A 'feminist deconstruction' of Potter themes
August 12, 2003 at 11:55 PM ET
James
Wizard News (via Times of India)
Shah believes
that the very presence of a school such as Hogwarts in children's literature is "one of the most liberated spaces that children's fiction has created."
Shah believes that unlike Roald Dahl, who considers magic a mere curiosity factor, Potter's creator, JK Rowling, along with Lewis Carroll, has naturalised magic as a way of life. "Rowling caters to everybody," he says, dismissing the idea that Pottermania is a creation of marketers.
In Rowling's works, magic is accepted as part of a child’s world. "See the inclusion of Muggle children in the magical world of Hogwarts," he points out. "It's very important in the Indian political context today. Tolerance and humanity is shown through characters like Lupin, Sirius Black, Hagrid and Filch - who are not normative even within a magical society."