ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Harry Potter series in the context of the Reagan-Bush-Thatcher-Blair “war against evil” and an intensifying reliance on melodrama in political culture. The core observation that I make is twofold. First, melodrama can be an extraordinarily effective organizer of public opinion in service of imperial, dominative ambition, whether employed by the black shirts of the Third Reich or by recent occupants of the White House. The powerful appeal of simple, binary melodramatic ethics
(pure good versus unmitigated evil) and its core subjectivity-the victimized, misunderstood hero, who often appears paranoid or delusional to others-is a significant component of the success of the Harry Potter series. That same powerful appeal, when employed by state power and corporate media, helps to organize feelings of national victimization (by the Jews! by radical Islam! by the “haters of freedom” and “our way of life”!) in support of domination. The totalizing ethics of melodrama lean toward justification of violence-i.e., torture can be “good” when employed against “evil” people. In this way, by organizing nationalist-even imperial-feelings in support of the violent exercise of state power against persons, people, cultures, and other states, melodrama justifiably raises enormous concerns for critical observers of the United States as a political and cultural agent on the world stage.
