The timely collection of essays is thematically unified around the subject of corporeality. Its theoretical underpinnings emerge out of feminist, foucauldian, patristic and queer hermeneutics. The book is organized into categories specific to transformation, spirit versus body, discourse, and source material. More than one essay focuses on female bodies and on the monstrous or evil body. While Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is central to most analyses, authors also cover The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and material in The History of Middle-earth.

The work of J.R.R. Tolkien has had a profound effect on contemporary fiction and filmmaking. Often disparaged by critics, Tolkien's fiction created a market for the "fantasy trilogy" and his academic work represents an innovative contribution to the field of philology. In the 20th century, his fiction bridged the gap between "learned" and "popular" readerships. Today the fantasy genre continues to grow--even as publishers cut back on creative fiction--moving energetically into film, gaming and online fan fiction. This book describes how Tolkien's imaginative landscape continues to entertain and inspire, drawing new generations to Middle-earth.

This exciting collection of essays explores the role of the Other in Tolkien’s fiction, his life, and the pertinent criticism. It critically examines issues of gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, language, and identity in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and lesser-known works by Tolkien. The chapters consider characters such as Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, Saruman, Éowyn, and the Orcs as well as discussions of how language and identity function in the source texts. The analysis of Tolkien’s work is set against an examination of his life, personal writing, and beliefs. Each essay takes as its central position the idea that how Tolkien responds to that which is different, to that which is “Other,” serves as a register of his ethics and moral philosophy. In the aggregate, they provide evidence of Tolkien’s acceptance of alterity.

A philologist and medieval scholar, J. R. R. Tolkien never intended to write immensely popular literature that would challenge traditional ideas about the nature of great literature and that was worthy of study in colleges across the world. He set out only to write a good story, the kind of story he and his friends would enjoy reading. In The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien created an entire world informed by his vast knowledge of mythology, languages, and medieval literature. In the 1960s, his books unexpectedly gained cult status with a new generation of young, countercultural readers. Today, the readership for Tolkien's absorbing secondary world--filled with monsters, magic, adventure, sacrifice, and heroism--continues to grow. Part 1 of this volume, "Materials," introduces instructors to the rich array of resources available for teaching Tolkien, including editions and criticism of his fiction and scholarship, historical material on his life and times, audiovisual materials, and film adaptations of his fiction. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," help instructors introduce students to critical debates around Tolkien's work, its sources, its influence, and its connection to ecology, religion, and science. Contributors draw on interdisciplinary approaches to outline strategies for teaching Tolkien in a wide variety of classroom contexts.

This book examines key points of J. R. R. Tolkien’s life and writing career in relation to his views on humanism and feminism, particularly his sympathy for and toleration of those who are different, deemed unimportant, or marginalized—namely, the Other. Jane Chance argues such empathy derived from a variety of causes ranging from the loss of his parents during his early life to a consciousness of the injustice and violence in both World Wars. As a result of his obligation to research and publish in his field and propelled by his sense of abjection and diminution of self, Tolkien concealed aspects of the personal in relatively consistent ways in his medieval adaptations, lectures, essays, and translations, many only recently published. These scholarly writings blend with and relate to his fictional writings in various ways depending on the moment at which he began teaching, translating, or editing a specific medieval work and, simultaneously, composing a specific poem, fantasy, or fairy-story. What Tolkien read and studied from the time before and during his college days at Exeter and continued researching until he died opens a door into understanding how he uniquely interpreted and repurposed the medieval in constructing fantasy.

This fascinating study places multiple genres in dialogue and considers both medievalism and genre to be frameworks from which meaning can be produced. It explores works from a wide range of genres-children's and young adult, historical, cyberpunk, fantasy, science fiction, romance, and crime-and across multiple media-fiction, film, television, video games, and music. The range of media types and genres enable comparison, and the identification of overarching trends, while also allowing comparison of contrasting phenomena. As the first volume to explore the nexus of medievalism and genre across such a wide range of texts, this collection illustrates the fractured ideologies of contemporary popular culture. The Middle Ages are more usually, and often more prominently, aligned with conservative ideologies, for example around gender roles, but the Middle Ages can also be the site of resistance and progressive politics. Exploring the interplay of past and present, and the ways writers and readers work engage with them demonstrates the conscious processes of identity construction at work throughout Western popular culture. The collection also demonstrates that while scholars may have by-and-large abandoned the concept of accuracy when considering contemporary medievalisms, the Middle Ages are widely associated with authenticity, and the authenticity of identity, in the popular imagination; the idea of the real Middle Ages matters, even when historical realities do not. This book will be of interest to scholars of medievalism, popular culture, and genre.

In this book, Lisa Coutras explores the structure and complexity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s narrative theology, synthesizing his Christian worldview with his creative imagination. She illustrates how, within the framework of a theological aesthetics, transcendental beauty is the unifying principle that integrates all aspects of Tolkien’s writing, from pagan despair to Christian joy. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Christianity is often held in an unsteady tension with the pagan despair of his mythic world. Some critics portray these as incompatible, while Christian analysis tends to oversimplify the presence of religious symbolism. This polarity of opinion testifies to the need for a unifying interpretive lens. The fact that Tolkien saw his own writing as “religious” and “Catholic,” yet was preoccupied with pagan mythology, nature, language, and evil, suggests that these areas were wholly integrated with his Christian worldview. Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty examines six structural elements, demonstrating that the author’s Christianity is deeply embedded in the narrative framework of his creative imagination.

Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth is the first systematic examination of how Tolkien understood racial issues, how race manifests in his oeuvre, and how race in Middle-earth, his imaginary realm, has been understood, criticized, and appropriated by others. This book presents an analysis of Tolkien’s works for conceptions of race, both racist and anti-racist. It begins by demonstrating that Tolkien was a racialist, in that his mythology is established on the basis of different races with different characteristics, and then poses the key question “Was Tolkien racist?” Robert Stuart engages the discourse and research associated with the ways in which racism and anti-racism relate Tolkien to his fascist and imperialist contemporaries and to twenty-first-century neo-Nazis and White Supremacists—including White Supremacy, genocide, blood-and-soil philology, anti-Semitism, and aristocratic racism. Addressing a major gap in the field of Tolkien studies, Stuart focuses on race, racisms and the Tolkien legendarium.

The new edition of the definitive academic companion to Tolkien’s life and literature A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien provides readers with an in-depth examination of the author’s life and works, covering Tolkien’s fiction and mythology, his academic writing, and his continuing impact on contemporary literature and culture. Presenting forty-one essays by a panel of leading scholars, the Companion analyzes prevailing themes found in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, posthumous publications such as The Silmarillion and The Fall of Arthur, lesser-known fiction and poetry, literary essays, and more. This second edition of the Companion remains the most complete and up-to-date resource of its kind, encompassing new Tolkien publications, original scholarship, The Hobbit film adaptations, and the biographical drama Tolkien. Five entirely new essays discuss the history of fantasy literature, the influence of classical mythology on Tolkien, folklore and fairytales, diversity, and Tolkien fandom. This Companion also: Explores Tolkien’s impact on art, film, music, gaming, and later generations of fantasy fiction writers Discusses themes such as mythmaking, medieval languages, nature, war, religion, and the defeat of evil Presents a detailed overview of Tolkien’s legendarium, including Middle-earth mythology and invented languages and writing systems Includes a brief chronology of Tolkien’s works and life, further reading suggestions, and end-of-chapter bibliographies A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien, Second Edition is essential reading for anyone formally studying or teaching Tolkien in academic settings, and an invaluable resource for general readers with interest in Tolkien’s works or fans of the films wanting to discover more.

There is a very great deal we can learn by examining an author’s sources, to which countless source studies of Beowulf, Geoffrey Chaucer, Shakespeare, James Joyce, and many others stand as proof. But this book J.R.R Tolkien: A Critical Study is about examining his all works. His works were made, what right do we have to gainsay him? Finding a satisfactory answer to that question is partly the subject of this collection. For the moment, suffice it to say that we believe scholars have every right, and that the value of what we can learn about an author and his works, as well as the greater appreciation this engenders. This critical study is concerned with both the theory and the practice of source criticism, as applied to the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Over the past forty years or so, source study has emerged as one of the most popular approaches in Tolkien studies. And with good reason, for it has long been known that Tolkien drew from a wide range of disparate sources in the construction of his legendarium from The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and beyond. An understanding of the sources Tolkien utilized, as well as how and why he incorporated them can enhance readers’ appreciation of his works immeasurably. There has long been a need for a carefully constructed book that addresses two basic aspects of this specialized field of Tolkien studies. First, it should describe the theory and methodology for proper source criticism of Tolkien’s works. Second, it should demonstrate source criticism, translating theory into praxis.