Fragments and Links: Organizational Actor‐World of the Harry Potter Phenomenon

Bristow, Alexandra (2007). Fragments and Links: Organizational Actor‐World of the Harry Potter Phenomenon. Culture and Organization, 13(4) pp. 313–325.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14759550701676429

Abstract

The article seeks to develop an Actor‐Network Theory perspective on the relationship between organization and literature by focusing on the Harry Potter phenomenon. The latter is seen as an example of how contemporary popular literature does not stop at itself, but rather supersedes itself by spinning its own truly impressive organizational actor‐network. This industrious industrial entanglement challenges what may be called the ‘disembodied’ conceptualization of literature—the conceptualization that is centred on the contents of works of fiction alone. When the contents of the literary texts are decentred in that they are taken as but one (however important) actor of the actor‐world that comes to be known by their name, other actors become more visible that help to conceptualize Harry Potter as an organizational, as much as a literary, phenomenon.

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About

• Item ORO ID
• 53391
• Item Type
• Journal Item
• ISSN
• 1475-9551
• Keywords
• Organization, Literature, Fiction, Actor‐Network Theory, Heterogeneity, Complexity
• Academic Unit or School
• Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) > Business > Department for People and Organisations
  Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) > Business
  Faculty of Business and Law (FBL)
• Depositing User
• Alexandra Bristow