Leseprobe
(B.Vasantha Kumar, Lecturer in English, N.P.R College of Engg & Tech, Natham 624401)
Children’s literature is a well-established literary genre especially written for children. It refers to “good quality trade books for children from birth to adolescence, covering topics of relevance and interests to children of those ages, through prose and poetry, fiction and nonfiction”( Lynch-Brown and Tomlinson 2). Joanne Kathleen Rowling's Harry Potter Series has immense response in the arena of children’s literature. It is a well-established literary piece that amuses and delights everyone irrespective of their age or class. It offers enjoyment to multiple audiences encouraging them to read independently and developing their imagination through the experience of entering a different world. It helps them to understand human values and makes them realize the universal reality of life in different aspects. Since Harry Potter Series navigates through roots, culture, heritage, tradition and history of their ancestors, it demands the attention and curiosity of the readers. Often, the characters provide unique situations and events that increase audiences’ mental reasoning and understanding of different walks of life. Experts believe that Harry Potter Series is an amalgam of fantasy and reality that educates and entertains multiple audiences. It offers enjoyment to children encouraging them to read independently.
The word fantasy is a literary term. As a literary term fantasy means any narrative that deals with the impossible is considered as fantasy. In general sense, fantasy has been applied to any literary work that does not give priority to realistic representation. It is one of the oldest genres and most fantasy stories come from epics, mythologies and other ancient civilizations. Some of the first Fantasy stories are Mhabarahta, Ramayana Odyssey Aeneid . Within the spectrum of fantasy readers have Myths, Legends, Folks, Fairly Tales, Science Fiction and Horror stories. Fantasy includes the action in the character and the setting that are impossible under ordinary conditions or in the natural course of human events. Impossible is possible in the fantastic world and the prominent examples are Gulliver’s Travels, Alice in Wonderland and Harry potter Series. Of course the works are heterogeneous in sprit and purpose. The only thing in them is the fantastic. The term ‘Fantastic’ is derived from the Latin word ‘Phantasticus’ which means ‘to make visible or manifest. In this general sense, all imaginary activity is fantastic, all literary works are fantasies.
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