Annotated Bibliography

So. Long story short, Monday night I found out that someone had gotten a hold of my Amazon account and started buying all kinds of junk with my credit card information. I've spent the past two days in every level of you-know-where, so let's just skip ahead to the part where I finally upload that annotated bibliography and move on with the rest of my life. Sound good? Great. Let's go.

Wallace, David L., and Tison Pugh. “Teaching English in the World: Playing with Critical             Theory in J. K.        Rowling's Harry Potter Series”. The English Journal 96.3 (2007): 97–100. 

This particular article is one that my sister directed me towards (she’s a teacher and has all kinds of fun stuff saved to her computer) and reading it gave a really nice perspective… it also has a section dedicated to how gender plays a role in the books, which provides a possible route to discuss this in a classroom setting. Breaking it down simply enough that preteens and teens can think critically was actually really helpful to think about. The Works Cited page at the end was also really helpful. I’m excited to look more into some of those sources, too.

Cherland, Meredith. “Harry's Girls: Harry Potter and the Discourse of Gender”. Journal of Adolescent &         Adult Literacy 52.4 (2008): 273–282.

This article focused a lot on humanism playing into the series, and there were a lot of examples and specific quotations used throughout the text which I had already found for myself through reading the books. It did help sort of justify some of the things I had thought while reading, though.

Davila, Denise, and Lisa Patrick. “Research Directions: Asking the Experts: What Children Have to Say       About Their Reading Preferences”. Language Arts 87.3 (2010): 199–210. 

This went into the psychology behind reading choices, something that provided a lot of background for me to think about while continuing to read the books. The parts I liked the most were kind of scattered throughout the pages, here a little and there a little, if you will. But overall this is a helpful source to have because it gets outside of the text and focuses on the reader’s response.

Thomas, Melissa. “Teaching Fantasy: Overcoming the Stigma of Fluff”. The English Journal 92.5 (2003):      60–64.

This article is especially helpful because I wanted to delve into J.K. Rowling needing to change her name a bit to appear to be a male author. It specifically talks about women’s role in fantasy and how it’s been difficult for women to make their marks in this genre.

Martino, Wayne, and Michael Kehler. “Gender-based Literacy Reform: A Question of Challenging or Recuperating Gender Binaries”. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation 30.2 (2007): 406–431. 

What I highlighted from this article was probably the smallest amount of information compared to the other sources, but that small amount really packs a punch. It specifically mentions the impact of the cover of the book, and how literature tries to represent boys as the stereotypical males… mainly being physically active playing sports, leaping into the air, running, etc. The cover of Harry Potter, especially the first three, epitomize this theory.

Kazemek, Francis E.. “Is Something Wrong Here?”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 44.1 (2000): 16–18.

Honestly, I didn’t agree with this article at ALL, but I figured I needed to look on the other side and get some varying opinions. Basically, the only mention of Harry Potter in this article was the author stating that we might want to put aside the Harry Potter books and try something that challenges us to confront age and grief. I happen to think Harry Potter can do exactly that, but oh well, we’re all entitled to our opinions, and the source almost solidified my stance all the more.

Whited, L. A. The ivory tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a literary phenomenon. Columbia:    University of Missouri Press, 2002. Print

Oh my goodness gracious, this book was FACINATING. I had a hard time skimming it through without just wanting to dedicate my entire weekend to analyzing this book alone. I ended up printing off about twelve pages and I’m planning on spending more time with the rest of the book later, when I’m not supposed to be working on this research paper. So much goodness… it would take too long to explain it all, but it did spend a good chunk of the chapter exploring the names Rowling used… Dumbledore meaning bumblebee, Lily meaning purity, Hedwig meaning saint, and my personal favorite… Hermione meaning well-born.  

(If you happen to catch the irony behind Hermione’s name, just take a minute to marvel with me… I can’t believe I’ve gone my whole life NOT knowing this. Mudblood? I think NOT, Mr. Malfoy-whose-name-means-bad-faith!  *mic drop)

Mayes-Elma, Ruthann. Females and Harry Potter: Not All That Empowering. Lanham, MD: Rowman &         Littlefield, 2006. Print.

This also gave a good insight into the view that Harry Potter is NOT empowering for girls… I’ve found arguments for and against this, so this was just one example of many.

 So the format got a little messed up, but on my actual document there is a hanging indent. Sorry for the late post. :(