Monday Missive – August 6, 2018

August 06, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive
Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Harry Potter with Balaka Basu — Twenty years ago next month J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in America for the first time.  The book appeared in Great Britain in 1997 under the title of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but when Scholastic published the book in the United States in September 1998 they changed the name of the magical stone mentioned in the title.  The book and the six additional Harry Potter books that followed it became so popular that they helped define an entire generation of young Americans.

This phenomenon is the focus of Balaka Basu’s forthcoming collection titled The Harry Potter Generation in the World:  Critical Essays, which Balaka co-edited with Emily Lauer.  I contacted Balaka and asked her for more information about this collection.  Here is her response:

The idea for our Harry Potter collection emerged when we realized that our students, many of whom had grown up reading the Harry Potter series, had commonalities of experience that seemed to be defined by their exposure to these texts and their iterations on page and screen. While sometimes referred to as millennials and sometimes as the 9/11 generation, we believe this series of novels has also been a generation-defining event.  J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series transformed a generation of young people into readers. Initially a literary community where fans of the series could interact with one another in unprecedented ways, Harry Potter fandom grew into a transmedia phenomenon and eventually a ubiquitous, culture-defining era. Twenty years later, the Harry Potter generation has come of age, poised to become parents, teachers, writers, scholars, and critics. As the essays in this collection observe, this generation uses the abundant knowledge and purposeful lessons absorbed from Rowling’s immensely popular narrative to negotiate their life experiences as they take their places as society’s adults.

Balaka’s collection is scheduled to be published at the end of 2018, just in time to be included in the celebrations surrounding the 20th anniversary Harry Potter’s American debut.

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Aaron Gwyn‘s The World Beneath has been selected as a featured book by the UNC Charlotte Alumni Book Club.

Daniel Shealy recently delivered a paper titled “Marrying the Marches: Modern Matrimony in Little Women,” at Orchard House, Home of the Alcotts, Summer Conversational Series, in Concord, MA.

Suzi Spillane, a recent graduate of our M.A. program in literature, has accepted a full-time teaching position at Catawba Valley Community College.

Upcoming Events and Meetings  Here is a list of upcoming events and meetings related to the start of the fall 2018 semester:

–University Convocation Thursday, August 16    8:30am reception in Lucas Room/9:30am-11:00am Convocation in McKnight Hall

–Classes Begin                   Monday, August 20    Classes begin at 5:00pm/First day of daytime classes is on August 21
–CLAS All Faculty Mtg      Friday, August 24       8:30am-12:00pm in McKnight Hall

–English Department Mtg   Friday, September 7    11:00am-12:30pm in Fretwell 280C (English Department Conference Room)

Quirky Quiz Question — Scholastic is the American publisher of the Harry Potter series.  Do you know the name of the British publisher of the Harry Potter series?

Last week’s answer: Cats in the Cradle
“Taxi” was Harry Chapin’s first hit single.  One of his other hit singles is a song about the relationship between a father and his son over the course of many years.  What is the title of this song?