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Text/Caffie's notes
Editor's/Chalphy's notes
In the book, Rowling paints us a new group of witches, who are independent, kind, self-reliant, and full of the shadow of women of the new era. Rowling's conception of the origin of this story also begins in her hometown of Scotland, as the birthplace of the European New Age movement, which provided an opportunity for Rowling to create Harry Potter.
At the same time, the witchcraft culture that took place in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century also became the reason why Harry Potter was popular countless times as soon as it came out, laying the foundation for popular culture. The traditional witchcraft culture of the West is one of the themes expressed throughout the Harry Potter series, and Rowling promotes the development of the book with ups and downs of storylines and magical romances, creating a new witch image for people one after another.
In the book, Rowling changed the stereotypical image of witches in historical literature, and enriched the image of witches on the basis of themes such as witch families and witch schools. In Harry Potter, the witch image is fuller and three-dimensional, full of modern female symbols. They know how to bravely pursue the love they want, for example, Fleur Dracoor bravely pursues Bill Weasley, and insists on marrying this man after he is injured; They are very responsible and have strong management skills.
For example, Professor McConaughey showed a strong management spirit when he assisted Dumbledore in managing the entire school; At the same time, they also show a strong sense of social responsibility, for example, house-elves have a very low status in the social context of the book, and they exist as slaves. Hermione was dissatisfied with the slave status of the house-elves, so she established the "House-Elf Rights Promotion Association" through her own efforts, hoping to help the elves improve their social status. In the book, Rowling focuses on the sacrifice and good and righteous side of the witches.
Harry's mother, Lily Potter, was killed by Voldemort when Harry was born to save her child, but she became Harry's talisman forever. Looking back at the group portraits of witches in the book, we will find that Rowling's appreciation of the witch group is revealed between the lines. At the beginning of the third part of the novel, Harry writes a thesis entitled "The Burning of Witches in the Fourteenth Century Is Completely Meaningless", which reflects Rowling's support for the witch community.
IV. The Image of the Witch Reproduction in the Film The image of the witch has undergone a process of construction and evolution from reality-drama-literature-film. The image of the witch, born out of the real person, gives it new value and meaning in each evolution due to a different cultural background. On December 28, 1895, cinema, a new medium of communication, was born in an underground café in Paris, France. Thus, in the expression of the witch image, there is a richer and more diverse means. As an audiovisual art, especially with the deeper exploration and analysis of film, film has given witches a deeper cultural background and connotation.
The film uses its unique light and shadow effects to cast a veil on the already mysterious group of witches. Using audio-visual technology that is unmatched by literature and drama, through 5 Wang Hongyan, "Tradition and Subversion: Analysis of the Image of Witches in <> Harry Potter Novels", the magical picture language and symbolic sound language of the screen evolution history of witches make the historical image of witches more vivid and return to the public's vision.
Since the Romantic era of the early 19th century, sluts have become a frequent character in literature, and people have described them in a colorful way. After the birth of cinema, Italy began to bring the image of sluts in literature to the screen in 1908.
Danish filmmakers then typed the image of sluts and successfully constructed the character of the witch in early Danish pornography. Demon women often appear in movies, they use their beauty to deceive men of their sincerity or in exchange for glory and wealth.
The characteristic image of the witch in Danish films has inspired people to explore witch movies, and Swiss director Stiller was influenced by Danish witch movies and constructed the earliest witch image in his film "Ancient Manor". What really impressed people with witches was the Danish director Christensen who later came to Sweden to develop and was deeply influenced by Swedish films.
Inspired by the medieval witch hunt, he completed a masterpiece in Stockholm, Witchcraft Through the Ages. The film restores the cruel and dark medieval witch hunt, in which the tragic scenes of witches being tortured are shocking. Chapter 2 The Evolution of the Witch on the Screen Throughout the entire history of the evolution of the screen, the image of the witch has been given different social identities and emotional values in different eras.
An in-depth study of the entire screen evolution of witches helps us understand how this distant and mysterious group of women was understood centuries later. Section 1 The Evil Black Witch Representatives of Evil The appearance of witches in early films was often accompanied by bad things, or foreshadowed bad luck, or brought death. Deep in the forest, in an old and dilapidated house, lived in an old woman in a black robe, with a silhouette and a long voice, which was often portrayed on the screen in the early days of witches.
They have demonic powers, can fly without external forces, and harm people with magic potions. Such a portrayal of witches is to make the audience more intuitively feel that they are the party of the evil forces. Whether it is a terrifying appearance or a terrifying voice, it is to set off them as representatives of evil.
According to George Sadur in the "History of World Cinema", the earliest film about witches can be traced back to 1922, and the horror film "Witches of the Ages" made by Danish director Benjamin Christensen.
When Christenson saw the rich historical records of witch hunting in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, he was shocked, and the criminal law of witch hunting made him shudder. So he decided to prepare to make a movie that recorded the story of witches, and the film "Witches of the Ages" was born.
He performed a bold 6 in the film Hu Yalei. The Construction of the Witch Image in Hollywood Fantasy Movies in the New Century Shaanxi Normal University, 2015. 10 Chapter 2 The idea of the screen evolution of the witch has created many horror shots.
For example, ascetics are tempted by beautiful women; the private meeting of the enchanting witch and the devil; The old and decaying witch's chest was burned by iron tongs; Throwing children framed as witches into the oil pot, what's more, the director focuses on portraying the scene of the wizard's worship, showing a strange and dark film color.
The director also used the stage beauty to exaggerate the atmosphere of the film, incorporating photographic techniques, exaggerated makeup and masks into it, deepening the horror of the film. Let the audience shudder about the history of witch persecution in history. In 1923, in the Swedish film "The Ancient Manor", the image of the witch was even more distinct: in the dark night, a young girl whose profession was a selling lady lay asleep on a bed in one of the bedrooms of the ancient manor.
Suddenly, the wall next to the bed cracked, and the light leaked into the night along the crack. At this moment, a sleigh cart came galloping in the distance of the snow, and on the sled sat a witch, wearing a black robe that seemed to have been soaked by water, with an ugly face and cunning eyes.
The witch bursts into the room, binds the hero and takes her away, disappearing into the night in the sleigh dragged by her brown bear. The witch who impressed many people in their childhood is still in the animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". This is a 1937 animated film produced by Disney.
The story is about: the beautiful Snow White's stepmother Queen is an evil witch, she is usually beautiful and moving, every day she asks the magic mirror who is the most beautiful woman in the world, and always worried that someone's beauty will surpass her. When Snow White grows up, she is jealous of the princess's beauty and always tries to kill Snow White.
In this film, Disney constructs the classic evil witch image for us. After Snow White escapes the castle, the Evil Queen transforms into an old witch dressed in a black robe, with wrinkled skin, a hooked nose and a slender and hoarse voice, and hands the poisoned apple to Snow White herself. This image was later imitated by many films, resulting in a long time the image of the witch was always associated with black robes, hooked noses, and wrinkled skin, even if these features did not appear at the same time, there would be one of them as an expressive element.
The screen evolution history of witches The image of witches often appears as a horror element in the entire movie at this stage, and the audience can intuitively feel the destruction and disaster it brings. In the accumulation of long historical years, the image of the ugly witch representing evil has gradually become a classic image in movies.
2. Opposition to the protagonist, the witch of the evil side is always the opposition to the protagonist of the good side, becoming a roadblock for the protagonist in the process of achieving self-growth or completing goals. In this context, witches often appear as supporting characters in early films, becoming an auxiliary thread in the film.
In 1990, the adventure comedy film "The Witch" directed by Nicholas Reuger graphically interpreted the binary opposition between good and evil, which was adapted from Roald Dahl's novel of the same name. The film mainly tells the story of the boy Luke and his grandmother who come to England for vacation, and happen to run into a witch party, and the big witch (Angelica Houston) orders children all over Britain to turn into mice. Luke was discovered eavesdropping and turned into a mouse on the spot.
In order to change himself back to his original form and stop the witch's evil plans, Luke begins to fight with them. The witch's purpose is to turn all British children into rats, and our little hero's purpose is to stop this from happening and save all British children.
The witch becomes an obstacle to Luke's goal, and the little protagonist completes his self-growth throughout the battle of wits and courage, while realizing his personal value to society. In 2020, the film was once again brought to the screen with a new adaptation by director Robert Zemeckis, in which the villain Big Witch starred the beautiful Anne Hathaway. It can be seen that the witch, as a symbol of evil, opposes the protagonist and becomes a tried-and-true means for the film to promote the development of the plot.
The portrayal of witches in the evil witches in "The Witch" in the early film screens is mostly symbolizing disasters and evil witches, and most of these witches' images are ugly, black robes, wrinkled faces, hooked noses, and sharp and harsh voices have become the symbols of early evil witches.
Towards extinction movies are often the theme of justice and goodness, since witches symbolize evil, then there are always people who symbolize goodness, and goodness must defeat evil. Thus, the witch was doomed to her demise.
In the film "Witches of the Ages" directed by Christenson, the director tries to restore the tragic witch hunt that took place in Europe. Throughout the film, the horrific criminal law suffered by witches after being accused is reproduced and described.
And most of the witches' endings are after being tortured and going to perish. The inevitable end of the witch's death in this film is not only a reproduction of the medieval witch hunt, but also expresses the attitude of people towards witches at that time, believing that witches who bring crime and disaster will inevitably die, which shows that the existence of witches in the early 20th century was still a secret thing.
In the 1999 horror suspense movie "Sleepy Hollow" directed by Tim Burton, it tells the story of New York at the end of the eighteenth century, when the police were still using ancient ways of handling cases and extorting confessions from suspects through cruel criminal law.
At this time, the young policeman Ikabu Crane was sent to a small town called Guillotine to handle a serial murder case, and he firmly believed that scientific methods of solving the case could reveal the truth of the case.
After experiencing one murder after another, Crane discovers that the truth behind the murder is that the evil witch Tasel stole the head of the headless horseman in order to inherit the inheritance, and in order to obtain the inheritance, he used witchcraft to control him to kill everyone who stood in her way, including her husband.
Crane, a young policeman who discovers the truth, returns the head to the Headless Horseman to help him escape the witch's control and gain freedom. When the Headless Horseman left the town, he also took Tassel with him, and the whole town returned to calm.