Rowling's Harry Potter books to be studied as great works at St Andrews university

Academics are today studying Harry Potter at St Andrews university at the first conference of its kind.

Sixty experts from around the world are examining the J K Rowling books as literary texts at the two-day event called A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature.

More than 50 lectures will cover subjects such as how the books deal with death, the role of empathy and the influence of C S  Lewis and J R R Tolkien. Delegates will debate how the books use paganism, magic, food and British national identity.

The event’s organiser John Patrick Pazdziora, of the Scottish university’s school of English, said: “The Harry Potter novels are simply the most important and influential children’s books of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.”

John Granger, author of The Deathly Hallows Lectures, said: “I take exception to the misinformed assumption that the books are ‘light on literary merit.’ ”