Controversial Issues in/surrounding the Harry Potter books

Abstract

This thesis deals with the reception of book series Harry Potter (1997 – 2007) by Joanne Rowling. Despite the fact, that the book series has been a worldwide phenomenon, there are many controversial issues proposed either by literary critics or pedagogues and discussed among general readership. The aim of this thesis is to research, analyse, and evaluate questions (more precisely motives, themes, plot elements, and characters) which are perceived as controversial or evoke negative reactions. The research is based on relevant critical resources and the arguments are supported or confronted by the primary work. The conclusion summarizes the analysis applying the reader-response theory and expresses a more general inference about the issues of critical points of views and negative reception of Harry Potter.