The Road Goes Ever On: Teaching Tolkien In Colleges Today,
2026
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
The Road Goes Ever On: Teaching Tolkien In Colleges Today, Leslie A. Donovan, Megan B. Abrahamson, Cami D. Agan, Katherine Wyma, Joseph Rex Young
Mythcon
As Tolkien studies has evolved, Middle-earth no longer needs to be defended as a legitimate academic subject. Today, Tolkien’s works are commonly taught as literary classics in colleges and universities alongside other mythic traditions such as The Odyssey and Beowulf. For students, however, the meaning of “classic” can be complicated. Many students encounter Tolkien long before entering college through popular media, films, games, and digital fandom, while the historical, linguistic, and cultural contexts that informed his writing (war, philology, faith, and medievalism, among others) can feel increasingly distant. As a result, Tolkien’s works may seem both deeply familiar and …
Travel In Ryan Coogler’S Sinners: The Going-Ons Of The Smoke Stack Twins And Remmick,
2026
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Travel In Ryan Coogler’S Sinners: The Going-Ons Of The Smoke Stack Twins And Remmick, Mena Nizam
Mythcon
This paper explores the adventures of the Smoke Stack Twins, Remmick the Vampire, the themes of travel (via walking, running, driving) their jukebox joint, its placement in a sawmill along the Mississippi Travel/black issues/the character of Remmick. The theme is purely on travel and the symbolism of traveling while experiencing racism.
Shared Trauma, Shared Drama: Faërian Drama In Russian Doll And Elsewhere,
2026
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Shared Trauma, Shared Drama: Faërian Drama In Russian Doll And Elsewhere, Janet Croft
Mythcon
In his seminal essay “On Fairy-stories” (1939), J.R.R. Tolkien introduces the concept of Faërian drama: experiences with a “realism and immediacy beyond the compass of any human mechanism,” where the viewer feels he is “bodily inside [a] Secondary World” but instead is “in a dream that some other mind is weaving.” This framing structure is used, though not called by this name, in many other texts. In a series of four previously published essays, I have attempted to explore and codify this concept. Picking up a theme hinted at but not explored in my previous papers, what happens when the …
“He Had Named Himself The Stranger”: From 'Germanic' Heroic Hospitality To Elvish Memorial Mediation In Tolkien’S Book Of Lost Tales,
2026
University of Messina (Italy)
“He Had Named Himself The Stranger”: From 'Germanic' Heroic Hospitality To Elvish Memorial Mediation In Tolkien’S Book Of Lost Tales, Paolo Pizzimento Dr.
Journal of Tolkien Research
This article examines the narrative functions of strangeness and hospitality in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Book of Lost Tales, focusing on Eriol’s transformation from foreign traveller into listener, witness, and transmitter of Elvish tradition. Through a comparative reading of selected Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon texts—particularly Hávamál, Gylfaginning, and Beowulf—it identifies recurrent literary configurations in which hospitality regulates admission, identity, reciprocity, danger, and access to knowledge. The comparison is morphological rather than genetic: it does not posit direct derivation or a uniform Germanic code. Drawing on Jan Assmann’s theory of cultural memory, the article argues that Tolkien redirects …
Eschatological Echoes: Reading The Bible And The Harry Potter Series,
2026
Independent Researcher
Eschatological Echoes: Reading The Bible And The Harry Potter Series, Athira Mohan Dr
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
Death has been a major topic in children’s and adolescent literature , which has invited scholarly discourse over different ages. While death was very commonly featured in the puritanical texts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was also deemed to be a subject too sensitive for the genre of children’s literature in the early twentieth century(Aries 1975), due to a combination of factors such as lowered child mortality rate and heightened concern for childhood as a special social category. However, contemporary children’s and adolescent literature focuses on death as an important part of human life, and invites discussions on …
From The Forests With Hopes Of Paradise: Malay Muslims In The Victorian Imagination In Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim,
2026
Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
From The Forests With Hopes Of Paradise: Malay Muslims In The Victorian Imagination In Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim, M Irfan Zamzami, Rifka Pratama
Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts
This article examines how Lord Jim constructs and reconfigures Muslim identities within the discourse of British imperialism. While previous scholarship has explored the novel’s colonial politics, less attention has been paid to how its representations of Malay Muslims reveal the instability of Orientalist categories. Using Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism and Homi Bhabha’s theory of colonial ambivalence, the study applies close textual analysis of two key narrative moments: the omniscient narrator’s description of the Muslim pilgrims aboard the Patna and the depiction of Malay Muslims in Patusan. The analysis demonstrates that the Patna pilgrims are initially represented through familiar Orientalist …
Vibe Coding: Ai, Digital Text Recycling, And The Remediation Of Digital Poetry,
2026
The Nigeria French Language Village, Ajara-Badagry, Lagos, Nigeria,
Vibe Coding: Ai, Digital Text Recycling, And The Remediation Of Digital Poetry, Yohanna Joseph Waliya
ELO (un)supervised 2026
This paper theorises Vibe Coding as a novel method of AI-assisted creative practice within electronic literature. Vibe Coding describes an affective mode of communication with AI that enables coding via natural-language prompts, in which the author collaborates with generative AI systems to recycle, remediate, and reconfigure existing digital texts into new poetic forms, including interactive animations. Rather than treating code as a fixed procedural logic, Vibe Coding focuses on rhythm, intuition, and affect as central compositional forces shaping both textual production and computational interaction. Relying on theories of remediation, digital recycling, and posthuman authorship, the paper examines how AI functions …
A Modest Proposal For Discourse Analysis In Nonbinary Communities: Method And Case Study,
2026
Coastal Carolina University
A Modest Proposal For Discourse Analysis In Nonbinary Communities: Method And Case Study, Nikoli Michael Daigneault
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
While linguists have long used discourse analysis to study language variation in binary and nonnormative gender groups, nonbinary people have often been excluded from analyses or treated without a nonbinary-informed framework. Nevertheless, nonbinary language use can provide key insights into the relationship between gender and language. In this thesis, I propose Nonbinary Discourse Analysis, a set of recommendations and best practices for conducting discourse analysis in nonbinary communities. These methods are informed by previous empirical research on nonnormative gender identities and theoretical work in trans linguistics (Zimman, 2020) and trans epistemologies (Nordmarken, 2019; Raclaw, in press). To demonstrate the methodology, …
Compressed Cinema As A Study In Llm Latent Spaces,
2026
Stanford University
Compressed Cinema As A Study In Llm Latent Spaces, Mallen Clifton
ELO (un)supervised 2026
In his article “Spec Acts” (2021), Matthew Kirschenbaum analyzes the AI-generated novel 1 the Road to develop his titular concept of the spec act, “the future in its multitudes collapsing into an actionable present.” With the proliferation of texts produced by generative AI and subsequent critical analyses of them, one element in particular calls for further theorization: “the future in its multitudes,” or more directly, the latent space. This echoes arguments by critics such as Antonio Somaini, who offered his own “Theory of Latent Spaces” last year. However, where Somaini’s attention is towards visual culture, I turn mine to the …
The Viewing,
2026
University of Minnesota - Morris
The Viewing, Chloe Appert
Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal
No abstract provided.
America The Monstrous: The Birth Of American Horror Fiction In The Long Nineteenth Century,
2026
Loyola University of Chicago Graduate School
America The Monstrous: The Birth Of American Horror Fiction In The Long Nineteenth Century, Rachel Kietzman
Dissertations
American gothic works that center the affect of horror explore themes of abjection, inhumanity, and monstrosity that impede a coherent expression of American identity. By approaching these works through the lens of horror rather than only as Gothic works, a picture ofa visceral, embodied becoming takes shape: America is a monstrous birth in the most literal sense of the word, a sign and demonstration that unity and uniformity are not the same, that wholeness does not require conformity, and that political choices are paid for in flesh. In short, American horror fiction is the head of Medusa, an apotropaic sign …
The Music Of The Spheres In The Western Imagination (2022), By David J. Kendall,
2026
Independent scholar and librarian
The Music Of The Spheres In The Western Imagination (2022), By David J. Kendall, Brad Eden
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Bradford Lee Eden, of The Music of the Spheres in the Western Imagination (2022), by David J. Kendall
Arda Notebooks: The Best Of I Quaderni Di Arda (2026), Ed. By Roberto Arduini, Claudio A. Testi And Wu Ming 4.,
2026
Valparaiso University
Arda Notebooks: The Best Of I Quaderni Di Arda (2026), Ed. By Roberto Arduini, Claudio A. Testi And Wu Ming 4., Andrew Higgins
Journal of Tolkien Research
Book review, by Andrew Higgins, of Arda Notebooks: The Best of I Quaderni di Arda (2026), ed. by Roberto Arduini, Claudio A. Testi and Wu Ming 4.
"Then Daddy Began A Story": Storytelling In Tolkien’S Home And Our Own,
2026
Independent scholar
"Then Daddy Began A Story": Storytelling In Tolkien’S Home And Our Own, Josh Renaud
Journal of Tolkien Research
"Then Daddy began a story, and this is what he said." That's how J.R.R. Tolkien began the first manuscript version of "Farmer Giles of Ham," one of a few moments of fatherly storytelling to be found in his fiction. Tolkien is remembered today as a great author and artist, but in his home he was a loving parent who regaled his children with tales — a "story-telling presence," as his daughter Priscilla Tolkien put. In this presentation, I reflect on Tolkien as a "daddy" and oral storyteller, drawing on examples from Tolkien's life and writing. I also consider what storytelling …
Ideology In Translating Indonesian Political News Headlines From Indonesian To English: A Cda Study Of Antara,
2026
Universitas Indonesia
Ideology In Translating Indonesian Political News Headlines From Indonesian To English: A Cda Study Of Antara, Ferina A. Lestari, Haru Deliana Dewi
Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts
This study examines how ideology is constructed in the translation of Indonesian political news headlines into English by ANTARA News Agency. Moving beyond the notion of translation as mere equivalence, it conceptualizes headline translation as a process of discursive recontextualization shaped by institutional practices and audience design. Using a qualitative comparative approach, the study analyses 20 pairs of Indonesian English political headlines. The analysis implied Fairclough’s (1995) three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework. The dimensional focusing on textual features, discourse practice, and social practice. The findings reveal transformations, including omission of culturally specific details, addition of evaluative elements, lexical reframing, …
Tolkien, Modernism, And Mass Art,
2026
None
Tolkien, Modernism, And Mass Art, Matthew Thompson-Handell
Journal of Tolkien Research
A good deal has been written in the last 30 years on the extent to which Tolkien's work can be aligned or associated with literary modernism. Arguments have been made both for and against, though in spite of the range of perspectives that have been considered, what has been missed is the question of difficulty. A central characteristic of modernism is its difficulty, its inaccessibility to a non-specialized reader. The Lord of the Rings is not difficult, nor inaccessible - indeed it can readily be characterised as mass art by virtue of its accessibility.
Invisible Histories: Dwarf-Women And The Material Landscape Of Tolkien’S Middle-Earth,
2026
University of Glasgow
Invisible Histories: Dwarf-Women And The Material Landscape Of Tolkien’S Middle-Earth, Catherine Hall
Journal of Tolkien Research
Encounters with ruins are found throughout J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth tales. These ruins—or what Deborah Sabo (2007) terms ‘archaeological sites’—serve as symbols of the passage of time and the loss of past glory. Significantly, these archaeological sites are almost exclusively oriented toward the male heroic world; from ancient battlefields to statues commemorating fallen kings, burial mounds of legendary warriors, and the remnants of once-great halls built and ruled by men. Apart from Tol Morwen, mentioned only briefly in The Silmarillion, few sites across Middle-earth offer readers material clues about women’s history. These archaeological sites thus reproduce a gendered hierarchy of …
Reading List: Introduction To Mystery And Detective Literature,
2026
Gettysburg College
Reading List: Introduction To Mystery And Detective Literature, Jesse Cordes Selbin
Open Syllabus Collection
The bloody knife. The telltale footprint. The courtroom confession. We all know the cliches of the detective and mystery genres, so why do they remain novel even when you know “whodunit”? This class will investigate the literary and cultural factors that make detective fiction perennially popular, from Sherlock Holmes to your favorite true crime podcast. In order to explore central questions raised by mystery novels, short stories, poems, and plays about the craft of storytelling itself, we will read bestselling authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Charles Dickens, as well as lesser-known writers like …
Desert Desires And The War On Terror: Pre- And Post-9/11 Sheikh Romances,
2026
Portland State University
Desert Desires And The War On Terror: Pre- And Post-9/11 Sheikh Romances, Leena Altamimi
Book Publishing Final Research Papers
The existence of sheikh romances as a subgenre has prevailed for well over a century in Western literature. Therefore, would one be able to discern whether the book cover imagery as well as the textual content showcases any tangible differences pre and post 9/11, and America’s “war on terror” campaign? A total of five books are observed: The Sheik by E.M. Hull published in 1919, Sarah Holland’s Desert Destiny published in 1991, Loreth Anne White’s The Sheik Who Loved Me and Penny Jordan’s Possessed by the Sheikh (both published in 2005), and lastly Crowned for the Sheikh’s Baby by Sharon …
Colonial Futures: Ngaio Marsh, War, And The End Of Empire,
2026
CUNY York College
Colonial Futures: Ngaio Marsh, War, And The End Of Empire, Heather M. Robinson
Publications and Research
Between the years of 1941 and 1945, Ngaio Marsh published three New Zealand-focused whodunnits; all three of these stories explore the impacts of the Second World War to some degree. What is curious is not that Marsh wrote about the war, but her sustained focus on New Zealand and New Zealanders, given that Marsh’s fiction usually took place in London or its surrounding counties. It marks the impact on Marsh of the global conflict that was changing the world, and shaking the foundations of colonialism and modernity as they had been known before 1939. In this essay, I explore how …
