Adela Yarbro Collins writes bluntly, “The dualist division of humanity in the Apocalypse is a failure in love…it is an oversimplification that eliminates not only the possibility of neutrality but also the complexities of life in which there are always shades of grey. But most important, this dualism is destructive and dehumanizing” (170). The controversy of the 1980’s and 90’s surrounding postmodernism has mostly died out, but postmodernists, “by exposing the inherent dangers of this most-powerful grand narrative…reveal their own hopefulness for something better even than the New Jerusalem promised by the myth” (Rosen 177).
Studying the Harry Potter series as postmodern apocalyptic fiction brings together John Granger’s nuanced understanding of the series as a postmodern Christian epic about the end of the doctrine based on schoolyard prejudices that divides the wizarding world (Granger, Bookshelf 105) and Elizabeth Rosen’s analysis of secular authors who challenge the legitimacy of moral systems based on apocalyptic absolutism from within the framework of the traditional apocalyptic narrative (Rosen xx). Recognizing the apocalyptic narrative in Harry Potter, sheds new light on Granger’s literary criticism and extends Rosen’s definition of postmodern apocalyptic fiction beyond the uniformly secular, even anti-religious, stories she discusses.
Lee Quinby explains, “What makes apocalypse so compelling is its promise of future perfection, eternal happiness, and godlike understanding of life, but it is that very will to absolute power and knowledge that produces its compulsions of violence, hatred, and oppression” (Anti-Apocalypse 162). By deconstructing the apocalypse, however, “we might come to understand that these are symbols for hope and peace on the one hand, despair and hatred on the other; and we might recognize aspects of ourselves in each of these symbols, for each of us contains within ourselves a capacity for good and evil, for love and hate, for generosity and selfishness” (Rosen 178). J.K. Rowling appropriated the structure of the Book of Revelation to challenge its black-and-white moral reasoning. “Moral education, if it means anything in a pluralistic society, surely means pondering the implications of competing moral systems” (Quinby, Millennial Seduction 41). Using Harry Potter to teach readers about the competing moral systems of apocalyptic dualism and postmodern relativism could have important implications for helping us achieve democratic goals and move forward as a society, beyond prejudice and absolute morality.
