I'll just start my talk.
Strange worlds, secondary worlds, fantastic worlds.
Worlds familiar to us and yet defamiliarized through the element of magic.
Fantastic literature often invites us to think outside the box of normality
and explore several what-if scenarios.
What if people could actually use magic?
What if our world was not how we think it was?
What if there existed a multitude of worlds out there?
Archaic worlds, worlds with dragons, worlds of magic.
All too often these worlds transforming to the arena in which
deadly battles between good and evil take place.
Fantastic literature for children and young adults tends to reduce
these central dichotomies to their basic levels.
For example, evil antagonists are regularly symbolizing evil in its purest form.
Magic and magical elements help the child and teenage protagonists
to defeat their opponents and make the world a better place.
Being touched by a supernatural element often culminates in the
chosenness of the hero or heroine.
Her partner is destined to save the world from Lord Voldemort's clutches.
Will and Lyra in Philip Pullman's estate materials are designated to keep dust
and hence a fundamental part of human nature from being destroyed.
There is an unbelievably huge number of supernatural elements in fantasy literature.
If we only scratch the surface, we will discover word magic,
magical creatures and magical objects.
Magic also symbolizes power, and power repeatedly seduces characters
to turn their backs on rules and socially accepted behavior.
It enables the antagonists to create their own world order with them
on top of their social hierarchy.
I aim to provide you with a rough profile of supernatural elements
in literature for children and young adults.
How they are manifested, what they signify for the characters,
and ultimately what they mean or might mean for the reader.
The Harry Potter series is only one example among many
how supernatural elements change the protagonist's world.
When Harry's magical abilities manifest themselves,
it becomes obvious that he is no longer part of the normal world,
but that he now belongs to another world, an elitist world.
His new sphere is filled with unfamiliar abilities and wonder.
Not only is Hogwarts an exclusive school,
but the wizarding society exists completely separate and hidden from the normal world.
It has its own newspapers, for example, Daily Prophet,
its own mailing system, you all know all poets, don't you?
Its own national sport, which is Quidditch.
Its own currency, so gallons, sickles, nuts.
Its own system of social strata, basically its own social microcosm.
J.K. Rowling creates a very complex world.
Most of all, the little things are intriguing in Casterius' intention,
like tents, which are far bigger from the inside and from the outside,
or purses, in which you can store an unlimited amount of items.
Wouldn't that be fabulous in our world?
His special emphasis lies on word magic.
To successfully accomplish a magical spell,
the witch of wizard needs to speak the magic,
Latin-sounding words like vingardium leviosa or expecto patronum.
Rowling does not, however, create a new language like talking did,
or Christopher Fellini tries to do.
The word magic, as well as the existence of magic
and its consequences, are never explained or challenged.
To quote Suman Gupta,
In the magic world, things and qualities are simply manifest.
They just are so.
There is no need, no ability, no desire, no will to explain why.
They are so.
There seems to be an inner magical power which is channeled through the wand.
Before Harry starts his life at Hogwarts,
the reader witnesses how magic kind of leaks out of Harry.
For example, when his hair grows, quote, all over the place.
Or when he makes glasses appear in the zoo without wanting to.
He said, Hogwarts, witches and wizards in the go magical training
to control and strengthen their abilities.
Waring schools are a very popular motive in fantasy literature
for children and young adults.
And to re-cannivate the Black Magician Strategy, for example,
magical training is vital for the survival of the young magicians.
Otherwise, they may destroy themselves,
war and unleash their magical force on the population.
This also holds for P.C. Cass and Christine Cass's House of Night novels.
Without being surrounded by adult vampires at school,
a young vampire fledgling might reject the change into a full vampire and die.
For Harry, magic enables him to break the shackles of slavery in his old home,
experience social acknowledgement,
rise to his full potential and even gain heroic status.
As soon as he enters the wizarding world,
he has to learn that all that leaders is not gold.
The specialness of magic has its own often fatal seductive appeal.
At Hogwarts, he meets Professor Krull,
who turns out to be one of Voldemort's minions.
Like every other member of the dark side,
Krull regards himself as uber-human, as homo-superior.
And in his opinion, rules like not killing a unicorn
and not killing Harry Potter do not longer apply to him.
Further, he feels the compelling draw of power
and justifies its deeds with the following sentence.
Quote, there is no good and evil,
there is only power and there is too weak to seek it.
End of quote.
So the end justifies the means, no matter what.
The notion of might makes right culminates in the seventh book,
and magic is might.
The might to enslave and kill the less powerful race of mobiles.
Voldemort aims to purify the magical society
and its long-term goal, the whole world,
in order to establish the magical race at the further development of the human race
and hence the crowning of creation in general.
Some might know that from the X-Men series.
Symington correctly states that this, quote,
fascist ideology primarily characterizes the evil of the dark side.
End quote.
Rowling regularly emphasized that Voldemort's magical abilities
exceed those of normal was reached by far.
Therefore, he's strong enough to pose a real threat to the whole world.
With the expression that Voldemort has moved, quote, beyond usual evil, end quote,
Rowling acknowledges on the one hand that Voldemort is incredibly powerful
and hard to stop, and on the other hand,
she challenges the reader with the notion that there is a usual evil in the world
which needs to be confronted and overcome by each individual.
The supernatural element of magic in fantasy fiction for children and adults
repeatedly shows how the threshold of using violence is lowered.
As I've just pointed out, evil wizards in the Harry Potter books
use the fact that they possess magical abilities to justify racial segregation
and to actually kill muggles.
Possessing magical strength often tempts the bearer to test one's power on weaker individuals.
As seen in Voldemort's regular torture of his minions
and also seen in Trudy Canavan's The Black Magician Trilogy
when a gang of students abuses the protagonist, Sonea, due to her lower social status.
Often these torture methods do not leave any outward scars.
Some just in truth, the mind, and as shown in Canavan's trilogy
or in Christopher Paulini's The Inheritance Cycle
create an extremely effective illusion of pain.
As a result of the combination of the use of mental and not physical power
and the lack of our sense of abuse, many predators feel encouraged
to use this abstract method of violence without dirtying their hands.
In the wrong hands, magic is revealed as a very powerful and dangerous weapon.
While Voldemort and his regime glorify magic, characters like Petunia Dursley demonize it.
From the beginning, the Dursleys abuse Harry
and they permanently remind him that he's not a real part of their family.
As Elaine Austrie states,
Harry is a classical outcast child, a fairy tale, a myth in the ranks of Cinderella.
Well, at least in the beginning.
Being a person who is touched by a supernatural element,
Harry becomes the other to his family.
Most of all, Petunia and Vernon perceive him as a threat to their concept of normality.
Petunia even labels him as being abnormal and a freak.
And identification of otherness often functions as an indicator for fear and envy.
Fear for the unknown and envy for the powerful abilities.
In Petunia's case, Rhea knows it's both.
Well, at least if she or she had read the last book.
Harry's otherness, however, is not only manifested in the distinction between muggle and wizard.
It further plays an important role in the wizarding society as such.
Harry differs from all other wizards because he's been marked by Voldemort
and was thereby chosen to defeat his arch enemy.
Like many other fantasy heroes, Harry has to learn that being the chosen one is met as much a privilege as a burden.
He repeatedly saved the world from Voldemort's evil plans.
This, however, is not achieved without blood and sweat and tears.
In the final book, the weight of his task is almost too much for him to bear.
Unlike Frodo in The Lord of the Rings,
however, Harry decides to fulfill his destiny and willingly freeze the world from evil.
In his dark materials, Philip Pullman creates a multitude of worlds.
Some include supernatural elements, some don't.
Within Lyra's world, Rhea discovers a matriarchal society which uses magic as their main tool, which are the witches.
Another supernatural element for us, as readers and for others from other worlds, is the manifestation of a person's soul, which is the demon in Pullman's books.
My focus, however, lies on the instruments of power, which Pullman introduces to us.
The Aletheometer, which is the truth meter, and the saddle knife.
These two instruments follow a rich tradition of magical tools, which help the bearer to achieve his task.
We can even find them within traditional fairy tales.
For example, the Brothers Grimm's The Magic Table, the Gold Donkey, and the Cattle on the Sack,
which the Cattle on the Sack helps the third brother to regain the other brother's treasures.
An example from fantasy literature for children and young adults are the tools that Peter, Susan, and Lucy get from Father Christmas in C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Father Christmas puts special emphasis on the fact that, quote, there are tools, not toys, unquote.
The same accounts for Lyra's truth reader.
This instrument is not especially designed for her.
It can be read by anyone.
Lyra is the only one, however, who can read it, quote, by grace, unquote.
Which means that the meaning of the symbols just reveal themselves to her.
It helps Lyra to accomplish her task.
And this is the only period of time in which Lyra can use the Aleithometer without the assistance of books which explain the multilayer symbols to her.
After she has prevented dust from leaking out of the world, she loses the intuitive ability to read the instrument and has to regain it by work.
Her possession of this instrument is not linked to a sacrifice in a statement contrast to Will and his subtle knife.
Like the one that chooses Harry, the subtle knife chooses Will as its new bearer.
His instrument of power cripples its bearer with a special mark.
Will uses two of his fingers in the process of acquiring it.
As Karen Patricia Smith stresses, quote, its power is tremendous and horrific.
Such an instrument is not owned without sacrifice, unquote.
The nature of this sacrifice is not only physical, but also emotional.
The suddenness and weight of the burden figuratively crush Will.
Quote, and he put the knife down on the table and crouched low, hugging his wound attendant, cried.
It was all too much to bear.
The subs wrecked his throat and his chest and tears dazzled him.
He was desolate, unquote.
In the beginning, he even refuses this new rule, but soon realized that he has obviously no choice in that matter.
And I now quote a dialogue between him and his father, and he doesn't know yet that he is his father.
His father starts, you haven't got a choice, you're the bearer, it's picked you out.
And what's more, they know you've got it, and if you use it against them, they will tear it from your hands and use it against the rest of us forever and ever.
But why should I fight them?
I've been fighting too much, I can't go on fighting.
I want to have you won your fights.
Will was silent, then he said, yes, I suppose.
You fought for the knife.
Yes, but then you are a warrior.
That's what you are.
Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature.
Will knew that the man was speaking the truth, but it wasn't a welcome truth.
It was heavy and painful.
End of quote.
So the knife chose Will due to his nature.
At this point, Philipoeman introduces the conflict between being chosen to do something, or in this case, one's nature, and one's free will.
In the third book, Will realized that his destiny is not set in stone.
Quote, Will said to his father's ghost, you said I was a warrior.
You told me that was my nature.
And I shouldn't argue with it.
Father, you were wrong.
I fought because I had to.
I can't choose my nature, but I can choose what I do.
And I will choose, because now I am free.
End of quote.
All in all, Thriss rolled as the knife bearer, and through the battles he had to face, Will discovers the strength of his free will, which outweighs his nature, and thus underlines Pullman's agenda that every individual is free to choose his or her own path in life.
Without, for example, giving in to an organization such as the church in his books, which wants to destroy free will and keep people ignorant and obedient.
The knife enables Will to open entries to numerous worlds.
At the same time, thus leaks out of these windows and threatens to disappear from the worlds.
The consequence of this loss would be that, quote, everything good will fade away and die, end quote.
This reveals the double-edged power of the knife.
By serving Will in his good cause, it also follows its own intentions and contributes to the destruction of dust.
By stressing the unlimited power of the knife, Philip Pullman points out its ambiguity and finally the fact that, quote, it would have been infinitely better if it had never been made, end quote.
In the end, Will destroys the knife, and with it the underlying temptation to abuse its power for self-serving purposes.
In other contrast to Frodo, by the way.
Most of the time, magic as such is neither depicted as being good or evil.
It always depends on what it is used for.
The southern knife can be used to support or to destroy God.
Magic in Harry Potter can save or harm humankind.
We can also perceive this in, for example, Trudy Kenovans, the Black Resistance trilogy, or Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Being in touch with the supernatural element is always connected to great responsibility.
No matter if it's a magical instrument or the ability to directly use magic.
Harry chooses to give his life for the greater good.
And Will and Lyra agree to give up their lawful connection in order to save the ghost from the land of the dead and prevent dust from leaking out of the world.
As Millicent Land stresses, quote, the good of countless others takes precedence over personal desires, end quote.
One of the substantial focal points of this genre aims at the ability and willingness to choose freely between good and evil.
Or, as Dumbledore puts it, quote, it is our choices, Harry, that share what we truly are, far more than our abilities, end quote.
Through the element of defamiliarization, the authors try to convey essential messages.
Like many writers of fantasy fiction for children and adults, these two authors endeavor to enlighten their readership and sensitize their outlook on the world.
Rowling, for example, creates awareness for racism.
And Pullman reminds us of negative effects when a huge organization like the church tries to indoctrinate people with their ideological convictions.
Additionally, the heiress teased readership moral values.
And, as Roni Native puts it, quote, the Harry Potter stories, and numerous others too, center on what children need to find internally.
The strength to do the right thing, to establish a moral code, end quote.
Supernatural elements like magic do not only demonstrate the creativity of an author, but, quote, magic can be regarded as a metaphor for maturation.
The protagonist's magical development offering, a model of growth for readers, end quote.
Intermaturation is often made visible for the reader in the character's increase of magical ability.
Most of the time, this growth is not gained without a price, often manifested in personal sacrifices.
The protagonists suffer, and like a phoenix which emerges from the ashes, they emerge from the hardship of the journeys as mentally and magically, sometimes even physically, stronger characters.
The growth also leads to self-discovery and hence enforces their self-value and power.
Only an increase in power enables them to defeat their enemies, and thus satisfies and reinforces our longing for justice.
Fantastic literature for children and young adults not only quenches readers' obvious thirst for supernatural elements, but is also employed to subtly guide and enlighten the reader.
Although some critics stressed the point that this story is used to escape reality, it also has everything it takes to develop into the buildings for man of the 21st century.
Thank you.