That’s How We Do it in Gryffindor, Bitches: Sorting in the Harry Potter Fandom

Theme:
Formal Programming
What:
Lecture
When:
9:00 AM, Saturday 16 Jul 2011 EDT (50 minutes)
Where:
Loews Royal Pacific Resort - South China Sea
In this presentation, Heather explores how fans sort themselves and others into Hogwarts houses, what membership to a house communicates to other fans about one’s personality and how fans judge members of other houses, reinforcing their own house identities. She also looks at how house membership fluctuates during a fan’s lifetime, how differences in status affect house membership, and how house identity contributes to the overall unity of the Harry Potter fandom. Drawing on anthropological theories, Heather argues that division into separate house identities not only provides the fan with a group of like-minded people, but also provides unity within the fandom.
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