A Study On The Group Of Co-Culture And The Group Of Dominant Culture Of Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets From The Perspective Of Intercultural Nonverbal Communication

Intercultural communication includes Intercultural verbal communication and Intercultural nonverbal communication. Intercultural verbal communication focuses on discourse communication, while Intercultural nonverbal communication is concern about nonverbal behavior, such as body language. More and more attentions have been paid in intercultural nonverbal research which is an insatiable part of intercultural communication. Intercultural communication researches have developed greatly and achieved great success in the past20or30years. The co-cultural theory-a theory on the intercultural communication researches is proposed by American scholar Mark P.Orbe in1998.The story of Harry Potter is about a child who was very brave and strong goes on adventure to face with and fight against the evils. After Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone the first volume in Harry Potter Series was published and listed the top one of the best-sellers in U.K, the female author J.K.Rowling soon published the second book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The story attracts both children and adults’attention in the world. As for the research of Harry Potter series, previous studies have been done a lot from the perspective of translation, literature, and so on. However, the research on the novel from the perspective of intercultural nonverbal communication has seldom been done.From the perspective of co-cultural theory, one of the theories of intercultural communication, on the basis of intercultural nonverbal communication, with the method of qualitative analysis and induction, this thesis attempts to choose the co-cultural group in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the examples and focuses on how they communicate with the dominant group in the points of appearance and dress, eye contact and gaze, interpersonal space and distance, paralanguage, as well as body language. The characters for the co-cultural group in the novel are muggles (no magic human) and non-muggles (who have the magic)-house-elves, ghosts, squils (born in the magic family but no magic) and animals in the magic world. The dominant group in the novel is wizards and witchcrafts in the magic world. There is communication between male and female magicians in the magical world. The thesis involves five chapters. Chapter1introduction, it includes the background of J.K Rowling and her works, as well as significance, research methodology and organization of thesis. Chapter2literature review, it contains the studies on the novel abroad and in China. Chapter3theoretical foundation, it summarizes that definition and functions of intercultural nonverbal communication, and the relationship to culture, as well as co-cultural theory; the co-cultural group and the dominant group are pointed out. Chapter4intercultural nonverbal behaviors in the co-cultural group and the group of dominant culture of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from the five parts above mentioned. Chapter5conclusion, it concludes findings and points out limitations as well as gives hints for further study.