Juxtaposition And Parody: Construction Of The Secondary World In Harry Potter Series

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the English author J.K. Rowling. It is a children literature work, which has fantastic property melted withreality and fantasy. On its publication, the series has achieved an astonishingpopularity and commercial success worldwide; the phenomenon of Harry Potter hasswept the whole planet and brought new life back into book reading.Harry Potter series, taking children as their protagonists, has received favorsfrom adults as well as children all over the world. The series has been translated into67languages and achieved a huge commercial success, making it the best-sellingbook series in history. One important reason for its popularity lies in the successfulconstruction of the secondary world. Secondary world is a literary concept proposedby J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. According to Tolkien, it ishard to achieve a secondary world in fantasy literature; most fantastic worlds comeout half-baked. The series of Harry Potter books convinces the readers in a tone ofmatter-of-fact that a wizarding world coexists with the real world of our own.According to Tolkien’s theory on fairy stories, Rowling is proved to be a successful“sub-creator”, who creates an attractive Secondary World. This world is full ofmagical things and meanwhile includes real cultural elements. The Secondary Worldcoexists with Primary World in Harry Potter series. Common people and magicalbeings inhabit the same space. And Rowling attempts many writing skills to make hersecondary world credible. When reading this imaginary story, readers are willing tobelieve it and put themselves into the story. They are easily fascinated by the story,then get rid of pressure and get into a fantastic world with truth and implied meanings.During the course of reading, readers could obtain the new enlightenment of life.The explosive global response to the series has made the books the subject ofliterary criticism. Up till now many critics have researched on the novels fromdifferent perspectives but few have paid attention to the construction of the secondaryworld in the series of the books, let alone the value of them in realizing a fantasticsecondary world. This thesis attempts to interpret Harry Potter books from this perspective in terms of Tolkien’s aesthetics of fairy stories, which is very influential inthe research of fairy tales.The Harry Potter series on the one hand depicts the Wizarding World as a spaceof fantasy, inhabited by the other; on the other hand, this sphere also serves as anaccurate reflection of our contemporary society. Through juxtaposition and parody,Rowling forces readers back into thinking about social realities in the real worldwhiling offering an escape from that world.The present study hopes to shed light on the construction of that magical butcredible world of Harry Potter books to further help readers be aware of thesignificance of the secondary world’s construction in realizing a successful imaginedworld in children’s literature.