Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy

by Janice M. Bogstad (Editor), Philip E. Kaveny (Editor)

Overview

This group of new critical essays offers multidisciplinary analysis of director Peter Jackson's spectacularly successful adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). Part One of the collection, "Techniques of Structure and Story," compares and contrasts the organizational principles of the books and films. Part Two, "Techniques of Character and Culture," focuses on the methods used to transform the characters and settings of Tolkien's narrative into the personalities and places visualized on screen. Each of the sixteen essays includes extensive notes and a separate bibliography.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786446360
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	08/23/2011
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	309
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Janice M. Bogstad is a professor of women’s studies and English and head of technical services at the McIntyre Library, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. Her written work has appeared in more than 60 reference books. University of Wisconsin–Madison Emeritus Philip E. Kaveny is an independent scholar, author, playwright, poet and lecturer.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Preface by Janice M. Bogstad and Philip E. Kaveny     
Introduction     

I. Techniques of Story and Structure
Gollum Talks to Himself: Problems and Solutions in Peter Jackson’s Film Adaptation of The Lord of the Rings
KRISTIN THOMPSON     
Sometimes One Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures
VERLYN FLIEGER     
Two Kinds of Absence: Elision and Exclusion in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
JOHN D. RATELIFF     
Tolkien’s Resistance to Linearity: Narrating The Lord of the Rings in Fiction and Film
E.L. RISDEN     
Filming Folklore: Adapting Fantasy for the Big Screen through Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
DIMITRA FIMI     
Making the Connection on Page and Screen in Tolkien’s and Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
YVETTE KISOR     
“It’s Alive!”: Tolkien’s Monster on the Screen
SHARIN SCHROEDER     
The Matériel of Middle- earth: Arms and Armor in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy
ROBERT C. WOOSNAM- SAVAGE     

II. Techniques of Character and Culture
Into the West: Far Green Country or Shadow on the Waters?
JUDY ANN FORD and ROBIN ANNE REID     
Frodo Lives but Gollum Redeems the Blood of Kings
PHILIP E. KAVENY     
The Grey Pilgrim: Gandalf and the Challenges of Characterization in Middle- earth
BRIAN D. WALTER     
Jackson’s Aragorn and the American Superhero Monomyth
JANET BRENNAN CROFT     
Neither the Shadow nor the Twilight: The Love Story of Aragorn and Arwen in Literature and Film
RICHARD C. WEST     
Concerning Horses: Establishing Cultural Settings from Tolkien to Jackson
JANICE M. BOGSTAD     
The Rohirrim, the Anglo- Saxons, and the Problem of Appendix F : Ambiguity, Analogy and Reference in Tolkien’s Books and Jackson’s Films
MICHAEL D.C. DROUT     
Filming the Numinous: The Fate of Lothlórien in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings
JOSEPH RICKE and CATHERINE BARNETT     

About the Contributors     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

extraordinary...fascinating”—Midwest Book Review; “will be of interest to scholars and fans...a worthwhile study”—Mythlore; “a valuable addition to the critical examination of the relationship between Tolkien’s novel and Jackson’s films...the editors are to be commended for providing a venue for nuanced, interdisciplinary approaches to Jackson’s adaptations”—Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.

From the Publisher

"a valuable addition to the critical examination of the relationship between Tolkien's novel and Jackson's films...the editors are to be commended for providing a venue for nuanced, interdisciplinary approaches to Jackson's adaptations"

Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

will be of interest to scholars and fans...a worthwhile study

Mythlore

extraordinary...fascinating

Midwest Book Review