J.K. Rowling may not be featured on the English 201 reading list, and The Prisoner of Azkaban will probably never appear on the Film 391 syllabus. It’s also quite certain that a class called “The Sociology of Muggles and Wizards” will never grace the pages of Wesmaps.
This does not mean, however, that Harry Potter fans have no academic outlet for their passion. In fact, it does not even mean that they won’t get a Wesleyan credit for it. Created by Jenny Mariaschin ’05 and Rebecca Goldstein ’05, “From Hogwarts to Wesleyan: An In-depth Exploration of Harry Potter, Literary Phenomena” arrived this semester.
Fifteen students meet three hours a week to discuss the academic implications of the five-volume Potter series, and receive one full Wesleyan credit in the process.
“We’ve got an awesome class, and everyone seems truly committed to real academic discourse about the books,” Goldstein said. “We have people coming from a number of different academic and personal backgrounds – you’d be surprised at how many different opinions were presented by a class of fifteen. I don’t think many books out there could generate so much passionate discussion. Maybe the Bible.”
Goldstein and Mariaschin were inspired for such an idea after they both took a class called “The Moral Usefulness of Literature.” They were given flexibility for a final project and chose Harry Potter as their subject matter.
Mariaschin was the one who took it a step further by suggesting a forum. After psychology professor Gayle Norbury agreed to advise the forum, and their course was approved by Administration, the two Potter fans were ready for action.
“I am amazed by the response we’ve received from students interested in the forum,” Goldstein said. “Jenny and I decided to advertise on thefacebook.com. Unfortunately, that meant that we received many more truly wonderful applications than we could accommodate in the class, and we’re having to turn down interested students every day.”
Despite the youth-targeted image of Rowling’s books, Joe John Sanchez ’07, who’s enrolled in the forum, recognizes the appealing academic implications.
“The idea of debating class relations between Muggles, Muggle-born wizards, magical creatures, and pure bloods, and whether or not Harry Potter can be read as a queer or Christian text—it is all just fascinating,” Sanchez said.
“The course looks at Harry Potter from literary, psychological, and sociological perspectives,” said one Potter pupil Jenny Low ’05. “But we also enjoy just discussing the books and characters and whatnot.”
According to Goldstein, the perspectives one can take concerning Harry Potter are limitless.
“Harry Potter fans will be able to come up with reasons why the books are relevant to pretty much any discipline,” she said. “I’m a psychology major, and I find that I’m most interested in the development of the characters—particularly how they navigate through adolescence. A sociology major, however, might be more interested in the way Rowling presents issues of race and class, while an English major might want to approach the books primarily as literature. We’ll try to cover all of these perspectives in our course.”
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