And finally, Harry’s eyes are eroticised as fetish for Snape. Furthermore, Moody has not only a secret identity he gets a perverse kick from pain and transfiguration.

Lupin’s second nature as werewolf is a secret that references closeted homosexuality and AIDS.

Lockhart’s role-conception follows the Sissy-stereotype from the Classic Hollywood era. There is Quirrell’s lavender turban and his double-identity as host for Voldemort. Every DADA teacher turns out to be hiding something, has a secret identity, and is untrustworthy, evil or at least strange. It is important to note that all six possible role-models to the hero are defined by their highly ambivalent character. Apart from his relationship with Albus Dumbledore, Harry’s encounters with these teachers are the most important lessons during his way into adulthood. It was concluded that the novels present us to a posthumanist pespective of human/animal relations, which enables a Lévinasian ethics which would welcome any Other, be it human or animal.Įvery Hogwarts school year is defined by Harry Potter’s new teacher for Defence Against the Dark Arts (DADA): Quirinus Quirrell, Gilderoy Lockhart, Remus Lupin, Moody/Barty Crouch Jr., Dolores Umbridge, and Severus Snape. The Harry Potter series was analysed by means of identifying literary moments crucial to the narrative that also resonate with the posthumanist theory highlighted from such authors. Coetzee were selected in order to try to map a range of possibile understandings of what has been called “the question of the animal” - which also includes reflections on ethics and compassion towards this animal Other. As theoretical ground for this reading, writings from thinkers such as Martin Heidegger, Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Lévinas, Michel Foucault and J. Rowling in order to try to prove that such representations outline posthumanist conceptions of animality and, consequently, of humanity. The analysis undertaken here was carried out with the intent of identifying how non-human animals are represented in the Harry Potter series of seven novels by author J.

House elf harry potter