Negotiating narrative: dialogic dynamics of Known, Unknown and Believed in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”

Within the framework of KUB Theory (Bongelli and Zuczkowski 2008, Zuczkowski et al. 2011), information communicated verbally can ultimately be reduced to one of three categories: what the speaker knows (Known), what the speaker does not know (Unknown) and what the speaker believes (Believed). Dialogic communication can be considered as an exchange of information originating in one of these categories and directed towards another. The present study investigates the interaction of Known, Unknown and Believed information in the dialogues found in Chapter 10 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It demonstrates how these three categories of information can contribute to a reading of the plot and its progression, and also how aspects of the protagonists’ characters emerge through the language they use in their dialogic communication.