Hi!
I wanted to send out a recommendation for an AWESOME podcast that looks at Harry Potter from a critical yet adoring lens. It’s called Witch Please. http://ohwitchplease.ca/ The poem we looked at a few weeks ago, “Dear JK Rowling, From Cho Chang” made me think of this as well as when we talked about critically looking at texts in Brooke’s presentation on Everything, Everything. Harry Potter is something that I was raised on and love for many reasons, but also something I am quite critical of. I think it is important to help students understand that you can be drawn to something and still find flaws in it, and how looking at these flaws can help deconstruct some of the problematic societal constructs and structures that are perpetuated through our art and literature.
The podcast is hilarious and made me think through all of the books and movies in such an interesting way. I might not bring it into the classroom, maybe moments within it in, just because the language used is sometimes university level (they’re professors), but I would definitely recommend it for a template on how to deconstruct beloved yet problematic literature. That, and it’s just super fun and interesting.