Text-to-World Assumptions (Some General Definitions)

Abstract

It may be useful at this point to recapitulate the critical decisions that I have taken so far, and to make explicit the connected questions that remain unanswered. There are three such critical decisions; the questions that arise from them are stated in italics:

• (a) I have stated in Chapter 1 that this essay is devoted to examining the social and political effects of the Harry Potter books. In stating this I haven’t yet explained precisely what I mean by social and political effects. That is what this chapter is devoted to.

• (b) In Chapter 2 I have decided that this study would not try to analyse the Harry Potter books as being directed essentially towards or being consumed essentially by children. For critical purposes the books will be addressed here as any book directed at a fully critically aware and discerning audience normally is. It might be felt that this decision needs further fleshing out and, in fact, I revisit the ground underlying this decision at some length in Chapter 7 below.