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Abstract
This essay identifies and examines the ways in which the Harry Potter novels speak to the culture industry and offer a commentary on a specific dimension of cultural production in contemporary society, namely the identification and construction of celebrity. Specifically, the essay explores how Harry Potter as a character in a fictional, magical world, negotiates his own cultural celebrity. As she depicts Harry struggling with his own celebrity status, how does author J.K. Rowling represent celebrity culture within her fictional world, and what does her unique take on celebrity culture reveal about how such discourses work ideologically in the ‘real’ Muggle world? The essay also concerns the functioning of Rowling's critique of celebrity culture in Harry Potter's fictional world as it exists alongside an actual celebrity culture that is, in many ways, responsible for creating and extending the popularity of Harry Potter as a cultural celebrity and a discursive product.