I was delighted to learn yesterday that my proposal for a panel on Young Adult Literature: a Tool for Empathy Development? was accepted for the 2020 UNLV Summit on Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature,  I will be presenting with Dr. Kia Jane Richmond, author of Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature: Exploring Real Struggles Through Fictional Characters.

I presented my work on PTSD in young adult literature (including Harry Potter, of course) at the inaugural summit two years ago, which, as some of you may remember, attracted some criticism for featuring authors that one particular journalist found overly dark and distressing. The fact that the editorial writer did not even attend the Summit did not stop him speculating  that immersion in the “unsavory worldviews” seen in some books of the keynote authors is a likely contributor to mental illness in adolescent readers.  In fact, my own research and that of many others suggests just the opposite.

I hope teachers, readers and other people interested in the societal impact of young adult literature will join us at the summit. Along with the academics, there will be a number of amazing authors present, including Ashley Hope Perez (whose incredible Out of Darkness I would like to see as required reading for university students),  Chris Crowe (his Death Coming Up the Hill can, like Harry Potter, be appreciated by everyone from Boomers to Millennials), Matt de la Pena (Newbery winner whose The Living has been featured here on Hogpro) and more.

The conference is reasonably priced, and lots of fun. And the Las Vegas strip is a short Uber-hop away.

I have made it through the first audiobook reading of Harry Potter y la piedra filosofil, and was pleasantly surprised at how much I could understand, given the length of time since I have done any serious Spanish study. I am now working my way through a second time slowly, listening to the audiobook while reading along with the text. I have made it through the first seven chapters, through the much more alliterative “Sombrero Seleccionador” chapter. I have picked up a few interesting tidbits that I would like to share.

First, I am reading a print translation from Spain, while the audio version appears to come from the Americas, which probably accounts for some of the vocabulary differences: the use of medias versus calcitines for socks, for example. Most notably, the print version distinguishes between the familiar (vosotros) and formal (ustedes) plural you’s, as is preferred in Spain, whereas the audio version uses ustedes for both, as is common in Latin America. I had already mentioned that audio uses buho for owl, and the print lechuza, but interestingly, Hedwig is called una lechuza in both versions. This seems to be correct, since Hedwig, as a snowy owl, lacks ear tufts.

I noticed that, when Hagrid turns up on the Hut-on-a-Rock, Harry addresses him as usted, the formal you that would be typical for a child speaking politely to an unfamiliar adult. When Harry wakes up the next morning, he switches to the familiar tu, the pronoun a child would use for an adult more emotionally close to them. Thus, Spanish readers have a clue that Harry has come to trust Hagrid fully, even before Rowling tells us a few pages later.

Other differences cannot be explained as simple European-American language differences.  For instance, the print version makes a small but significant change to Hagrid’s line:

“What? My — my mum and dad weren’t famous, were they?” “Yeh don’ know . . . yeh don’ know . . .” Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare. “Yeh don’ know what yeh are?” he said finally.

The print version changes the last to “No sabes lo que ellos eran?”–  or “You don’t know what they were?”  — making this line about James and Lily, in the past, not Harry, in the present.

Some even more intriguing gleanings from the Spanish translation after the jump. [Read more…]