The Dissemination of Ideologies: Tom Brown’s School Days and the Harry Potter Series as Moral and Social Pedagogy

Abstract

This thesis compares J. K. Rowling’s contemporary Harry Potter series (1997-2007) with Thomas Hughes’s Victorian school story, Tom Brown’s School Days (1857), in order to identify how Rowling and Hughes use British public school literature as a means for the widespread dissemination of moral pedagogy. Given the disparate time frames and political outlooks, Rowling and Hughes teach dissimilar ideologies in different socio-historical contexts. However, both stories reveal the necessity of the schoolmaster’s teaching methods to form morally responsible school leaders, demonstrate the titular character ‘chosen’ as a moral leader, and exemplify the use of organized sports as a method of moral and social instruction. In sum, my thesis presents a comparison of the narratives by Rowling and Hughes as an acknowledgement of the continuing influence of Hughes’s work on modern literature and the employment of children’s literature for the advancement of moral and socio-ideological themes.