Equalizing Time: <i>Harry Potter and the Cursed Child</i> as a Retrospective and Prospective Adaptation

  • Karen Keane Longwood University

Abstract

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child poses interesting questions for fans and scholars of the whole Harry Potter series about the effects of adaptations on re-reads, as well as the ability of works to stand alone. This stage adaptation, by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and J. K. Rowling, possesses a unique status as both a Retrospective Adaptation, which rewards readers for their prior knowledge about the series, and as a Prospective Adaptation, which leads audiences to the source series. Thus, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child can be read as a stand-alone text since it requires no prior knowledge to navigate, but can also fit seamlessly into the full sequence of the Potter stories.

Author Biography

Karen Keane, Longwood University
Karyn Keane is a senior at Longwood University with a major in English, a concentration in Rhetoric and Professional Writing, and a minor in Children's Literature. In addition to Harry Potter and adaptation theory, her interests include cultural rhetoric, rhetoric of social change, and feminist literature.
Published
2019-12-18
Issue
Vol. 22 No. 1 (2019)
Section
Emerging Voices
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