Journal article
Whiteness, medievalism, immigration: rethinking Tolkien through Stuart Hall
Postmedieval a journal of medieval cultural studies, Vol.12(1-4), pp.29-51
12/01/2021
DOI: 10.1057/s41280-021-00207-x
Abstract
This essay rethinks Tolkien's scholarship and fiction in light of his rejection at Oxford of Stuart Hall, who approached him regarding graduate work on William Langland. I argue that Tolkien's white medievalism contains his most deeply felt racist formations, which both shaped his fiction and informed his life in a university town populated by West Indian immigrants. After examining Tolkien's essentialist approach to medieval study, I examine how Tolkien believed that his innate knowledge about his ancestors' language and myths enabled him to create a national mythology, and how his fiction depicts its heroes' inheritance of their ancestral tongue and temperament. I then consider how Tolkien's supposed memory of an Atlantis-like disaster befalling his ancestors may have intersected with his rejection of immigrants like Hall. I conclude by discussing how, while Tolkien's epic fantasies may be appropriated successfully for various ends, they present unique challenges for a significant component of Tolkien's readership, medievalists.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Whiteness, medievalism, immigration: rethinking Tolkien through Stuart Hall
- Creators
- Kathy Lavezzo - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Postmedieval a journal of medieval cultural studies, Vol.12(1-4), pp.29-51
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- DOI
- 10.1057/s41280-021-00207-x
- ISSN
- 2040-5960
- eISSN
- 2040-5979
- Number of pages
- 23
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/01/2021
- Academic Unit
- English
- Record Identifier
- 9984418907402771
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