HP-RL-TMI

[kennahijja]

Harry Potter, meet Real Life. Real Life - Harry Potter

Oookay, forgive me, I'm still kind of hyper. I've been thinking about possible topics for the class I'm going to teach next summer... Now 'British/Irish cultural studies' is a wiiiide field. I've just done two courses on Irish history and literature, and while I can waffle on about that for ages, it might get repetitive. Thought about Ireland and Film, the English Industrial Revolution, historical drama, Harry Potter... thought 'naaah, no way'.

This afternoon I went out to lunch with my prof (who's rather unfond of HP as it amasses all that money for the London Media grandes rather than for struggling Scottish publishing), and mentioned about this outlandish idea I had about a class on HP... And then he was quite keen on it, really, only worried about me ending up with tons of people wanting to do it. Which, yeah, is what happened with the Northern Ireland class as well, but was (surprisingly) manageable.

Now, I see the distinct downsides of trying to turn my free time obsession into a subject for analytical study (while not letting on about how deeply I'm into it, really). But then again, it's something I *know* so much about, and it can be taken in so many fascinating different directions... children's literature, novels of education, archetypal elements, the British book/bestseller market, British society and the regions, fantasy literature, book/film comparison, popular culture, the phenomenon of the internet fandom (which is *totally* unknown in German academia, or at least I've never even seen a hint of it mentioned)... Not to mentioned that the fifth film is advertised for July 2007...

Can you imagine how giddy I am? On the one hand I'd feel *safer* with Irish history of the 20th century, but teaching Harry Potter would be so incredibly *cool*! :). Damn! I wish I could think about this rationally...

Had lovely rucola salad with turkey strips and parmesan cheese for lunch too - and *no* alcohol, no matter how this sounds ;).

Comments

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're going to have a lovely time! Enjoy! There will be downsides - but what hasn't?

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

True - what hasn't ;). I so hope this'll work out ;).

[liriaen.livejournal.com]

Hayull, go for it! Of course you could come to the point where you rue the day, but I think it'd be neat! (which is *totally* unknown in German academia, or at least I've never even seen a hint of it mentioned) My friend treated me to a handful of high-handed excerpts from social studies publications which deal with slash and the 'nets, so yes, there's stuff out there. Should you have need, give me a yell and I'll ask her to dig it out. :)

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

German language material, or English? Of course I'm interested in both, but I've seen quite a few English-language studies, but nothing comparative in German. That said, I haven't systematically looked for a while, so they might have caught up... Either way, if it's no trouble... Even if I can't use it, I'm interested in it for its own sake.

[liriaen.livejournal.com]

German, if I recall correctly. I'll try to round it up!

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

That'd be lovely! No hurry at all, though. You write your 50 sentences first ;).

[liriaen.livejournal.com]

37 down! I shall conquer. All this blade wielding Kurosawa-style makes me oddly horny though. *hrnh*

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Hm... if it's 50 sentences of pr0n, that might not be too bad ;).

[liriaen.livejournal.com]

Ah, uh, not really. Pr0n's involved, but well... you'l see =)

[dreamer-marie.livejournal.com]

Wow! That should be cool, especially when you get assignments which go like "write Ron/Lucius smut" :-)

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Woe! That'd give me away in a lot more ways than I'd be comfortable with ;))). Though it would be so cool ;).

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lady_narcissa_/]

Very fun! I think it would be cool if you could work the HP books in a class with other books - either other children's books or other fantasy literature. A lot of people will be attracted to the class because of the HP books but I imagine a lot of them will have already read them so it would be a good way to use HP to lure them into discovering new books for them. And it would be interesting to place them in context with other books.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Mmh - that sounds quite interesting, especially for project work...

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

Go for it! The universe doesn't often hand out chances like that.

I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

MM

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I will ;). I just hope I'll not get over-enthusiastic ;).

[masterofmercury.livejournal.com]

Go for it! Go for it! That'll be fun to teach.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Yep. Am so giddy ;).

[fourth_rose]

Oh, you're going to have so much fun :)

the phenomenon of the internet fandom (which is *totally* unknown in German academia, or at least I've never even seen a hint of it mentioned)

It can't be totally unknown, at least not among historians, because every international conference on medieval history I've attended so far had sections about Tolkien, HP, or both, and the existence of the internet fandom has been a topic on such occasions several times. I think that especially in the German-speaking countries, many scholars who know about it just don't want to admit it to their colleagues ;)

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

You could be on to something there ;). Of course I can only go by my limited experiences, but I've never seen the concept of fandom creep up anywhere outside publications/essay collections from English-speaking countries... Then of course popular culture as such isn't really strong hereabouts in the first place... Classes on mainstream film was the most 'current' I ever took as a student, and even there it was looked at as something dodgy. But the net as a research subject instead of a research tool... nope. I've done a bit of library digging after talking slash/sex/violence with the_dark_twin a while back, and came up absolutely empty. I don't know if it's due to 'don't know about' or 'don't talk about' ;). And it's so bloody *interesting* even without coming from the PoV of a fandomer :).

[cutecoati.livejournal.com]

*is so jealous*

Me wants teach it, too!!!

which is *totally* unknown in German academia, or at least I've never even seen a hint of it mentioned

Hmmm... I wouldn't go that far - I did several classes on contemporary movies, mainstream cinema etc. when I was at the university (and that was *sigh* about 17 years ago).

But then, as you said, the vast majority of research on internet and popular culture in general is happening in the English-speaking countries... perhaps it's also a bit due to the fact that most of the fanfiction is both ON English books/movies/TV series (LotR, HP, Star Trek, etc.) and IN English?

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

I did several classes on contemporary movies, mainstream cinema etc. when I was at the university (and that was *sigh* about 17 years ago).

So did I, oh, well, ten years ago :). But fandom (as in, internet fandom) never cropped up back then, although that was about the time I discovered my first fandoms online. I'd have expected it to crop up in time somewhere in an English department at least, but no luck so far... Though liriaen said above she'd come across some sociological studies in German - I'm dead curious about this (haven't looked systematically for material in quite some time, though...

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

Ah, I must admit, I'm kind of envious. It's not often you get the opportunity to work with your obsessions, after all. I'm sure it will be great fun, and interesting. You have to keep us updated on how it goes. :-)

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Will sure do :).

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Eee, you'd be such an expert!

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a lot of context I need to become an expert for yet, but I still have a year to do it :).

[chthonya]

Oh wow. Can we come and watch? ;)

Seriously, this sounds fantastic. Weren't you and I e-chatting a couple of years ago about the lack of attention to HP/popular culture in German academia? I think it was round about the time of the call for papers for Nimbus or Accio... Way to carve out a niche for yourself, should you want it, now that you have more experience of/confidence in taking classes. ;)

(And I hope this means that you'll make it to Sectus or Accio08 in a paper-giving capacity. OT, but I'd love to see someone do a paper on the varying academic responses to HP!)

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. Can we come and watch? ;)
*snickers*
Thea actually threatened to do that (and she's capable of it too...). I so hope it's going to happen (I mean, a year from now's a long time...).

Mmh, I remember ranting about this a while back, but haven't systematically searched for material for a while - there's probably something now :).

I've had a longing eye on Sectus ever since it's been announced, though mid-July is of course middle of classes... but I'm pretty determined to go at least!

[annephoenix.livejournal.com]

So .... you'll have a paper to present at Sectus, then? :p

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

*wriggles like worm in the salad washer*
Um... ehm... ask me again when January is a bit closer? Not a matter of no topic, more a matter of no time ;).