A Study of the Gothic Element in Harry Potter Series开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义

Among the books published in recent ten years, the Harry Potter series by British female author J. K. Rowling attract a lot of attention. It all began from 1997, when Rowling published the first one of this series Harry Potter and the Sorcerer#8217;s Stone in the UK, which was listed on the top of the best-sellers soon. During the following 2 years, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were published one after another and made great Harry Potter waves around the world. The fourth one-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire-was published in the amount of 5,300,000 for the first edition, while the fifth one-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix-came out in June, 2003, and became the first English novel on the top of German and French best-sellers. The sixth book-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince-was published in 2005 and also achieved record sales with great ease. On 21st July 2007, with the issue of the seventh book-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-the whole novel series were officially done and translated into 69 languages and issued in more than 200 regions in the world.

Harry Potter series nowadays bring us a global trend of reading magic novels. This series has not only attracted numerous teenagers，but also a large number of adults. Why they can conquer so many people of the world and immerse into the fantastic unrealistic world? On the one hand, it has great relationship with the features of the novels themselves and the successful operation in business, but also largely depends on the British literary traditions and the aesthetic habit; on the other hand, it also has unbreakable relationship with English literature tradition, the consequential aesthetic habits, and, especially Gothic elements which are the distinguished highlight of the novel.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

Since the publication of the first book of the Harry Potter series, it attracts thousands of readers throughout the world by its convoluted plot and rich imagination. However, the Harry Potter series receive great popularity and the Gothic elements play an significant role in this novel．

This paper will analyze the success of Gothic style in the Harry Potter series from the perspective of Gothic traditions. The Gothic traditions in this novel are widely used and can be classified into three main parts: the Gothic theme, the unique setting，and the mysterious plot. Each of these Gothic traditions is important in either the structure or the content of this novel． In Harry Porter series, from plots to environment settings, from characters to writing technique, there are always the great charms of Gothic techniques. If we do not mention Gothic techniques, we cannot evaluate and appreciate the Harry Potter series. Moreover, the style of Harry Porter is not exactly the same with that of the traditional Gothic novels on the surface. Both the story scene, the plot design and the theme or characterization are closely related with the Gothic tradition. Rowling uses Gothic techniques ingeniously to serve her creation. It owns the unique sense of times of the 21st century, and carries out an innovation to the traditional Gothic elements in the new era background. The works reveals wit and humor and is full of love and warm. Harry Potter novel series success in applying Gothic techniques as well as its literary significance of worldwide popularity.

3. 国内外研究现状

as harry potter series wins world fame, it has also attracted a multitude of scholars all around the world to explore and conduct their research from a variety of aspects.

in western countries, many scholars conduct their researches on harry potter series from a variety of perspectives.for example, in the book harry potter#8217;s world: multidisciplinary critical perspectives, elizabeth heilman aggregates scholars fromvarious disciplines (literature, education, and other domains) to examine the harry potter books culturally, sociologically and psychologically, regarding it as both a social text and a cultural product. there is also study from the perspective of children#8217;s literature, such as reading harry potter: critical essays written by anatoly, providing the growing analysis of the book series by offering articles about the first four fictions from child development and social and moral values as well as literary and historical treatments. julia eccleshare#8217;s a guide to the harry potter novels studying j. k. rowling#8217;s books and considering some reasons for the phenomenal success of the series.

on the contrary, many scholars in china explore this series on its narrative strategies and the effects these techniques can achieve. li xin-hua and yan xian-bin#8217;s the art of narration in harry potter and the series conduct their research from narrative analysis. they study the narrative techniques which are applied in harry potter and the series. opposed to the traditional children writings which follow the linear and the unvarying teaching narration, harry potter series are very excellent in plot, structure as well as narration. ren shaoyun who titled his research as the study of narrative space in harry potter, analyzes the harry potter series from spatial narrative, spatial form and third space these three aspects, providing not only new view for the research on harry potter series, but also new proposition for the theory on narrative space.

the above statements show that the scholars both from western countries and china conduct their study about harry potter series from a myriad of aspects, making great contribution to the understanding for this famous book series. many scholars in their papers discuss the genre of the fiction. in their point of view, harry potter series can be seen as a school story, or as a crime novel, or as a fairy tale in modern society, or as a juvenile fantasy novel. all these above mentioned literary genres are quoted and modified to a certain degree by the author j.k. rowling herself.

4. 计划与进度安排

outline

1. introduction

5. 参考文献

[1]andrew smith. gothic literature [m]. edinburgh: edinburgh university press ltd, 2007

[2] david colbert. magical worlds of harry potter: a treasury of myths, legends, and fascinating facts [m]. uk: sagebrush education resources library, 2002.

[3] jerrold e. hogle. the cambridge companion to gothic fiction [m]. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1976.