PUNISHMENT AND DISCIPLINE AT HOGWARTS: A FOUCAULDIAN READING OF HIERARCHICAL SYSTEMS IN HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

Abstract

Beginning with a review of how punishment and discipline function at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling; this paper examines Hogwarts using an analytical framework provided by two social theorist thinkers: Michel Foucault on the functioning of disciplinary power (surveillance and normalizing), and Murray Bookchin on the nature of hierarchical systems. Specifically, Foucault's concepts of surveillance, normalization, and producing docile bodies can be seen at work in Hogwarts through its use of spatial division (partitioning space), constant observation, and a graduated scale for imposing sanctions (i.e., detention). Additionally, Foucault also sees Hogwarts ranking students based upon their assigned houses (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff) and/or by academic achievement. Likewise, within the houses, students are ranked by behavior. Bookchin provides additional insight into the nature of hierarchies as a cultural and psychological system of obedience and command; he also explores what he calls the internalization of hierarchical mentality—or the tendency to rank differences into better/worse (superior/inferior). The paper reviews the sorting ceremony, house points, detentions, teacher/pupil authority, and the surveillance architecture of Hogwarts through both Foucault's concept of disciplinary power and Bookchin's ideas about hierarchical mentality. As such, it is demonstrated that hierarchical mentality and disciplinary power are mutually supportive and thus produce a habituated awareness among students that obeying orders, being ranked, etc. should be viewed as commonplace and not extraordinary.