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Complexity in JK Rowlings Harry Potter series
2003 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor)Student thesis
Abstract [en]

J. K. Rowling addresses her audience in a fun and humorous way by placing her Harry Potter story in an exciting, imaginative fantasy setting. The protagonist, Harry Potter, is no ordinary boy, but one born into the magical world of wizards and witches (a world which exists alongside the ordinary world of common folk, who are referred to as Muggles). One can easily ask oneself what it is in this fantasy-fairytale-detective story that has prompted the Harry Potter series to become the best-selling novels published and internationally the most widely acclaimed fictional books of recent years, and “the most challenged … and banned books of our time” (Gupta 15-18). Although Rowling’s Harry Potter novels have come to be categorized as children’s literature, it is interesting to note that she attracts both children and adult readers at home and abroad. Philip Nel in his book J. K. Rowling and the Harry Potter Novels explains: “The ability of the novels to deal with these hard questions [that loss may be permanent, evil ever-present, good exhaustible] reminds us that the Harry Potter series – like all good children’s literature – is not only for children. … Rowling, too, has written the Harry Potter novels for people of all ages” (50). Thus, we can attribute some of Rowling’s popularity (and provocation) not only to refusing to shy away from unpleasant questions about life, but especially to her ability to write in a manner that engages all ages, both young and old. Roni Natov also comments on Rowling’s appeal to different age groups in her article “Harry Potter and the Extraordinariness of the Ordinary”: The unprecedented popularity of the Harry Potter stories, not only with sophisticated readers of a wide range of ages, but with new readers, those who previously resisted reading, suggests that rather than flat, knee-jerk responses, children are drawn to complexity and reflection… integrated, always, in the real and recognizable world it is the child’s mission to negotiate and struggle through. (139)

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2003. , p. 21
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-53738Local ID: ENG C-16OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-53738DiVA, id: diva2:1102298
Subject / course
English
Available from: 2017-05-29 Created: 2017-05-29

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