Stigmatization, Fractured Self and Segmented Identity in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series

Abstract

Stigma is the term used in a negative perspective, as it diminishes the processes of shame and pain derived from the individuals with human differences. It enables social alienation and exclusion. In the case that an individual, it he is flexible in his ability to cope with the fact of stigmatization, it is to be found that the individual is led to a fractured and segmented identity. Through stigma, decreased subject positions are also established. This denotes the degraded position of the individual. Stigma even regulates one’s social and emotional relationships. Experience of marginalization is also an outcome of stigmatization. When an individual has a trait or identity that is publicly discredited, he is subjected to stigma.

Irvin Goffman defines stigma as a controlling mechanism; it is a means of maintaining social order; it reinforces social hierarchies through the act of shaming and stigmatizing individuals and groups. If stigma increases the social exclusion of individuals, it can lead to resistance from the stigmatized and create new forms of exclusion. In this context, Goffman’s perspective of the normal/abnormal binary is significant. His discussion is centered on the negative societal consequences and the social disadvantages faced by the stigmatized in society.

The present study interrogates J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series, through the lens of Irving Goffman’s theory of stigma. Harry is the eponymous hero, around whom the whole narrative is woven. The purpose of the study is to examine how the stigmatization of Harry develops in the Series. Goffman’s premise of stigma is used to analyze the struggles of Harry with cultural negotiations.