International Boggarts

Carl Schmitt, Harry Potter , and the Transfiguration of Identity and Violence

Bibliographic Data

ID12805662
AuthorsEmma R Norman (0000-0002-8332-067X, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume40
Issue3
Pages403-423
Publication date2012-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics & Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1555-5623 • E-ISSN: 1747-1346
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00357.x
OpenAlexW1529868096
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited29

Harry Potter's boggarts arouse our deepest fears and shape‐shift according to those fears. Consequently, nobody knows what this magical monster really looks like—adding to our insecurities. The striking parallels with international issues involve fear and (in)security as the central forces driving state behavior, and how to confront shape‐shifting nonstate sources of violence. Yet examining the connections between identity and violence in the boggart metaphor problematizes several assumptions underpinning constructivism and realism. Using Schmitt's “friend–enemy” distinction, I argue that it is not a Hobbesian freedom from fear of violent death that motivates the search for security, but the fear of not belonging to a clearly defined group. For it is not the dread that an international boggart will kill us that makes it so paralyzing, but it's the lack of a clear identity that renders “other” and “self” indistinguishable. In a world where globalization has blurred state‐oriented differentiation of (national) self and (foreign) other, Schmitt's theory of identity proves particularly valuable. Related Articles in this Politics & Policy Symposium Mena Alemán. 2012. “Editor's Introduction to the Symposium: Politics, Policy, and Harry Potter .” Politics & Policy 40 (3). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00355.x/abstract Norman and Delfin. 2012. “Wizards under Uncertainty: Cognitive Biases, Threat Assessment, and Misjudgments in Policy Making.” Politics & Policy 40 (3). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00356.x/abstract Grijalva. 2012. “Deconstructing the Grand Narrative in Harry Potter : Inclusion/Exclusion and Discriminatory Policies in Fiction and Practice.” Politics & Policy 40 (3). http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00358.x/abstract Related Media Film Clips: “The Boggart.” 2001. http://archive.org/details/TheBoggart George W. Bush. 2002. “State of the Union Address.” http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/stateoftheunion2002.htm Course Syllabus: Harry Potter and International Politics: Identity, Violence, and Social Control. http://ipsonet.org/data/files/psoproceedings16.pdf(7‐18) Los boggarts en Harry Potter despiertan nuestros más profundos miedos y cambian de forma de acuerdo a ellos. Por lo tanto, nadie sabe realmente cuál es el aspecto de estos monstros mágicos—lo cual aumenta nuestras inseguridades. Las notables semejanzas con asuntos internacionales actuales se relacionan al uso del miedo y la (in)seguridad como la principal fuerza motivando el comportamiento del estado, y así como la forma en la que se confronta la naturaleza elusiva de fuentes de violencia provenientes de actores no estatales. Sin embargo, al examinar las conexiones entre la identidad colectiva y la violencia en la metáfora de los boggarts conlleva a cuestionarse un número de supuestos fundamentales para el constructivismo y el realismo. Usando la “distinción amigo‐enemigo” de Schmitt, establezco que nuestra búsqueda por seguridad no es motivada por una libertad hobbesiana derivada del temor a una muerte violenta; sino por una necesidad de pertenecer (o miedo a no pertenecer) a un grupo claramente definido. Ya que un boggart internacional no es paralizante por el miedo a ser ultimado por este, sino la falta de una identidad clara que vuelve a “otros” y “uno mismo” indistinguible. En un mundo donde la globalización ha difuminado los medios tradicionales usados por el estado para diferenciar el yo (nacional) de los otros (extranjeros), la teoría de la identidad de Schmitt demuestra ser particularmente útil

Aesthetics · Foreign policy · Humanities · Identity (music · Identity politics · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · State of exception · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychology

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