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Medieval Realism And Mythopoeia: Philosophy And Literature In Tolkien, Diego Klautau

Journal of Tolkien Research

This article focuses on the relationship between philosophy and literature in J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay On Fairy-stories. Delivered as a lecture in 1939 and published in 1947, the text presents the author’s conception of the literary genre known as “fairy-stories” and, in this article, I explore the possible philosophical and theological mediations and references in Tolkien’s investigation. The objectives of this article are twofold: to highlight the literary theory proposed by Tolkien as part of the philosophical tradition of medieval realism, with conceptual correspondences in Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas; and to demonstrate Tolkien’s original contribution to the appreciation …