John Keats’ Negative capability in J.K. Rowling’s Series, Harry Potter
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The English poet John Keats first coined the term "negative capability" in a letter he wrote to his brothers George and Tom in 1817. It refers to a writer's capability, "which Shakespeare possessed so enormously," to endure "uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason." The notion of negative capability refers to the ability to exist inside the realm of mystery or to cope with unanswered concerns. It accepts this incomplete knowledge and encourages a deliberate suspension of disbelief in order to foster curiosity and receptivity toward a larger, more imaginative narrative. As a result, Rowling spends time explaining many things in her universe, where many other features of the world remain mysterious, such as the origins of magic or the method by which a Muggle-born kid acquires the wizard genes. The achievable benefit of this study is that it expands the reader's and researcher's comprehension of the ideas and possibilities of a literary work from a negative standpoint by asking them to trust the author that the entire narrative can still be told even in the absence of complete knowledge about every detail of the story’s environment.
Author: Reem Adnan Hamad
Institution: University of Tikrit
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4407896590