Harry Potter and Beyond: On J. K. Rowling's Fantasies and Other Fictions

by Tison Pugh

Harry Potter and Beyond explores J. K. Rowling's beloved best-selling series and its virtuoso reimagining of British literary traditions. Weaving together elements of fantasy, the school-story novel, detective fiction, allegory, and bildungsroman, the Harry Potter novels evade simplistic categorization as children's or fantasy literature. Because the Potter series both breaks new ground and adheres to longstanding narrative formulas, readers can enhance their enjoyment of these epic adventures by better understanding their place in literary history.

Along with the seven foundational novels of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and Beyond assesses the extraordinary range of supplementary material concerning the young wizard and his allies, including the films of the books, the subsequent film series of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them , the theatrical spectacle Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , and a range of other Potter-inspired narratives. Beyond the world of Potter, Pugh surveys Rowling's literary fiction The Casual Vacancy and her detective series featuring Cormoran Strike, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Through this comprehensive overview of Rowling's body of work, Pugh reveals the vast web of connections between yesteryear's stories and Rowling's vivid creations.

Genres: Harry Potter

168 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 2020

About the author

Tison Pugh is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of Queering Medieval Genres and Sexuality and Its Queer Discontents in Middle English Literature and has published on children’s literature in such journals as Children’s Literature, The Lion and the Unicorn, and Marvels and Tales.

Reviews

[Rachel Vincenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, wit and utterly engaging critical analysis of JK Rowling's writing style and main themes explored throughout her novels. Tison Pugh gives a clear, non-judgemental overview of Harry Potter's world underlying the key leitmotivis running through the seven books and enriching the insight with other literary critics' assessments and opinions.
It felt like reliving the magic but finally understanding Rowling's narrative characteristics and techniques, also deployed by her in the recent Strike & Ellacott murder series.

Thank you for writing this!
I highly recommend it to any nostalgic fan.

[Carolina Marques · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a placeholder for the fic “Beyond Recall or Desire”, by vannminner