scholarly journals Strategy for Strengthening Nation Character Building in Facing the Challenges of the Information Age

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information Age ◽  
Character Building

Countering Psychological Misinformation in the Information Age

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret E. Gredler ◽  
Melissa D. Hurst
Keyword(s):  
Information Age

Harry Potter – National Hero and National Heroic Epic

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28
Author(s):  
Ulrike Kristina Köhler
Keyword(s):  
Harry Potter ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Robin Hood ◽  
Feudal Society ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Heroic Epic ◽  
National Model ◽  
National Hero ◽  
Norman Invasion ◽  
Character Building

Joanne K. Rowling's teenage wizard has enchanted readers all over the globe and Harry Potter can truly be called an international hero. However, as I will argue, he is also very much an English national hero, complying with the national auto-image of the English gentleman as well as with the idea of Christian masculinity, another English auto-image holding that outdoor activity is more character-building than book learning. I will also show that the series can be read as a national heroic epic in two respects. First, Harry Potter, alias Robin Hood, has to fight the Norman yoke, an English myth haunting the nation since the Norman invasion in 1066. The series displays as a national model an apparently paternalistic Anglo-Saxon feudal society marked by tolerance and liberty as opposed to foreign rule. Second, by establishing parallels to events which took place in Nazi Germany, the series takes up the idea of fighting it, which is a popular topos in British (children's) literature which serves to reinforce a positive self-image.

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