Open AccessThe Gothicization of the Harry Potter Series
Author(s) -
Antonio Sanna
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
kinema
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2562-5764
pISSN - 1192-6252
DOI - 10.15353/kinema.vi.1243
Subject(s) - rhetoric , transposition (logic) , harry potter , representation (politics) , literature , argument (complex analysis) , art , philosophy , art history , history , linguistics , law , biochemistry , chemistry , politics , political science
THE GOTHICIZATION OF THE HARRY POTTER SERIES: THE PROGRESSIVE TRANSPOSITION OF THE GOTHIC INTO THE FILMS Abstract In this paper I shall argue that the Harry Potter cinematographic adaptations of J. K. Rowling's novels gradually enacts a transgeneric crossing of the Gothic into the genre of the fantastic. Specifically, by utilizing Robert Mighall's argument that the "Gothic is a process, not an essence; a rhetoric rather than a store of universal symbols", I shall argue that such a transposition is progressively achieved by means of the representation of an imagery clearly recalling Gothic settings, figures and atmospheres, and through the use of a series of thematic preoccupations that are usually present in Gothic texts. According to the critic Robert Mighall, "The Gothic is a process, not an essence; a rhetoric rather than a store of universal symbols; an attitude to the past and the present, not a free floating...