Reporting verbs and perception of femininity/masculinity in <i>Harry Potter</i> ’s Hermione

Abstract This study explores the relationship between reporting verbs and characterisation. It adopts a reader-response approach to test whether reporting verbs have an effect on readers’ perception of a character. Using data collected through a questionnaire, we investigate readers’ perceptions of Hermione’s feminine and masculine traits in a set of extracts from J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows . Two versions of the questionnaire are used; they both present the same passages but in the original version Hermione’s speech is reported with stereotypically gendered verbs like shrieked, screamed , and squealed , while in the manipulated version the more general option said is employed. The comparative analysis of ratings for feminine and masculine traits shows whether the type of reporting verb used influences readers’ perception of femininity and masculinity in Hermione. This study offers two interconnected contributions: first, it provides some empirical evidence on the role of textual features — reporting verbs more specifically — in the characterisation process; second, it sheds some light on the potential of reporting verbs to influence gender representation as perceived by real readers. While doing so, this paper also adds to the critical discussion of Harry Potter more generally, contributing with data-based insights to the highly debated issue of gender representation in the novels.