The Gothicization of the Harry Potter Series

Abstract

THE GOTHICIZATION OF THE HARRY POTTER SERIES: THE PROGRESSIVE TRANSPOSITION OF THE GOTHIC INTO THE FILMS Abstract In this paper I shall argue that the Harry Potter cinematographic adaptations of J. K. Rowling's novels gradually enacts a transgeneric crossing of the Gothic into the genre of the fantastic. Specifically, by utilizing Robert Mighall's argument that the "Gothic is a process, not an essence; a rhetoric rather than a store of universal symbols", I shall argue that such a transposition is progressively achieved by means of the representation of an imagery clearly recalling Gothic settings, figures and atmospheres, and through the use of a series of thematic preoccupations that are usually present in Gothic texts. According to the critic Robert Mighall, "The Gothic is a process, not an essence; a rhetoric rather than a store of universal symbols; an attitude to the past and the present, not a free floating...