Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages

by J. Chance (Editor), A. Siewers (Editor)

Overview

J.R.R. Tolkien delved into the Middle Ages to create a critique of the modern world in his fantasy, yet did so in a form of modernist literature with postmodern implications and huge commercial success. These essays examine that paradox and its significance in understanding the intersection between traditionalist and counter-culture criticisms of the modern. The approach helps to explain the popularity of his works, the way in which they continue to be brought into dialogue with Twenty-First century issues, and their contested literary significance in the academy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230616790
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	07/13/2009
Series:	The New Middle Ages
Edition description:	2008
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jane Chance is Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Rice University, USA.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages?; J.Chance & A.K.Siewers A Postmodern Medievalist; V.Flieger The Medievalist's Fiction; G.Nagy Tolkien, Dustsceawung, and the Gnomic Tense; J.R.Holmes The Reanimation of Antiquity and the Resistance to History: Macpherson-Scott-Tolkien; J.Hunter Archaism, Nostalgia, and Tennysonian War in The Lord of the Rings; A.Lynch Pastoralia and Perfectibility in Tolkien and William Morris; C.N.Scoville English, Welsh, and Elvish; D.Dawson Fantastic Medievalism and the Great War in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and David Jones's In Parenthesis; R.Long Tolkien's Cosmic-Christian Ecology; A.K.Siewers Fear of Difference, Fear of Death; B.McFadden Tolkien and the Other; J.Chance Similar but not Similar; T.Nasmith Tolkien in New Zealand: Man, Myth, and Movie; M.N.Stanton Bibliography Contributors Index

Editorial Reviews

"The reconsideration and further development of commentary on the disparate sources of, influences on, and analogues to LotR that I have summarized here make Tolkien's Modern Middle Ages a worthy addition to the canon of Tolkien scholarship." - W.A. Senior, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

"The outward appearance of this nicely designed volume spells 'quality' - and indeed, fair is not foul (though, as we all know, not all that is gold glitters . . .). The overall quality of the essays assembled in this collection is quite high and the two editors did a good job in dividing the fourteen papers into four parts - the medieval in postmodern Middle-earth, Middle-earth and Victorian medivalism, modern ideologies in Middle-earth, and visualizing medievalism in Middle-earth . . . To sum up: the collection is an interesting example of what happens when medievalists (most of them anyway) read modern theories and apply them to Tolkien's work." - Hither Shore

From the Publisher