HAPPY NEW YEAR

Looking for something to mark the end of the year in a blog post, I've come across this video clip. As I have not seen the film summarised in it before, I've found it amazing the way in wich a story can be told in less than five minutes and with no words.

I'd like to wish a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all the regular or occasional readers of this blog.

SOME NOTES ON HARRY POTTER

After learning from this former post about the more specific terms for naming different kinds of bildungsroman and reading that the Harry Potter stories can be considered an example of Kunstleroman, I started searching the Internet for some articles or notes on the literary features and values of J.K.Rowling’s most famous work and see what people say.

I began with the Wikipedia entry and found it clear and informative enough to get a general idea of where to place this series of novels according to genre and what discrepancies have been manifested among critics and writers.

Regarding genre, both fantasy literature and bildungsroman are cited. Furthermore, it is also pointed out that it can also be framed inside the boarding school subgenre, together with other series of books addressed to children and teenagers, and thus be further related to Victorian and Edwardian novels of British public schools. Mystery adventures and similarities to Sherlock Holmes are also mentioned.

I must say that I’ve read the seven books: the first two in Spanish, accompanying and sharing my daughter’s reading, and the remaining five in English, on the one hand, to advance her what was coming up and comment and speculate on it in funny conversations and, on the other hand, because I found the stories engaging and entertaining. If I had to say what is in my opinion Harry Potter’s main peculiarity, I’d mention eclecticism. The length of the work allows to mix lots of elements from diverse sources: childhood, youth and adult life concerns; past and present iconography; big and petty worries; fantasy and everyday life; characters which recall other well known figures from previous works (Dumbledore and Gandalf? The Drusleys and Roal Dahl’s Matilda’s family?)… In fact, echoes from other stories can be perceived throughout the whole series. But I think that the blending is well made and the author succeeds in producing an original work.

The Wikipedia article goes on and comments on the cultural impact, commercial success, etc. and I read that “The word Muggle has spread beyond its Harry Potter origins, used by many groups to indicate those who are not aware or are lacking in some skill. In 2003, Muggle, entered the Oxford English Dictionary with that definition.”

I look up and come across these three entries for muggle provided at Dictionary.com

1. muggle: n. a marijuana cigarette. Etymology: 1920s. Usage: slang
2. muggle: n. a common person, esp. one who is ignorant or has no skills. E.g.: There are muggles in every computer class. Etymology: 1920s Usage: slang
3. muggle: n. a person without magical powers. Etymology: 1996; popularized by J. K. Rowling in "Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone"

Finally, I reach the literary criticism section. Summarising it, I see that the strong points could be the following ones:

- Its classic story structure.
- It is imaginative.
- It is a richly textured novel.
- It is “Readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose"
- It presents funny and moving prose. “Dickensian ability to make us (…) weep (…) and (…) laugh…”
- The dynamism of its plot which evolves to suit the preferences of growing readers, “progressively darker tone of the books”

Negative criticism focuses on these weaknesses:

- Lack of originality. Harold Bloom: “Rowling's mind is so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing."
- Repetition of situations, as the use of the formulaic beginning of placing Harry in his uncle and aunt’s house before starting a new school year.
- The story appeals to an undemanding readership. A. S. Byatt: "secondary world, made up of patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature ... written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip". Anthony Holden: “the Potter saga was essentially patronising, conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain", "in a pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style".

ESTRUCTURAS MILAGROSAS

¿Hay alguien más ahí fuera interesado en las estructuras narrativas? Como filólogo que pretende especializarse en literatura, he hecho de esta parte de la narración mi ‘bread and butter’ y aprovecho cualquier ocasión para analizar el esqueleto de las historias que leo o escucho. Así que voy a dar a conocer un pequeño esquema relacionado con este tema, por si alguien desea aportar alguna crítica o sugerencia y para asombro y maravilla de los lectores, en general.
Recientemente, mientras visitaba los monasterios de la isla de Mallorca tuve oportunidad de escuchar numerosas historias milagrosas, atribuidas al santo o virgen correspondiente a cada lugar. Tras observar que algunas de estas historias parecían hallarse incompletas, en lo relativo a la motivación de los personajes intervinientes, decidí reducir dicho componente motivacional al pequeño esquema que mostraré a continuación. Este esquema puede ser aplicado, me parece, a buena parte de los relatos en los cuales una fuerza divina interviene en los asuntos humanos, generalmente para rescatar a la víctima de alguna villanía.
La distribución de Motivaciones sería la siguiente:
- Malvado: Odio, envidia, celos, ambición.
- Víctima: Merecedora de ser salvada, gracias a 1º.- Méritos morales (es bondadoso, piadoso) 2º.- Méritos éticos (es honesto, trabajador) 3º Suerte (se da muy poco en las narraciones de tipo religioso)
- Fuerza divina: Sus motivos para salvar a la Víctima del daño ocasionado por el Malvado pueden ser 1º.- Recompensa a los méritos de la víctima 2º.- Castigo al Malvado. Ambos tendrían una función ejemplarizante.
Como puede apreciarse, no es la Morfología del cuento, pero yo tampoco soy Vladimir Propp. No se trata, como es obvio, de un estudio exhaustivo, sino que está basado en unas cuantas leyendas tomadas al azar, pero creo que se ajusta bastante bien a este tipo de narraciones.
Comentarios y sugerencias serán bienvenidas.