“I saw it all from the snake’s point of view” — Slithering through exceptions in focalisation in the Harry Potter novels

Abstract

The Harry Potter novels are narrated from Harry’s point of view: Harry is the main reflector used by an omniscient narrator and the reader is therefore led to discover the magical world alongside this young wizard who was raised in a non-magical (Muggle) family. However, this general tendency is counterbalanced by a few exceptions. The incipits are exceptional insofar as there is a clear and systematic deictic push from the omniscient narrator’s deictic field to Harry’s deictic field; in the whole series of novels, four incipits are not narrated from Harry’s point of view at all. This paper studies the role(s) that these exceptions play at the micro and macrostructural levels in the saga. Other exceptions in focalisation – namely, the superposition of the deictic fields of Harry and of Voldemort from HP5 onwards – are given particular attention. They show a more manipulative narrative switch on the part of the author as they echo, or foreshadow, the revelation of the magical relationship that binds Harry to his enemy, Lord Voldemort.