Interesting essay! I think part of ficcers not dealing with marginalized Muggleborn coping strategies is that to have a "dismissive of the oppressor" coping strategy, you have to have a certain desire to keep your own culture. Mexican-Americans who have a strong affinity for the identity of Chicano will be significantly more likely to comment sardonically on whitebread America than those who just want to assimilate as quickly and as seamlessly as possible, to take an example from my own family.
This is relevant because every single Muggleborn character we see in the HP books accepts the wizarding world as their world, to the point of rejecting the world they grew up in. Hermione is the chief of these: she tries to study the Muggle world through wizarding eyes, she memory-charms her parents, she reads every wizarding book she can get her hands on but we never hear about her reading "our" classics. Harry grew up in the Muggle world, but you wouldn't know it by his reactions. Even Dean, who I think held onto his upbringing the most, ultimately chooses the wizarding world even when those in power are hunting him down like a dog in book 7. The way that JKR writes her characters largely precludes the kind of coping that you're talking about, because she makes Muggleborns so assimilationist. It's not: our Muggle heritage is valuable and makes us better wizards; it is we are witches, too, and a lack of a bloodline shouldn't interfere with that. *shrug* And you're right, people don't tend to go in for writing a whole lot exclusively about OCs.
Which is not to say that I wouldn't read the hell out of a Dean and Hermione mocking wizarding culture fic.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-07-04 03:28 am (UTC)This is relevant because every single Muggleborn character we see in the HP books accepts the wizarding world as their world, to the point of rejecting the world they grew up in. Hermione is the chief of these: she tries to study the Muggle world through wizarding eyes, she memory-charms her parents, she reads every wizarding book she can get her hands on but we never hear about her reading "our" classics. Harry grew up in the Muggle world, but you wouldn't know it by his reactions. Even Dean, who I think held onto his upbringing the most, ultimately chooses the wizarding world even when those in power are hunting him down like a dog in book 7. The way that JKR writes her characters largely precludes the kind of coping that you're talking about, because she makes Muggleborns so assimilationist. It's not: our Muggle heritage is valuable and makes us better wizards; it is we are witches, too, and a lack of a bloodline shouldn't interfere with that. *shrug* And you're right, people don't tend to go in for writing a whole lot exclusively about OCs.
Which is not to say that I wouldn't read the hell out of a Dean and Hermione mocking wizarding culture fic.