Abstract of Paper to be Presented at Accio 2008

The Wronsky Feint and Other Devices: Self-Reflective and Prophetic Narration in the Harry Potter Novels

Emer O'Sullivan

Professor Quirrell's classroom smells strongly of garlic because the nervous Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher apparently wants 'to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania'. The end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone reveals that it was actually to mask the putrid smell of Voldemort, living as a parasite on the back of Quirrell's head. This is one of several narrative equivalents of the attention-diverting Wronsky Feint which, together with compositional elements, give the novels a self-reflective dimension, and which will feature in this presentation on the relationship between elements of the story and its actual telling.