The following theory was sent in to Hypable by Zermina, and we decided to turn it into a post!

I’ve come up with a more in-depth reason for Jo’s simple title and story:

When Jo wrote Harry Potter she was greatly influenced by what was happening in her life. In ‘JKR: A Year in the Life’ it was mentioned that for authors, writing is a form of therapy. Since HP was written over 10 years of Jo’s life, we get inclusions of her life experiences. For example, Dementors were invented after Jo experienced clinical depression, and obviously the entire theme of death was inspired after Jo’s mother passed away.

So what about now?

After the Harry Potter series ‘died,’ a vacancy for JKR’s ‘New Book’ opened, which is a big deal in the literature world. Funnily enough Jo’s new book is about the death of Barry, after which ‘a causal vacancy’ opens to take over his position – this is also a big deal for people of Pagford.

I think The Casual Vacancy is a metaphor for the empty hole or vacancy left after the end of the Harry Potter series in Jo’s life, and all the characters competing to take Barry’s place are metaphoric of story lines or even real characters in Jo’s mind, competing to take the place of the position that Harry Potter once held. As Andrew said on MuggleCast, the ‘casual’ part is sarcastic, which also fits perfectly.

I think as a writer Jo has produced a story which reflects the struggle of filling the high position Harry holds in literature. As a writer who has written about only one character her entire life, the idea came from the fact that she has a mind filled with a wealth of characters who are now competing to take his place.