Hogwarts and All

Hogwarts and All explores modern children's literature from its origins in the nineteenth-century cult of childhood, a cultural movement inseparable from Christian theology. From the Kunstmärchen (adult fairy tales) of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century German romanticism through Charles Dickens, J. R. R. Tolkien, and J. K. Rowling, this genre, like all gothic arts, has served as an alternative cultural perspective to that of scientific materialism. Its benignly subversive message is that a civilization that abandons its commitment to the childlike values of wonder, trust, sacrificial love, spontaneity, vulnerability, and faith in radical possibilities for peace, social justice, and human happiness all qualities endorsed by Ray Bradbury, Susan Cooper, Madeleine L'Engle, and other authors discussed in this volume is a civilization at risk.

Autorentext

Gregory G. Pepetone is a professor of music and interdisciplinary studies at Georgia College & State University where he has taught for the past twenty years. An honors graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Dr. Pepetone is a classical pianist who has performed extensively in England and the United States. He has been recognized for his contributions to interdisciplinary studies, characterized by William Newell, former president of the Association of Integrative Studies, as «work of national importance.» He has twice received awards for best article of the year from American Music Teacher for «A Fresh Look at the Authentic American Dream» and «Gothic Perspectives on Beethoven.» Dr. Pepetone is also the author of Gothic Perspectives on the American Experience (Peter Lang).