Children aren’t the only ones who find the Harry Potter books magical, according to five Northwestern professors.
In a panel discussion Tuesday evening, professors from the English, history and religion departments examined the series’ merits in their respective fields of study.
Speaking to an audience that nearly filled Harris 107, the professors had the opportunity to comment on the series by drawing from their academic expertise.
The Harry Potter series, a seven-book collection written by British author J.K. Rowling, has gained international success since the first book’s publication in 1998. Since then, six of the seven novels in the series have been written, and the first four have been developed into Hollywood films.
Despite a lack of innovative narrative style, the novels make readers think about whether there is a distinction between classic literature and popular literature, said Liz Trubey, a lecturer in English and a Weinberg adviser.
Trubey said the appeal of the books is the ease with which readers can relate to the world of the magical characters.
“The characters occupy a world similar to the one we live in,” Trubey said.
But the key magical component in the books, a magician’s wand, actually wasn’t used in alchemy practices during the Middle Ages, said Richard Kieckhefer, a professor of religion and history and chairman of the religion department.
Kieckhefer compared the use of medieval magical tools to the ones found in the books.
Professors also connected the narrative and literary devices used in the books to devices seen in other literary works.
Barbara Newman, a professor of English, religion and classics, related the elements of a medieval quest story to the novels by giving examples from the books.
“All classical quest romances begin with an untried youth of exceptional birth,” Newman said. “In the Harry Potter stories, Harry is ‘the boy who lived.'”
Newman said the series borrows from three genres of literature: the British schoolboy story, magical fantasies and the medieval quests for romance.
Like other novels written in the style of the traditional schoolboy story, the Harry Potter books use elements such as the dual relationship between children and adults, according to Carrie Wasinger. Adults can act as antagonists or as mentors to the young hero.
The author’s use of Quidditch, a sport played on flying broomsticks, and Harry’s brushes with death are ways that the novels link moral development to nationalism, a feat schoolboy novels were meant to accomplish, said Wasinger, a visiting assistant professor of English.
Personal development of characters also comes across through the use of nostalgia, said William West, associate professor of English.
The nostalgia in Harry Potter reminds readers of the pain of returning to one’s original beliefs after maturing in thought.
“The nostalgia in Harry Potter keeps reminding us of how there is this pain to return (home) and how it provokes a powerful feeling,” West said. “Later volumes (in the series) spend more time recovering the past to deal with the present.”
Some undergraduate and graduate students attended the presentation to hear how their interpretations of the novels compared to those of academic readers.
“I have never had any discussions related to Harry Potter where I have not taken something away,” said Andrea Southgate, a graduate student studying biological conservation.
Reach Marcy Miranda at [email protected].
