I'm very excited to announce that I have now been officially awarded the Degree of Master of Philosophy following the submission of the final copy of my thesis to the University of Bristol's e-thesis collection. Embarking on a research degree has been such a rich and fulfilling experience. I quickly realised that it is nothing like studying a taught degree, and that part of the process is to learn how to be a researcher and to manage the challenges and opportunities of a completely independent project. I became very ill towards the end of my first year which presented a further challenge - I am grateful to all those and the University, who supported me through this and enabled me to finish my research project. I am now working in a role where I get to help other students navigate the research degree process so I am finding this particularly rewarding. My thesis is available to read online and you can find the abstract below:
The Harry Potter film franchise and the representation of traditional Britishness: a paratextual study, 2000 - 2011
The relationship between film and national identity is an enduring topic of scholarly interest. Focusing on British national identity in particular, Sarah Street discusses the important role of film: ‘we have inherited a dominant conception of what it is to be British…which has, in part, been constructed by cultural referents including cinema’ (2009: 1). With this in mind, what role might the British characters and settings in the hugely successful Harry Potter film franchise have played in forming ideas about British national identity?
This thesis uses textual analysis of the Harry Potter film paratexts (promotional materials surrounding the films) in an attempt to answer this question. Phil Wickham explains the usefulness of this approach arguing that analysing these types of materials ‘can make meaning and provide historical evidence of the place of a film in its world and in the lives of those who saw it’ (2010: 316). These texts can tell us how the film’s visual representations of traditional Britishness were framed for audiences at the time, even for those who never even ended up seeing the films.
This thesis presents an analysis of paratexts surrounding the first and final two films of the series. This provides a sense of how the series’ representations of traditional Britishness were first introduced to audiences and how their legacy was later established through long-standing experiential paratexts.
