Scholars Congregate in Scotland to Discuss Literary Merits of Harry Potter Books
May 17, 2012
Books
According to BBC News, a group of more than 60 scholars have congregated at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland to discuss the literary merits of the Harry Potter series over the next two days.
The conference, entitled “A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature,” will feature over 50 lectures about the series with topics ranging from the role of paganism, British national identity and how death is dealt with in the books. A complete anthology based on this conference is expected to be published in 2013.
Conference organizer, Professor John Patrick Pazdziora, had this to say about putting together such a conference:
“We can’t avoid the fact that Harry Potter is
the main narrative experience of an entire generation – the children who
literally grew up with Harry Potter.
“The Harry Potter novels are simply the most important and
influential children’s books of the late-20th and early 21st Centuries.”
“For very many people, this is their first
experience of literature, and of literary art. So they want to think
about it, and analyse it, and talk about it.”