{"id":5380,"date":"2016-11-18T16:17:56","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T21:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=5380"},"modified":"2016-11-18T16:17:56","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T21:17:56","slug":"visit-to-harry-potter-conference-exposes-professor-to-fandom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2016\/11\/18\/visit-to-harry-potter-conference-exposes-professor-to-fandom\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit to Harry Potter Conference exposes professor to fandom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HPa\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Shoulder to shoulder with Dumbledore, muggles and students of Hogwarts, Visiting Assistant Professor of English Tara Moore presented her research, \u201cI Will Tell You Where You Ought To Be: Sorting Identity in Young Adult Dystopian Literature,\u201d as part of the Harry Potter Conference and Festival taking place in Chestnut Hill in October.<\/p>\n

Moore is scheduled to teach a Young Adult Literature course in spring 2017 at Elizabethtown College. Teaching her students from novels along the lines of \u201cMortal Engines,\u201d \u201cI Kill Giants,\u201d \u201cRed Queen\u201d and, of course, Harry Potter, brings the writing of current authors into the classroom.<\/p>\n

A segment of her Young Adult Literature course focuses on fandom or a deep interest in a subject that occupies large portions of a fan\u2019s time and energy. \u201cI\u2019m scheduled to teach young adult literature,\u201d said Moore. \u201cPart of that is the fandom and hype that surrounds that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a participant in the festival, Moore gathered insight into the phenomenon of fandom, noting that reader dedication to the Harry Potter series was evident in some of the festival workshops she attended. Ardent fans became animated and passionate as they discussed finer points of the author\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n

\n

They feel like friends even though they don\u2019t know each other.”<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"HPb\"<\/a>\"HPc\"<\/a>Hardcore fans have gone as far as adopting, as sacred text, literary narratives that were intended as entertainment, she said. \u201cIt has become their life philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fandom is not a new phenomenon, Moore said. It goes back as far as mid-Victorian writing. Charles Dickens\u2019s fans obsessed over his serialized novels.\u00a0 Toward the end of his career, he pleased many fans by performing readings of his work for British and American audiences.<\/p>\n

Though fandom might sound over the top to some, the professor said, as a common denominator it brings together people from varying backgrounds. \u201cThey feel like friends even though they don\u2019t know each other,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a sense of belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Moore said several young adult book series written in the past couple decades have centered on bringing children together and labeling them as distinct groups. \u201cThese are irrevocable choices,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Harry Potter series, a seven-book young adult series written by J.K. Rowling, is an example of the type of sorting Moore discussed in her presentation at the conference. The students of Hogwarts are chosen to be part of a \u201chouse,\u201d in which they will live and learn throughout their time at the fictional school. An eighth book, \u201cHarry Potter and the Cursed Child,\u201d released this fall, is a series-inspired play.<\/p>\n

Young adult literature is growing in popularity most likely due to the inter-generational component — parents trying to have a shared literary appreciation, Moore said. Teaching current authors helps students explore i<\/span>nterest in this form of literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shoulder to shoulder with Dumbledore, muggles and students of Hogwarts, Visiting Assistant Professor of English Tara Moore presented her research, \u201cI Will Tell You Where You Ought To Be: Sorting Identity in Young Adult Dystopian Literature,\u201d as part of the Harry Potter Conference and Festival taking place in Chestnut Hill in October. Moore is scheduled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,8],"tags":[490,260,1128],"class_list":["post-5380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","category-features","tag-achievements-2","tag-english","tag-feature","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5380"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5406,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions\/5406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}