In 1967, the French literary critic, Roland Barthes wrote an essay called ‘The Death of the author’. In it, he tries to communicate that any piece of writing has a life of its own. He states that all texts are “tissues of quotations” since each word we write enters our vocabulary from somewhere else. He also states that the author does not have absolute knowledge over a text because there is always scope for multiple interpretations and one simply cannot “fix meaning”. This essay is important because it evoked a sense of experimentation within writers of the time. They began to question their own influence upon their characters. Were their characters mirroring their own lives or did they have individual agency? Writers like John Fowles went as far as writing multiple endings to their novels and letting the audience choose the one that they liked the best, to minimise his own authority in the lives of the characters.
In J.K. Rowling’s writing, you can clearly see the influence of her own understanding on her characters. They are all limited to certain races and genders and are unable to explore the boundaries of their individual sexuality because the author quite clearly doesn’t want them to. So, while this series is, quite frankly, magical and truly does strike a chord with its reader, in the 21st century, it’s hard to imagine that her audience has to actually interpret Dumbledore as gay because she never actually allows him the agency to explore his identity in her writing.
This is also why Rowling’s recent transphobic comments should come as no surprise to the reader. The lack of representation is clearly due to her lack of understanding of their lives of members of the LGBTQ+ community.
So here, we come back to the age-old question- can we separate art from the artists? In my opinion, our desire to do so is itself counterproductive. Knowing that Harry Potter lacks in inclusivity and diversity does not ruin the magical world but instead, allows us to correct a wrong. It allows us to mention the LGBTQ+ community every single time we talk about the series and in turn, include those who have been alienated. There’s also an idea of cancelling the series entirely, but then not only would that be impossible since the it has the magical world has manifested itself in the form of movies, plays, museums. But also, it stops us from being able to spread awareness and talk about why representation is important. Removing something completely is far easier than sitting down and having a conversation about injustice, don’t you think?
So, since the author is very much alive and rambling on Twitter, if you do read Harry Potter, please buy it second hand or borrow the book. If you are keen to post or talk about this magical universe, mention how the LGBTQ+ community has been completely removed from the narrative and how that reduces the beauty and presence of the novels. We don’t have to separate the art from the artist, we have to learn how to hold our authors and people in power accountable for the words they utter and the stories they tell.
Every single time you talk about the Harry Potter universe, mention Rowling’s erasure of the diverse LGBTQ+ community and her discriminatory tweets so she no longer holds any power. We do.
