Harry Potter: capitalist neo-liberal or anti-globalist lefty?
Jul 05, 2004
Uncategorized
The Independent reports on a debate in the French periodical Le Monde, which started three weeks ago when Ilias Yocaris, maître de conférences of French literature at the Institut Universitaire de Formation de Maîtres in Nice deemend the “fantasy universe of Harry Potter … a capitalist universe”, stuffed with “neo-liberal stereotypes” which caricature approvingly the “excesses of the Anglo-Saxon social model”. Far from being a capitalist lackey, Harry Potter is, in fact, the first fictional hero of the anti-globalist, anti-free market, pro-Third World, “Seattle” generation, Isabelle Smadja, who teaches philosophy at the Lycée Loritz in Nancy, believes.
Mme Smadja suggests M. Yocaris has been confused by the Potter books being such a global, commercial and marketing success. Examination of the text suggests they are, in fact, a “ferocious critique of consumer society and the world of free enterprise”.