CO-CREATING HARRY POTTER: CHILDREN’S FAN-PLAY, FOLKLORE AND PARTICIPATORY CULTURE by © Contessa Small A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Folklore Memorial University of Newfoundland April 2015 St. John’s Newfoundland Abstract A number of scholars have argued that children’s traditional artifacts and play are being replaced by media culture objects and manipulated by corporations. However, while companies target and exploit children, it is problematic to see all contemporary youth or “kid” culture as simply a product of corporate interests. This thesis therefore explores children’s multivocal fan-play traditions, which are not only based on corporation interests, but also shaped by parents, educators and children themselves. The Harry Potter phenomenon, as a contested site where youth struggle for visibility and power, serves as the case study for this thesis. Through the examination of an intensely commercialized form of children’s popular culture, this thesis explores the intricate web of commercial, hegemonic, folk, popular and vernacular cultural expressions found in children’s culture. This thesis fits with the concerns of participatory literacy which describes the multiple ways readers take ownership of reading and writing to construct meaning within their own lives. Due to the intense corporate and adult interests in Pottermania, children have continually been treated in the scholarly literature as passive receptors of the commercial construction of Harry Potter. However, this study of child-based Potter fan- play illustrates that youths are active participants in the creation of their own culture, and have developed their own ways of generating meaning from and celebrating the series such as book and movie launch parties, Quidditch games, Wizard Rock music, fantasy and role-playing, trivia games, Internet fan clubs, fan fiction, rumours in anticipation of new volumes, media narraforms, parodies, Potter Parties, spell performances, fan art and homemade costumes. ii In this thesis, I examine the misconceptions and triviality barrier surrounding children’s culture; the appeal of Harry Potter as mythic hero and folktale; the Conservative-Creative (Newell’s Paradox) nature of children’s play; children’s dialectic relationship with mass media; the activation of children’s traditional competencies through fan-play; and the restoration of folk traditions through participatory storytelling such as media narratives and fan fiction. All of these emergent forms of participatory fan-play help children achieve their own sense of identity, culture and power – ultimately dismissing the all too present misconception that children are passive receptors, blindly obeying adult agendas. iii Acknowledgements I thank the many people who assisted me throughout this endeavor, which has been one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences of my life. Foremost, I thank my informants, children and teenagers, Harry Potter fans who so generously shared their love of all-things-Potter with me. Thanks go to the parents, families, teachers, students, organizations and managers that made my research and interviews with youths possible. Special thanks go to Lisa Piercey and Mary Queen of Peace Elementary School in St. John’s for permitting me to conduct research in their classrooms. I owe tremendous thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Diane Goldstein, a courageous and inspiring teacher, mentor and source of wisdom. Diane shaped my approach, providing key insight and direction. I am grateful for her continued supervision after moving on to Indiana University, and for her commitment to this project and me. Thanks go to Dr. Philip Hiscock and Dr. Martin Lovelace of my supervisory committee for their thoughtful comments and feedback. Special thanks to Philip for his generosity of time and spirit, and guiding me through the doctoral thesis process. I am grateful for the many sources of funding I received: a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship; a MUN Graduate Fellowship; the David Buchan Graduate Research Award in Folklore from the MUN Department of Folklore; the Maurice J. Burke Memorial Scholarship from the MUN Department of Folklore; the Mary A. Griffiths Memorial Bursary for Folklore Field Research from the MUN Folklore Society; the Dean’s Excellence Award from MUN; Fellow of the MUN School of Graduate Studies; and the MUN Graduate Students’ Union Award for Excellence in Research. I would also like to thank the Children’s Folklore iv Section of the American Folklore Society for awarding me the W.W. Newell Prize for my early paper, “Co-creating Harry Potter: Local Expressions of a Global Phenomenon,” and its subsequent publication in Children’s Folklore Review. The Department of Folklore at Memorial University provided exceptional learning experiences throughout my academic career. Not only did the faculty provide me with a solid foundation in the discipline of folklore, but they also provided me with undergraduate and graduate funding, research and teaching positions, and valuable experience working at Memorial University’s Folklore and Language Archive and the Centre for Music, Media and Place. Special thanks go to: Dr. Diane Tye for always having her door open and the helpful advice along the way as Department Head; Dr. Pat Byrne for his expertise and feedback on my folk literature analysis; Dr. Beverley Diamond for her feedback on my early ideas and local-global perspectives; Dr. Paul Smith for finding useful Potter news-clippings and videos; and Dr. Gerald Pocius for pointing me in the direction of the Turner family. I owe my thanks to the late Dr. Peter Narváez for introducing me to the folklore-popular culture process theory, and for firing my imagination with his folklore lectures on popular culture films such as Tom Thumb and Carrie. I am deeply indebted to the late Dr. John Ashton of Sir Wilfred Grenfell College for introducing me to the field of folklore, giving me my first archive and teaching jobs, and encouraging me to pursue doctoral studies. Many thanks go to: MUNFLA staff, Patricia Fulton and Pauline Cox, for their assistance; Sharon Cochrane, Cindy Turpin, Renee Lawrence and Melanie Sears for their administrative expertise; Dr. John Bodner of Grenfell Campus for his insight; and Dr. Cynthia Boyd for finding useful Potter paraphernalia. I also wish to thank Dr. Carole v Carpenter of York University for her advice and direction at the start of this thesis. Thanks go to the Town of Torbay for professional development support, and to Memorial history student Madeline Davis for assisting me at the Torbay Museum, which was especially appreciated as my thesis neared completion. My parents, Eugene and Patricia Small, deserve my gratitude for their love and support, and always being there when I need them. I am grateful to Randy, Melanie, Tammy and Mick for their encouragement and for bringing such wonderful children into my life, my nephews and nieces, Christopher, Bailey, Jessica, Ty, Kaiden and Arabella. Heartfelt thanks to all my extended family for their support, including Pamela Parsons, Judy Pittman and Shelley Windsor, and my grandparents Garfield and Winnona Randell. I also owe many thanks to my late grandparents, Nelson and Stella Small. I am grateful to my family for blessing me with a childhood filled with songs, tales, humour, music, play, and much happiness and joy. Finally, my deepest thanks go to my partner, Ben Pittman. He has been there from the very beginning, through the coursework and comps, and the endless thesis drafts. He escorted me to Harry Potter movies and fan-play events, was an editor and sounding board and, most importantly, offered his generosity and love. Our co-creation and launch of a museum-theatre program, which occurred simultaneously with my thesis research, may have created tight schedules but provided one of the most personally and professionally rewarding public-folklore experiences of my life. Words cannot express how grateful I am for his constant encouragement and presence in my life. vi Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ vii List of Figures ................................................................................................................. xii List of Appendices .......................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background of Study ................................................................................... 1 1.2 Objectives .................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Research and Methodology .......................................................................... 9 1.3.1 Triangulation ................................................................................................ 10 1.3.2 Local, Ethnographic and Contextual Research ............................................ 10 1.3.3 Textual Research / Literary