von Ella Keim

In more ways than one, the Harry Potter novels serve as proof that the fantastic as a mode of storytelling never exists independently from the ‘reality’ which it supposedly juxtaposes and “seems to find so frustratingly finite”¹. Fantasy literature can never fully escape the context(s) and conventions in which its narratives come to be – and nor does it claim to -, and it therefore both reveals and constructs that which we believe to be possible, and perhaps even more so, true. As for Harry Potter, “clear-cut and simplistic in [its] categorization of good and evil”² as it is, scholarship abounds with analyses of magical conventions and power structures and in how far these mirror political developments or disputes happening in the real world. The way the competing forces in the novels therefore claim and establish their positions of power, and the means they use to do so, prove as reflective of contemporary cultural and political anxieties³. One such particular issue is the implementation of surveillance technology as means of achieving safety and security. Increasing surveillance measures, or implementing them in the first place, is often criticised as oppressive and limiting freedom, not least because a position of power is necessary to do so⁴. In Harry Potter, practices of surveillance are as ubiquitous as they are covert. Hogwarts in particular, while initially presented as a positive, utopian space of endless magical possibility, places students under constant monitoring. The function of this is two-fold: On one hand, Dumbledore as kind-hearted and omniscient headmaster renders Hogwarts an affectively safe space that can withstand all forces of evil that try to penetrate it⁵; On the other hand, practices such as the appointment of prefects and head students or the house point system create a docile student body in the Foucauldian tradition wherein “[students] develop their obedience to rules, competitive spirits and faith in the academic system”⁶. In both cases, respective practices and concomitant power disparities are never generally questioned, albeit occasionally scoffed at, like when caretaker Mr. Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris’ monitoring of the school’s corridors get in the way of protagonist’s mischievous endeavours. However, because it is exactly these still rather innocent endeavours which constitute a major part of the narratives’ first four novels especially, it is inevitable that characters will try to undermine or contest their being placed under surveillance. By staying constantly vigilant and watchful of their teachers’ gaze, students come to utilise what is termed ‘countersurveillance’- the “intentional, tactical use, or disruptions of surveillance technologies to challenge institutional power asymmetries”⁷.

“Constant Vigilance!”: Instruments of (Counter)Surveillance and the Reconstruction of Hierarchy in Harry Potter weiterlesen →

1. Jackson, Rosemary. Fantasy – The Literature of Subversion. Routledge, 2009, p. 12 [↩]
2. Kullmann, Carsten. “Politics of Suppression and Violence in Fantastic Beasts.” The Ivory Tower, Harry Potter, and Beyond, edited by Lana A. Whited, University of Missouri Press, 2023, pp. 305–324, p. 320 [↩]
3. cf. Zock, T.H. “Cultural Anxieties in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: Evil and the Magic of Human Abilities.” At the Crossroads of Art and Religion. Imagination, Commitment, Transcendence, edited by Zock, Peeters, 2008, pp. 101–116, pp. 104–5 [↩]
4. cf. Walsh, James P. “Countersurveillance.” The Handbook of Social Control, edited by Mathieu Deflem, John Wiley & Sons, 2019, pp. 374–88, p. 374 [↩]
5. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Pottermore Publishing, 2015. Apple Books, pp. 151–52 [↩]
6. Chan, Aaron Yu Kwan. “Surveillance in Hogwarts: Dumbledore’s Balancing Act Between Managerialism and Anarchism.” Children’s Literature in Education, Springer, 2019, pp. 417–430, p. 422 [↩]
7. Monahan, Torin. “Counter-Surveillance as Political Intervention?” Social Semiotics, vol. 16, no. 4, 2006, pp. 515–34, https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330601019769, p. 515 [↩]