Paper Reading Session
Of Paper Titled "Melancholy and Depression in Harry Potter and The Rape of the Lock" by Swarnim Agrawal, third year
The English Literary Association of LSR organised a Paper Reading Session on 29th October 2021. Swarnim Agrawal, a third-year student of the English Department presented her paper titled “Melancholy and Depression in Harry Potter and The Rape of the Lock”.
Swarnim Agrawal began with the abstract and introduced everyone to her paper. Drawing similarities between two texts written centuries apart, she spoke about how the two texts have vivid representations of melancholy and depression. Canto IV in The Rape of Lock and the Dementors in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were entexsively talked about in the session. In spite of being texts belonging to the genre of mock-epic poem and children literature, the texts deal with much deeper, darker and serious elements of the mind. After a description of the Cave of Spleen and the symptoms of melamcholy and depression in Belinda, a reference to Robert Burton’s The NAtomy of Melancholy was made.
The Dementors in Harry Potter were referred to as descriptions of the trauma and effects of depression. In Harry Potter, not only Harry but other characters also encounter the Dementors. Past horrors and trauma increase the severity of the experience. Another important point put forward by Ms. Agrawal was that depression affects anyone and disguises or the Invisibility cloak do not matter to the Dementors. The common threads between the Cave of Spleen and the Dementors like isolation and delusions were discussed. An important commonality was the myths and misconceptions regarding psychological disorders. The gender of the authors of the two texts are also important- a male author writes about a female protagonist whereas in the other text, a female author writes about a male protagonist.
To conclude, Ms. Agrawal shared a quote from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and also reiterated the fact that these psychological disorders can affect anyone.
Swarnim Agrawal began with the abstract and introduced everyone to her paper. Drawing similarities between two texts written centuries apart, she spoke about how the two texts have vivid representations of melancholy and depression. Canto IV in The Rape of Lock and the Dementors in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were entexsively talked about in the session. In spite of being texts belonging to the genre of mock-epic poem and children literature, the texts deal with much deeper, darker and serious elements of the mind. After a description of the Cave of Spleen and the symptoms of melamcholy and depression in Belinda, a reference to Robert Burton’s The NAtomy of Melancholy was made.
The Dementors in Harry Potter were referred to as descriptions of the trauma and effects of depression. In Harry Potter, not only Harry but other characters also encounter the Dementors. Past horrors and trauma increase the severity of the experience. Another important point put forward by Ms. Agrawal was that depression affects anyone and disguises or the Invisibility cloak do not matter to the Dementors. The common threads between the Cave of Spleen and the Dementors like isolation and delusions were discussed. An important commonality was the myths and misconceptions regarding psychological disorders. The gender of the authors of the two texts are also important- a male author writes about a female protagonist whereas in the other text, a female author writes about a male protagonist.
To conclude, Ms. Agrawal shared a quote from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and also reiterated the fact that these psychological disorders can affect anyone.
Written by Purbali Paul