Sunday, August 2, 2015

‘Racebending’ challenges literature’s ‘default’ race

Artist's depiction of 'Harry Potter' character Hermione Granger with brown skin, brown eyes and hair in black ringlets
Hermione Granger, via dellbelle39.tumblr.com
How do you envision the characters in a book when no description is explicitly given? Do you “by default” attribute white race? Who you are and how you answer reveals whether or not your identity is “mirrored” by the literature you read. At Huffington Post, Zeba Blay highlights “racebending” — where fan artists portray Harry Potter characters as black and other non-white ethnicities.

(Social sharing credit to We Need Diverse Books)

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