Spoilers ahead for both the movies and the novels.
To the reader that has been reading some of the posts on this blog it has become clear that I have made some allusions to series which I wanted to continue but could not or as of today have not. I am confident that this study is the first in a series that I hopefully can continue.
The harry potter saga, i am including both the movies and the books has ammased massive space. The popularity of the world as described by J. K. Rowling1 is such that I believe now the castle and village have been recreated for the most persistent fans.
There are a multitude of ways which one can follow if one wants to analyse the h.p. universe. It is possible to start with the characters. Another approach could be to analyse the “magic system,” which is difficult since I believe most adults would immideately associate “magic” with harry potter et al. so it might be difficult to say anything meaningful about it.
Another approach would be a themes approach. Very clearly the theme of slavery is present, another “immortality,” or longevity. The theme of evil is pushed but is to my opinion not convicingly portrayed. In the first of the series I want to analyse the political mechanations.
Politics is discussed in the novels. For example in the part in which the order of the phoenix fights in the department of mystifications the prime minister is said to be afraid that Dumbledore, the “high priest” so to speak is after his job. But more interestingly is the mechanics of how Voldemort “lord of the death” achieves his political goal of running the “ministry of magic.”
When “voldemort” achieves his goal it is through the control of the new prime minister. However it should be clear to “wizards” with the ability of independent observation that this new prime minister is indeed the puppet of “he who must not be named.” As a result the only way in which this truly is a victory for the “dark lord” is if the populus or the “real wizards” are ambivalent enough to the new forerunner of the wizarding community.
In other words “voldemort” can only come to power if enough of the population does not care enough to protest. Since we are dealing with a magical universe it is difficult to make one-to-one parallels.
I think this is enough for the first part. The second part will perhaps analyse the motivations and goals of “voldemort” or other inspiration may arise d.v.