The Irresistible Rise of Harry Potter
As the British state begins to unravel, and as journalists compete to pronounce on the death of Britain, a schoolboy from suburban Surrey who lives for most of the year in a semi-parallel universe... This description may be from another edition of this product.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:1859846661
ISBN13:9781859846667
Release Date:December 2002
Publisher:Verso
Length:120 Pages
Weight:0.53 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 5.5" x 7.8"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
why now?
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
This is an excellent and subtle, but unfortunately too brief (hence four stars), overview of the Harry Potter craze. The main question Blake seeks to answer is: why now? Why and how did the Harry Potter series become so popular and why now? He situates the books in historical context--easier said than done. There was much going on in English culture and education that contributed to the books' success. Beginning in the mid-90s, Blake looks less at the books' possible past textual sources and spends more time exploring the books' contemporary cultural sources. I'm currently teaching a university course with _Azkaban_ as a text and may assign readings from Blake's book as secondary reading, both as overview of what came before and as an example of how to read carefully and respect a text and its attendant complications.
So that is why Harry is so popular!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
I would rate this as a tie for the most interesting book on this phenomenon of those I have read so far. This book looks at the cultural and political timing that seems to have made Harry the irresistible darling of the literacy efforts in the UK and since in many respects those things are duplicated in the US, voila, Harry is irresistible there also.
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