Beauxbatons

2025-10-28T15:51:57Z

2A00:23C6:9B54:4B01:4E36:2D2C:B917:89C6: /* Description */

{{Short description|Fictional Harry Potter French magic school}}
'''Beauxbatons Academy of Magic''' is a French magic school in the [[Fictional universe of Harry Potter|fictional universe of ''Harry Potter'']] created by the British author [[J. K. Rowling]]. ''Beauxbatons'' ({{IPA|fr|bo.ba.tɔ̃|lang}}) translates from French as "beautiful sticks".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Berger |first=Matt |date=12 August 2019 |title=Harry Potter: 10 Facts You Didn't Know About Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic |url=https://screenrant.com/harry-potter-facts-didnt-know-beauxbatons-academy-magic/ |access-date=22 August 2024 |website=ScreenRant |language=en}}</ref>

== Description ==
In the fourth book of the series, ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]'' (2000), students from Beauxbatons arrive at [[Hogwarts]] to take part in the Triwizard Tournament. They arrive in a carriage, brought by winged [[Palomino]] horses.{{sfn|Flotmann|2014|p=329}}

Beauxbatons is described as a [[boarding school]] located in the [[Pyrenees]] mountains of southern France full of ice sculptures and forest [[nymph]]s.{{sfn|Oziewicz|2010|p=13}}

Beauxbatons has a preponderance of French students, though Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Dutch, Luxembourgers and Belgians also attend in large numbers.<ref name="Pottermore-Beauxbatons">{{cite web |date=10 August 2015 |title=Beauxbatons Academy of Magic |url=https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/beauxbatons-academy-of-magic |access-date=7 August 2016 |website=Wizarding World}}</ref>

The delegation is led by headmistress Madame Olympe Maxime, a half-[[giant]]ess; despite her proportions, she is beautiful, graceful, and well-dressed.{{sfn|Flotmann|2014|p=329}} Also singled out is Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons champion in the Triwizard Tournament, a beautiful girl with silvery hair{{sfn|Eccleshare|2002|p=81}} who is a quarter-[[Magical creatures in Harry Potter#V|veela]].

== Students ==
Students of Beauxbatons are described rather stereotypically, mainly as beautiful long-haired girls and attractive boys, in contrast with the serious and surly students from the Eastern European school [[Durmstrang]].{{sfn|Flotmann|2014|p=329}} They have good manners and in general are positive, while the unpleasant appearance of Durmstrang students implies their dishonesty.{{sfn|Eccleshare|2002|p=81}} Similarly, the carriage of the Beauxbatons is well-lit and nice, while the ship, by which the students of Durmstrang arrive, is gloomy.{{sfn|Eccleshare|2002|p=81}}

They speak French and stereotypical, heavily accented English.{{sfn|Oziewicz|2010|p=13}}{{sfn|Flotmann|2014|p=330}} [[:fr:Jean-François Ménard|Jean-François Ménard]], the translator of ''Harry Potter'' into French, wrote Madame Maxime as arrogant with very correct, aristocratic speech, while Fleur's tone was more distrustful. Ménard made these choices because "you cannot write French with a French accent".{{sfn|Moore|2000|p=177}}

In the screen adaptation ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)|Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]'', Beauxbatons students are all female and Durmstrang students are all male, in contrast to the books which portray both schools as [[Mixed-sex education|co-educational]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Otway |first=Jack |date=January 8, 2020 |title=Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: 10 Things The Movie Changed From The Book |url=https://screenrant.com/harry-potter-goblet-fire-movie-book-changes/ |access-date=22 August 2024 |website=ScreenRant}}</ref>

== Criticism ==
The portrayal of the two foreign schools has been criticized as stereotypical.{{sfn|Flotmann|2014|p=329}} On the whole, the students of Beauxbatons, just as the students of Durmstrang, are homogeneous, not showing the [[cultural diversity]] of Hogwarts.{{sfn|Oziewicz|2010|p=11}}

The contrast between Durmstrang and Hogwarts can be interpreted as an allusion to the war of the West with the bad from the East, as described in the [[gothic fiction]] of the nineteenth century, and contrast between Beauxbatons and Hogwarts as an allusion to the competition between the reasonable and decent Great Britain and the licentious and decadent France.{{sfn|Flotmann|2014|p=330}} It has been argued that the appearance on the foreground of these old conflicts allows J K. Rowling to sublimate them, and to make them irrelevant to modern readers.{{sfn|Flotmann|2014|p=330}}

The three different magic schools have also been interpreted as representing the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] in [[World War II]], with Beauxbatons standing in for France, in opposition to "Voldemort and his followers represent[ing] Germany".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Slavin |first=Michael |date=2011 |title=A Postmodernistic Look at the ''Harry Potter'' Series |url=https://spiral.lynn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=honorsjournals#page=6 |journal=Lynn University Scholar |pages=10–14 |access-date=2024-11-12}}</ref>

== References ==

=== Citations ===
{{reflist}}

=== Works cited ===
* {{cite book| first = Julia | last = Eccleshare | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cHjF5K2uVdsC&pg=PA81 | title = Guide to the Harry Potter Novels |year= 2002 |publisher= A&C Black | pages = 81–82| isbn = 9780826453174}}
* {{cite book| first = Christina | last = Flotmann | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LJBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA328 | title = Ambiguity in "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter": A (Post)Structuralist Reading of Two Popular Myths |year= 2014 |publisher= Verlag | pages = 328–331| isbn = 9783839421482}}
* {{cite journal |first = Miranda | last = Moore |url= http://www.drusha.msk.ru/books.translatabilityofharrypotter.html |title= Translatability of "Harry Potter" |edition= |year= 2000 |volume= 39 |number= 6|pages = 176–177 |journal=The Linguist: Journal of the Institute of Linguists}}
* {{cite journal |first = Marek | last = Oziewicz |title= Representations of Eastern Europe in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Jonathan Stroud's The Bartimaeus Trilogy, and JK Rowling's Harry Potter Series | journal = International Research in Children's Literature |edition= International Research in Children's Literature |year= 2010 |volume= 3 |number= 1|pages = 1–14 |doi = 10.3366/ircl.2010.0002}}

== Further reading ==

* {{cite journal |first1 = Austin |last1 = Henderson |first2 = Madison |last2 = Kenny |first3 = Cameron |last3 = Lane |first4 = Madison Murray |last4 = Duc Le |url = https://unbscholar.lib.unb.ca/islandora/object/islandora%3A127/datastream/PDF/download/citation.pdf#page=87 |title = The Power of the Potter Patriarchy: Feminist Theory and Harry Potter |edition = |year = 2017 |ref = CITEREFHenderson et al.2017 |journal = The Mirror of Erised: Seeing a Better World Through Harry Potter and Critical Theory |access-date = 2018-06-08 |archive-date = 2021-05-16 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210516212815/https://unbscholar.lib.unb.ca/islandora/object/islandora%3A127/datastream/PDF/download/citation.pdf#page=87 |url-status = dead }}
* {{cite book| first = Marion | last = Rana | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LW3BlG4p6FIC&pg=PA71 | title = Creating Magical Worlds: Otherness and Othering in Harry Potter |year= 2009 |publisher= Peter Lang | isbn = 9783631580714}}

{{Harry Potter}}

[[Category:Fictional elements introduced in 2000]]
[[Category:Fictional magic schools]]
[[Category:Harry Potter organisations]]
[[Category:France in fiction]]

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