Saturday, May 26, 2012

Harry Potter in Academia?


JK Rowling’s books about the Hogwarts wizard have been the subject of academic debate.

From a piece in the Telegraph...

In the 600-year-old halls of St Andrews University, a group of leading academics is discussing a piece of literature. Not just any old literature: this, they say, is “the narrative experience of an entire generation”. In a series of 50 lectures, culminating today, the scholars will debate themes of death, empathy and paganism, as well as comparisons with J R R Tolkein and Chaucer. Their subject? The seven Harry Potter books by J K Rowling. 
The conference, A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature, is the first event in the world to look at the series as a literary text. Sixty academics from the US, South Africa, India and Australia will examine the themes, allegories and narrative structure of the boy wizard’s adventures. Organiser John Patrick Pazdziora, from the university’s School of English, has invited discussion on topics such as British national identity, politics and education. 
“As a literary text it’s a fertile area of study,” he tells me. “There are so many allusions and connections to myths in her work. Now that the films are over and Pottermore.com has launched, it’s time to start analysing them.”



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