Trust, friendship and Hogwarts houses: an ethnography of Harry Potter fans

Date
2011
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Abstract
Millions of people worldwide have enjoyed reading the Harry Potter books and watching the film adaptations. Some enjoyed the series so much they actively participate with the text and interact with others sharing their mutual interest. This thesis explores the community of Harry Potter fans and how cross-cutting ties contribute to group cohesion. It also explores the pervasive sense of trust within the Harry Potter fandom and how trust contributes to group membership and fandom unity. I draw on participant observation and qualitative interview data collected during my fieldwork with Harry Potter fans during the summer of 2010. I argue that the Harry Potter fans have memberships in overlapping subgroups. These subgroups help build a unified community that is similar to the close-knit community that Harry Potter experiences at Hogwarts and yet is at odds with the social structure of the non-fandom lives of fans.
Description
Bibliography: p. 151-161.
A few pages are in colour.
Includes a copy of Ethics Review forms. Originals with original copy of Partial Copyright Licence.
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Citation
Dunphy, H. V. (2011). Trust, friendship and Hogwarts houses: an ethnography of Harry Potter fans (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/4226
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