations and relationships...” (Vygotsky, 10). Fantasy is heavily based on imagination or we can say fantasy is an outcome of the imagination. It is an imagined and continuous episode of images and events. Fantasy is a fascinating amalgam of elements, extracted from the reality and wrapped by our imagination in a new fashion. For instance, if we say there is a house in the middle of the ocean, dolphins
5HIHUHHG 3HHU5HYLHZHG -RXUQDO KWWS ZZZLMHOOKFRP 9ROXPH,,,,VVXH,,,0D\,661 frequently come to that house and stay in the house and play with us. This evokes fantasy, but the elements used like ocean, house, and dolphin are real. We have distorted the story in some strange way. The perspectives of fantasy may be different from imagination. Imagination assimilates reality whereas fantasy may spring up from inquisitiveness, desire, horror, frustration, etc. But both imagination and fantasy are interconnected in some way. In fairytales, all the materials and elements portrayed are original but the narration only is imaginary, and that creates fantasy genre. As C. S. Lewis says, “reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning” (265). Fantasy is a form of creativity and creativity would be impossible without the imagination. Fantasy genre has usually been divided into different sub-headings/ sub-genres such as fairytales, folklores, modern fantasy, magic fiction, science fiction, epics, and traditional fantasy etc. Fantasy and magic play an integral part of the literature through the centuries and ages, for instance, Homer’s Odyssey, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, and so on. Magic has a very deep concern and relation with fantasy. There are plenty of books that feature magic in different forms. Writers incorporate different types of magic in their fantasy works such as The Snow child by Eowyn Ivey, Alice in wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, The Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis, and so many in ancient time and in contemporary time. In The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, John Granger has commented that: It is not sloppy thinking or failed memory that has led so many critics and casual readers to remark that while reading about Harry, they experienced again the feelings and challenges they remembered from Narnia and Middle Earth. These books are trying to do the same thing and use many of the same tools, which together produce effects of remarkable resemblance (336). J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels have given a new direction and dimension to fantasy genre in English literature. She has helped to revolutionized fantasy with her Harry Potter books. In the age of technological advancement, a myriad of entertainment sources are available, Harry Potter series has brought children and adolescents back to reading: The Harry Potter phenomenon has taken the world by storm, and in many ways the series appears to be responsible for a renaissance in reading for children all over the world, despite its competition from the supposedly more competition forms of entertainment available on videos, television, or the Internet (Alton, 141). Harry Potter novels revolve around an orphaned boy, who enrols at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, and his adventurous contention with the evil wizard Lord Voldemort. Rowling’s Harry Potter world is full of drollness and imagination. She has taken us to the space
5HIHUHHG 3HHU5HYLHZHG -RXUQDO KWWS ZZZLMHOOKFRP 9ROXPH,,,,VVXH,,,0D\,661 of fantasy where every ingredient of fantasy is utilised. The novel doesn’t fall into one genre but many genres such as epic fantasy, dark fantasy, coming-of-age fantasy, science fiction, horror fiction, magic realism, and bildungsroman. Philip Nel has categorised Harry Potter as an epic fantasy, “By featuring more than hundred characters, the Harry Potter series is an epic fantasy” (36). Magic in its different forms is an indispensible property of the fantasy genre. It refers to different type of extraordinary phenomenon. “The term magic is used to label a wide variety of things. Magic is applied to supernatural events that only seem possible in the world of fantasy and to those natural events that stimulate a sense of wonder or amazement” (Neil, 124). In ancient times, magic shows materialised people’s fervent desire and fantasies such as flying in air, fast travelling, immortality, control over other creatures, invisibility and understanding the language of animals. In Harry Potter series, Rowling has created a world full of magic, imagination and witchcraft. In the series, magic serves as an important part of the plot. It is an essential part of the narration. In the series, magic is rendered as a powerful and supernatural phenomenon. Rowling has colligated magic with life, death, love, emotion, disease, and with so many aspects. She has imbued the story with magic. Life and Death are important themes of the novels. She has applied magic as weapon to subdue death. Magical techniques have been used to determine and subdue life and death. In the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Lord Voldemort is depicted in the quest of the “philosopher’s stone,” as it contains the power to terminate death. Another life giving/death conquering tool is unicorn blood that is also full of magic. The imbibing of unicorn blood will keep a person alive or away from death even if death is imminent. It is clear in following lines: “‘Harry Potter, do you know what Unicorn blood is used for?’ ‘No’, said Harry, startled by the question. (...) ‘This is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn’, said Firenze. ‘Only one who has nothing to loose, and every thing to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are one inch from death, but at a terrible price’” (Rowling, Philosopher’s Stone, 188). One of the overarching themes of the novel is magic of love. In the novel, most of the characters are connected to each other with the magic of love. In some cases, it has changed the nature of the characters, for instance, Severus Snape, a comrade of Lord Voldemort, loves a woman and joins Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts. He turns to spy for the Order of the Phoenix (in Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix) due to his love, when he comes to know that Voldemort has threatened his love. Through the magic of love, Lilly Potter (Harry’s mother), is able to save her son from the cruel hands of Lord Voldemort by sacrificing her life. Voldemort
5HIHUHHG 3HHU5HYLHZHG -RXUQDO KWWS ZZZLMHOOKFRP 9ROXPH,,,,VVXH,,,0D\,661 could not understand the love and sacrifice of Lily. The main reason of Voldemort’s downfall is his inability to understand and respond to love. Sacrificial love is the most potent and profound magic of all in the magical world of Harry Potter. The true nature of love-magic concept can be studied in the “Department of Mysteries.” The concept of true love or sacrificial love is underscored in following lines: There is a room in the Department of Mysteries...that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature…. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you (Rowling, Phoenix, 743). The story of Harry Potter is set in the world of sorcery, witches, and wizards where magic plays an important role in every day reality. There are two types of people in Harry Potter novels – muggle and wizard. Muggles are those who do not have magical power and cannot practice sorcery. Wizards are those who have magical backgrounds and can practice sorcery. Harry associates with both muggles and wizards in an immense proportion. Rowling has created a secondary magical world within primary world where both muggles and wizards are alive. She has bestowed unlimited powers to the denizens of this secondary world. This created secondary world has its unique rules and conventions, which are quite different from the muggles world. Alan Jacobs notes that, for writers such as Tolkien and Rowling: The sine qua non of such mythopoeia [the creation of other worlds in fiction] is the making of a world that resembles ours but is not ours, a world that possesses internal logic and self-consistency to the same degree that ours does-but not the same logic: it must have its own rules, rules that are peculiar to it and that generate consequences also peculiar to it (Oakes, 121). Rowling has distinguished the two worlds in Harry Potter novels in the context of magic and supernatural objects. Magical occurrences and magical creatures seem extraordinary with muggles, while for the wizards and witches of Howard, they occur as only a part of everyday reality; for instance, owls distributing letters, the wizard’s chess, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, where chess pieces fight each other, the platform nine, and the three quarters from where the train to Hogwarts leaves. Magic is mysterious and ancient at the same time, and its executions are very precise. Rowling has created some specific rules in the executions of magic. She permits her characters
5HIHUHHG 3HHU5HYLHZHG -RXUQDO KWWS ZZZLMHOOKFRP 9ROXPH,,,,VVXH,,,0D\,661 to perform magic only with wands. In Rowling’s magical world, each wizard or witch is “bounded” to a particular wand. These wands are specific in their nature. About the usage of magic wands, she says that, “You can do unfocussed and uncontrolled magic without a wand (for instance, when Harry blows up Aunt Marge) but to do really good spells, yes, you need a wand” (Comic Relief Live Chat Transcript). In Harry Potter books, Rowling has put a control on the use and training of magic and wizardy. She has used the magic through “magical words,” and these are not as simple as they appear. Rather, the words must be learned, practiced, and mastered before the use of it. Wizards are trained for seven years in the magical arts at Hogwarts. Jacob has noted that, in wizardy world, “any trained wizard can personally manage magic much more complex than our most advanced technology” (Oakes, 120). In Hogwarts, there are different departments of magic run by different veteran professors, like department of “dark arts” run by Severus Snape, Gilderoy Lockhort, Remus Lupin, etc, department of “Herbology” run by Poppy Pomfrey, department of “potions” run by Horace Slughorn, and so on. Students are taught increasingly advanced levels and different types of magic. All these are veteran entity and have excellence in their field. A lot of emphasis is put on excellence in the execution of magic. Untrained students, witches, and wizards are restricted in the use of their powers. In Hogwarts, Rowling has ensured that magical creatures must be handled with extreme care; and they must not be controlled with spells and charms. So, Rowling has incorporated an elective course of “Care of Magical Creatures,” as the study, which can be chosen by the students. By the eminent Professors of the University like Silvanus Kettleburn, Rubid Hagrid, and Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank, the course study has become full-fledged. There is a discernible and consciously made structure for the practice of magic in Rowling’s Harry Potter world. The article is an attempt to define fantasy in literature and in Harry Potter books with the association of magic. Fantasy consists of apparitions, inanimated creatures, personified images, and symbolized motifs. Carol Hurst, on her website, indicates that, “the most common definition of fantasy stipulates that, ʊaccording to the rules of nature as we now know them, this could not have happened. If an owl speaks, for instance, even though every other action and reaction that animal or any other creature in the book has is realistic, the work is a fantasy” (Children’s Literature Site). Rowling’s Harry Potter series is a host of different sub-genres of fantasy. She has touched almost every aspect of fantasy. Magic has played an important role in making this novel fascinating and readable, in the technologically developed age where children and adults have access to different types of fast video games, movies with different plot and themes. The first thing we expect from the author is an adventurous, exciting, heart throbbing, and thrilling
5HIHUHHG 3HHU5HYLHZHG -RXUQDO KWWS ZZZLMHOOKFRP 9ROXPH,,,,VVXH,,,0D\,661 story that would take us away from the boredom and tedium of daily life. Harry Potter novels succeed because they provide this vicuna. In conclusion, Rowling’s statement commemorizes, “I don’t believe in any kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book” (Harry Potter realm).
5HIHUHHG 3HHU5HYLHZHG -RXUQDO KWWS ZZZLMHOOKFRP 9ROXPH,,,,VVXH,,,0D\,661 Works cited Alton, Annie Hiebert. “Generic Fusion and the Mosaic of Harry Potter.” Ed. Elizabeth E. Heilman. Harry Potter’s World. Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives. NewYork: Routledge Falmer, 2003. Print. Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site. 1999.
5HIHUHHG 3HHU5HYLHZHG -RXUQDO KWWS ZZZLMHOOKFRP 9ROXPH,,,,VVXH,,,0D\,661 Ribot, Thedule. Tvorcheskoe voobrazhenie [Creative Imagination]. Translated from French. St. Petersberg: Iu. N. Erlikh, 1901. Print. Vygotsky, Lev Semenovich. “Imagination and Creativity in Childhood.” Journal of Russian and East European Psychology. 42.1 (2004): 10. Print.
5HIHUHHG 3HHU5HYLHZHG -RXUQDO KWWS ZZZLMHOOKFRP