Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Plan B and other Reports Graduate Studies 8-2017 Remembering as Resurrection: Transgenerational Trauma and Memory in J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter Series Erika Beckstrand Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, and the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Beckstrand, Erika, "Remembering as Resurrection: Transgenerational Trauma and Memory in J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter Series" (2017). All Graduate Plan B and other Reports. 1022. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/1022 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Plan B and other Reports by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REMEMBERING AS RESURRECTION: TRANSGENERATIONAL TRAUMA AND MEMORY IN J.K. ROWLING’S HARRY POTTER SERIES by Erika Beckstrand A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in English Approved: ______________________ ____________________ Shane Graham Christine Cooper-Rompato Major Professor Committee Member ______________________ ____________________ Ben Gunsberg Lisa Gabbert Committee Member Committee Member UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2017 ii Copyright © Erika Beckstrand 2017 All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Remembering as Resurrection: Transgenerational Trauma and Memory in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series by Erika Beckstrand, Master of Science Utah State University, 2017 Major Professor: Dr. Shane Graham Department: English What does it mean to bear witness to the memories of previous generations’ trauma victims? What lessons should we learn from those who came before us to ensure a happier future? This thesis explores postmemory and transgenerational trauma in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I intend to analyze the character of Harry Potter as he interacts with the memories of the previous generation, which he is able to resurrect in embodied forms through the use of magic. By testifying to the memories of the previous generations’ trauma, Harry is able to break the cycle of violence and create a seemingly happy ending to his life’s story. Through critically studying Harry Potter as a transgenerational narrative, readers are able to learn how to bear witness to the memories of those with whom they associate in their own lives and create a more empathetically inclined world. (54 pages) iv PUBLIC ABSTRACT Remembering as Resurrection: Transgenerational Trauma and Memory in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series Erika Beckstrand What does it mean to bear witness to the memories of previous generations’ trauma victims? What lessons should we learn from those who came before us to ensure a happier future? This thesis explores the trauma and memories of the deceased or older generation found in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I intend to analyze the character of Harry Potter as he interacts with the memories of the previous generation, which he is able to resurrect in embodied forms through the use of magic. By testifying to the memories of the previous generations’ trauma, Harry is able to break the cycle of violence and create a seemingly happy ending to his life’s story. Through critically studying Harry Potter as a transgenerational narrative, readers are able to learn how to bear witness to the memories of those with whom they associate in their own live and create a more empathetically inclined world. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Shane Graham, for demanding excellence in my writing even when I thought I had no more to give. You coached me through this process and made me believe in myself as a writer, and I will be forever grateful. I give a gigantic thank you to Drs. Ben Gunsberg and Lisa Gabbert, for their kind words and their encouragement throughout this process. Thank you to Dr. Christine Cooper-Rompato, who not only is an amazing mentor, teacher, and possible fairy godmother in disguise, but also a life-long friend. I also would like to give a special thank you to the Utah State University English Department staff and my colleagues/peers, for your encouragement and moral support. Thank you to my best bosom friend, who said she would actually read a thesis if it was about Harry Potter. I give thanks to my siblings, their spouses, and my adorable nieces and nephews, for understanding when Auntie Erika had to stay home and write. I love you all. I would also like to thank my best friend and mother, Jenneice Beckstrand. How can I possibly say thank you enough for your beautiful example of faith and your infinite love? I will love you always. Thank you to my honorary professor and father, Michael D Beckstrand. Your unfailing support, hugs, and infectious laughter are everything to me. Love you Daddy! Lastly, thank you to J.K. Rowling, for writing the books that brought magic into my childhood and fostered my love for literature. For every new story and book yet to be read, Albus Dumbledore said it best when he exclaimed, “And now, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure” (Half-Blood 56). Erika Beckstrand vi CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iii PUBLIC ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................v REMEMBERING AS RESURRECTION……………………………………………...…1 WORKS CITED…………………………………………………………………………46 vii Remembering as Resurrection: Transgenerational Trauma and Memory in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series “Beside him, making scarcely a sound, walked James, Sirius, Lupin, and Lily, and their presence was his courage, and the reason he was able to keep putting one foot in front of the other” (Hallows, 700). One of the most prominent themes in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling is the theme of memory, which is often tied to traumatic events occurring throughout the novels. While it is a major theme, not until recently has scholarship addressed why memory is such an active agent in these books. In her essay “Harry Potter and Memory: The Power of the Past,” Dr. Elizabeth Morrow Clark states, “Memory is manifested in three main areas: family relationships, legends and history, and the function and location of memory itself” (77). In a similar vein of thought, scholar Bryce Langford’s essay titled “Archives of Memory: Visualizing the Pensieve and Prophesies” explores the morality tied to memory. He writes, “What matters most about memory in Harry Potter is not merely how memory is stored throughout the series, but what matters is how and why themes of memory speak so deeply to the reader” (131). In 2010, Rachel Cox wrote her dissertation “Freud, Lacan, and Harry Potter: Two Readings of Trauma,” wherein she explored Harry’s own trauma through the particular memory scholarship put forth by Freud, Lacan, and Cathy Caruth. Cox specifically examines the Harry Potter series by reading it through first a Freudian and then Lacanian point of view. Cox does this as a framework to explore “the representation of trauma and trauma’s effects on identity formation” (Cox ii). Heather Debling also explores trauma and memory in her article “‘You Survived to Bear Witness’: Trauma, Testimony, and the Burden of Witnessing in 2 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” Debling’s research connects the importance of bearing witness via courtroom trials to Harry’s generation and their trauma experienced in their fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this essay, I intend to add even more critical analysis to this emerging trend of memory and trauma scholarship on the Harry Potter series by exploring the idea of remembering as a form of resurrection. Memory is continually advancing and morphing as history is rewritten over and over again by whoever is in power at that current moment in time, which makes it ambiguous but not impossible to classify. In his essay “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire,” historian Pierre Nora defines memory as “in permanent evolution, open to the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, unconscious of its successive deformations, vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation, susceptible to being long dormant and periodically revived” (8). It is the fluidity of memory that makes it an enigma, but according to Nora, memory can be compartmentalized. Nora proposes that there are two distinct categorizations of memory, lieux de mémoire and milieux de mémoire. Lieux de mémoire are sites of memory that are calcified and symbolize a historical moment, such as monuments and museums. Milieux de mémoire are not sites of memory, but rather real environments of memory, or settings in which memory is an authentic part of the everyday experience. On the one hand, we have real memory that is anchored to different societies or groups of people and remains unblemished, and on the other hand we have history, “which is how our hopelessly forgetful modern societies, propelled by change, organize the past” (8). Untouched memory binds groups of people together in a sacred way, while history is accessible to all 3 and is open to scrutiny and censure. History attempts to organize and classify the past, and as a result it also seeks to “suppress and destroy” (9) memory. Nora postulates, “The gulf between the two has deepened in modern times with the growing belief in a right, a capacity, and even a duty to change. Today, this distance has been stretched to its convulsive limit” (8). Attempting to preserve memories in one specific location often has the opposite effect, because as time progresses, future generations are asked to remember a past of which they have no living memory. As a result, these memories lose their significance over time and the experiences that they are meant to convey to the living become nonessential.