English Language and Literature Commons^™

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Sub-Creation, And Theories Of Authorship, Benjamin Saxton

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Tolkien is unfortunately underrated as a theorist in literary studies—in fact, alas, generally invisible to the mainstream. This essay draws attention to his ideas about sub-creation and allegorical “dominion” of the reader, contrasting Tolkien’s stated and implied theories with those of Roland Barthes, and elucidating Tolkien’s concern with “the delicate balance between authors, authority, and interpretive freedom.” Saxton draws on “Leaf by Niggle,” The Silmarillion, and The Lord of the Rings for examples of Tolkien’s theories in action.

"The Inner Consistency Of Reality": Intermediacy In The Hobbit, Nicholas Birns

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Especially concerned with Bilbo’s characterization, unusual in children’s literature, as middle-aged, but also addresses other issues of world-building and story structure that reinforce this motif of “starting in the middle”: maps, the sense of the past, racial characteristics and relations. Birns draws interesting contrasts with the Alice in Wonderland and Oz books.

Letters: A Narnian Clarification, Michael Ward

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Responds to a critique that his Planet Narnia thesis does not take into account Lewis’s letter to Laurence Kreig; explains his “incremental plan” hypothesis.

Of Spiders And Elves, Joyce Tally Lionarons

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

A stimulating look at the parallels and contrasts between imagery associated with spiders and Elves, especially female elves, in Tolkien’s legendarium, and how this imagery of light and shadow, spinning and weaving, climbing and descending, also underpins themes of sexuality and fertility in Middle-earth.

Disparaging Narnia: Reconsidering Tolkien's View Of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Josh B. Long

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Addresses the perennial question of J.R.R. Tolkien’s dislike for C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, carefully analyzing numerous first- and second-hand accounts from biographies, interviews, and letters. A previously unpublished letter from Tolkien to Eileen Elgar adds a new and more nuanced element to our understanding of this issue.

"But Grace Is Not Infinite": Tolkien's Explorations Of Nature And Grace In His Catholic Context, Phillip Irving Mitchell

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Adds to our understanding of Tolkien’s created theology and the place of Faerie in his sub-creation by examining contemporary real world theological debates which might have influenced his thinking, including discussions of the supernatural like Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical Humani Generis.

Sméagol And Déagol: Secrecy, History, And Ethical Subjectivity In Tolkien's World, E. J. Christie

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Uses the characters Sméagol and Déagol as jumping-off points to explore issues of secrecy, surveillance, propaganda, and censorship that were increasingly coming to the fore during World War I and the inter-war years. Although significant issues in their own right, these trends also point to a growing individual privileging of self-concealment and discretion over openness and intimacy, a process that dehumanized and eroded the social fabric. The Ring crystallizes these concerns into a single object, and Gollum’s relationship to it especially creates a tangle of themes of revealing and concealing. Also discusses Tolkien’s peculiar talent for “creation from philology” building …

Reviews, Emily E. Auger, Carl Badgley, Nicholas Birns, Joe R. Christopher, Janet Brennan Croft, Troels Forchhammer, Scott Mclaren, Holly Ordway, Harley Sims

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

C.S. Lewis, Poetry, and the Great War 1914-1918. John Bremer. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher.

Collected Poems. Hope Mirrlees. Ed. and intro. Sandeep Parmar. Reviewed by Nicholas Birns.

Fantasy, Art and Life: Essays on George MacDonald, Robert Louis Stevenson and Other Fantasy Writers. William Gray. Reviewed by Scott McLaren.

C. S. Lewis and the Middle Ages. Robert Boenig. Reviewed by Holly Ordway.

Sherlock Holmes for the 21st Century: Essays on New Adaptations. Edited by Lynnette Porter. Reviewed by Janet Brennan Croft.

Dancing the Tao: Le Guin and Moral Development. Sandra J. Lindow. Reviewed by Carl Badgley.

Hobbit Place-names: A Linguistic …

Ruth: The Power Of Personality And The Comedic Promise Of Deliverance, Elisabeth German, Dr. Steve Walker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

For my project, I wrote a chapter for Dr. Walker’s book on humor and the Bible entitled, Man Thinks, God Laughs. The purpose of the book is to teach readers to see the text of the Bible through a helpful (albeit atypical) lens: that of humor. While reading the Bible with a purey straight-faced approach, we can often miss beautiful and inspiring moral lessons that simply were not visible without the reader’s awareness of the comedy contained therein.

"A Base And Pernicious Vice": Gambling In The Regency Era, Chelcie Hinders

Pride and Prejudice: The Bicentennial

The author reviews Josiah Woodard's A Disswasive from Gaming and Sir William Addington An Abridgement of Penal Statues to discuss gambling as in Pride Prejudice.

April 12, 2013: "Tony's Tigers": Please Support The Relay For Life Team In Honor Of Dr. Anthony Ellis, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

No abstract provided.

Welcome To 'Notes And Discoveries'

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

The New Science And Women’S Literary Discourse: Prefiguring Frankenstein, Ed. By Judy A. Hayden, Laura Miller

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Women’S Literacy In Early Modern Spain And The New World, Ed. By Anne J. Cruz And Rosilie Hernández, Kirsten Schultz

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Dutch And Flemish Masterworks From The Rose-Marie And Eijk Van Otterloo Collection Mfa-Houston (Nov. 13 2011-Feb. 12, 2012), David Mazella

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

The Experience Of Domestic Service For Women In Early Modern London, Ed. By Paula Humfrey, Marisa Iglesias

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Multiplying Worlds: Romanticism, Modernity, And The Emergence Of Virtual Reality, By Peter Otto, Stacey Kikendall

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Separated By Their Sex: Women In Public And Private In The Colonial Atlantic World, By Mary Beth Norton, Leigh Johnson

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.

Living In A Digital World: Rethinking Peer Review, Collaboration, And Open Access, Sheila Cavanagh

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

No abstract provided.