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Harry’s paradoxical identity and the structure of Hogwarts. In this thesis, I further the research on the complicated relationship between the Potterverse’s Wizarding and Non-Wizarding communities and explore the fluid concepts of normality and abnormality, while also examining how spaces in the Potterverse function as the Foucauldian heterotopias.
1.3 Methodology
Instead of providing a fixed perspective from one of the Wizarding or Non-Magical society, Rowling gives a fluid narrative perspective in the story which provides a much more thorough viewpoint in the Potterverse. By connecting these representative concepts of normality and spaces from Foucauldian perspectives, I analyze how Rowling presents a fluid idea of the other and the self in the Potterverse while maintaining a stable structure for her universe. To discuss fluidity in the Potterverse, I rely on a specific
explication of Foucault’s History of Madness and “Of Other Spaces.” Foucault deliberates on his idea of normality and abnormality in his History of Madness and discussed the concepts of utopia and heterotopia in “Of Other Spaces.” Furthermore, I explore
interactions between fluid concepts and spaces to highlighting how spaces concretize and affect shifting concepts of the other and the self in the Potterverse.
1.3.1 Normality and Abnormality
In his History of Madness, Foucault argues that the understanding of reason is based on the treatment of madness and otherness. Foucault researches not only the gap between reason and madness, or “the caesura,” but also the silent and unspeakable characteristics of unreason. He states that the history of madness is “the archaeology of silence” because “madmen” cannot explicitly express themselves (xxviii). Foucault
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theorized that people attempt to speak unspeakable things and interpret the madness.
Therefore, the study of madness often references the “gaze of the others” and the “process of the gaze,” which prompts the ongoing debate of the same versus the other (488; 527-28). The relationship between the same and the other is exclusive inclusion, a typical entanglement of differences, and complicated relation between Rowling’s Potterverse illustrates the shifting standards of the self and the other as apparent in the different perspectives adopted by the Wizarding and the Non-Magical communities. Furthermore, I address otherness within Wizarding society to illustrate the Potterverse’s complex social structure.
In his The Order of Things, Foucault discusses the function of language by responding to Nietzsche's inquiry: who is speaking? Foucault elaborates on this
Nietzschean question by stating that “it was not a matter of knowing what good and evil were in themselves, but who was being designated” (305). Rowling’s language can be highlighted by using Foucault’s linguistic strategy, especially her use of fragmentation and self-reference. The Wizarding world is mostly presented as silent and rational in the Potterverse, which partially reflects the Foucauldian idea of the unthought and
unconsciousness. The Wizarding and the Non-Magical communities mirror two ethical forms of the West that Foucault discusses. “The old one follows the order of the
world…the modern one performs thought and movements toward the apprehension of the unthought” (328). According to Foucault, modern thought not only reframes the
relationship of the self to the other, but also absorbs the other itself. Building on the above statements, I argue that Rowling’s Magical world represents modern thought; I further discuss Rowling’s representation of the Wizarding world through her contradictory descriptions and the functions of silence.
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1.3.2 Heterotopia
In his essay “Of Other Spaces,” Foucault discusses the intersection of time and space; defining the space we live in as “a set of relations that delineates sites which are irreducible to one another and absolutely not superimposable on one another” (3).
Foucault focuses on two types of spaces: utopias and heterotopias. Utopias are unreal places that reflect perfected forms of real society, or communities that have turned upside down. Examples of utopias include C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, and L. Frank Baum’s Oz. These fantastic places share some similarities with the real world, but often have bizarre or revised social orders and hierarchies. Citizens in these imaginary places are usually unaware of the real world’s existence. That is to say, there is a caesura between these fantastic places and the real world, and the portals between these worlds are frequently unstable and changing.
As for heterotopias, Foucault states that they function as counter-sites that exist in every civilization and “are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted” (3).
Examples of heterotopias in fantastic fiction include Rowling’s Wizarding society and Darren Shan’s world of vampires. These heterotopias are associated with the real world;
members of the fictional community often know about the mundane world’s existence, and frequently, they can travel between these sites through particular passageways or rituals. In his “Of Other Spaces,” Foucault listes six principles of heterotopias: First,
“crisis heterotopias” are privileged and sacred places for people who live in a state of crisis; later, they can become places to keep deviant individuals, such as hospitals and asylums. Second, heterotopias have a particular function according to the synchrony of cultural development. Third, heterotopias can be real places that juxtapose several
incompatible sites. Fourth, heterotopias often link to slices of time, such as museums and libraries. Fifth, heterotopias are both isolated and penetrable; to enter, one must have
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permission or make certain gestures. Sixth, heterotopias have a function related to all remaining spaces.
I mainly focus on Foucault’s discussion of otherness and heterotopia. In History of Madness, Foucault addresses the gap between and the entanglement of reason and
unreason. In the Potterverse, wizards often see Non-Magical people as lacking ability and knowledge; even wizards who are fond of Muggles are proven to have this ambiguous quality. Conversely, Non-Magical people in the Potterverse often think that magic represents unreason and abnormality. This paradoxical relationship between the Wizarding and Non-Magical societies not only shifts the definition of otherness to its limits, but also illuminates an innovative blend of reason and unreason. Building on Foucault’s discussion in “Of Other Spaces,” I examine the interplay of the Wizarding and the Non-Magical worlds through these six principles of heterotopias. In the Potterverse, people are divided into Wizardkind and Muggle because of their nature, yet the binary world cannot be maintained well since they also share the same geographical map and recourses. That is to say, the boundary between the Wizarding and Non-Magical world is not that strict naturally. This thesis further analyzes several Magical items that help build the complicated structure of the Potterverse. This thesis argues that a shifting structure is necessary for the organic construction of a stable society, a fluid and complex system that finds expression in and of the Potterverse, thereby exposing various social issues in the readers’ reality.