The Effacement of Post-9/11 Orphanhood: Re-reading the Harry Potter Series as a Melancholic Rhetoric PDF Free Download
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Poroi
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Volume 7, Issue 1 2011 Article 6
The Effacement of Post-9/11 Orphanhood:
Re-reading the Harry Potter Series as a
Melancholic Rhetoric
Kim Hong Nguyen∗
∗High Point University, dr.kim.hong@gmail.com
Copyright c
"2011 by the authors. This paper is posted at Iowa Research Online.
http://ir.uiowa.edu/poroi/vol7/iss1/6
The Effacement of Post-9/11 Orphanhood:
Re-reading the Harry Potter Series as a
Melancholic Rhetoric∗
Kim Hong Nguyen
Abstract
Contrary to critics and scholars interested in the series’ therapeutic value, Harry Potter encour-
ages post-9/11 subjects to neither heal nor mourn. Instead of taking up the potential pain and trans-
formation in realizing and coming to terms with the deaths of his parents, Harry’s reattachment to
the institution precludes his abilities to mourn constructively and his orphanhood effectively gets
effaced over the course of the series. This article suggests that the therapeutic value ascribed to
Harry Potter indicates a hope that it will serve as a pedagogical device to produce loyal, patriotic
citizen-subjects that will hold on to rather than mourn loss.
KEYWORDS: orphan, Harry Potter, post-9/11, melancholia, therapeutic rhetoric
∗The paper is a modified chapter out of the author’s dissertation. Special thanks to her dissertation
committee: Bruce Gronbeck, David Depew, Barbara Biesecker, Gail Boldt, and David Hingstman.
In addition, constructive conversations and critical readings were provided by Nathaniel Cordova,
Megan Foley, Leslie Hahner, and Gerald Voorhees.
