Harry Potter and Resistance

by Beth Sutton-Ramspeck

Although rule breaking in Harry Potter is sometimes dismissed as a distraction from Harry’s fight against Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter and Resistance makes the case that it is central to the battle against evil. Far beyond youthful hijinks or adolescent defiance, Harry’s rebellion aims to overcome problems deeper and more widespread than a single malevolent wizard. Harry and his allies engage in a resistance movement against the corruption of the Ministry of Magic as well as against the racist social norms that gave rise to Voldemort in the first place. Dumbledore’s Army and the Order of the Phoenix employ methods echoing those utilized by World War II resistance fighters and by the U.S. Civil Rights movement. The aim of this book is to explore issues that speak to our era of heightened political awareness and resistance to intolerance. Its interdisciplinary approach draws on political science, psychology, philosophy, history, race studies, and women’s studies, as well as newer interdisciplinary fields such as resistance studies, disgust studies, and creativity studies.

224 pages, Paperback

Published March 13, 2023

About the author

Beth Sutton-Ramspeck is a retired English professor, a Victorianist by training and a Potterhead through reading, teaching, research, and writing. Educated at Kenyon College, the University of California at Irvine, and Indiana University, she has taught at Southwest Texas State University (now called Texas State University), Virginia Tech, Millikin University, and The Ohio State University, where she was tenured and taught for 22 years.

While teaching at Virginia Tech, she happened on the novel Helbeck of Bannisdale, by Mary Ward (who published as "Mrs. Humphry Ward"). It changed her life, She fell head over heels in love with the novel, read more Ward books, and decided to return to graduate school (Indiana U), where she wrote her dissertation about Ward. Her tenure book at Ohio State branched out from Ward to include two contemporaries whose feminist credentials were more overt. That book was Raising the Dust.

After tenure, writing criticism seemed too painful, though she did continue editing books by Ward, because she wanted others to find the same pleasures she had. Then Sutton-Ramspeck was asked to teach a class in the Harry Potter books, started writing conference papers, and rediscovered her interest in lit. crit., also around the same time she became active in Democratic politics. Her interests cohered after the 2016 election, leading her to focus her Harry Potter book's thesis on rule-breaking as a form of resistance.