Literature in English, British Isles Commons^™

Panel: The Fair And The Perilous: Online Experiences Of A Queer-Focused Tolkien Podcast, Alicia Fox-Lenz, Leah Hagan, Tim Lenz, Grace Moone

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

The team behind Queer Lodgings: A Tolkien Podcast share the social media realities of producing content centered around LGBTQIA+ readings of Tolkien’s Legendarium. Discussion will include uplifting and diverse community events, backlash against the very idea of queer readings of Tolkien, targeted harassment campaigns involving large conservative media news outlets, and attempted erasure of well-documented historical instances of homophobia in Tolkien spaces. We aim to illuminate some of the darker corners of online fandom, and demonstrate the importance of accepting, tolerant spaces in which queer and diverse fans and scholars can share their personal interpretations of Tolkien’s worlds, characters, and …

Ancient Queer Bodies: The Gender Swapping Prophet, Basil Perkins

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Through an intersectional approach which positions sexuality and gender in direct

relation to cultural imperialism (O’Sullivan, 2021; Lugones, 2020), I aim to discuss the origins of Tiresias. (S)he is ubiquitous in ancient mythology: showing up in classicized texts such as Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Homer’s Odyssey. Interestingly too, Tiresias has been received since antiquity in texts such as Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Woolf’s Orlando, and MacLaughlin’s Wake, Siren. Each receptive work transforms Tiresias through fantastical contexts and different temporalities. I aim to queer Western notions of temporality, in reading the contemporary along with the ancient. The bulk of my …

"A Legacy Forced, Not Given": "Otherness" And Rape In The Morte Darthur And Tracy Deonn's Legendborn, Lindsay Church

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Arthurian narratives have traditionally worked to establish the collective memory of a shared past that has resulted in them regularly aligning with hegemonic ideologies. The continual retelling and adaptation of the Arthurian narrative can thus be recognized as consistently relying on and upholding a narrow understanding of who is accepted within the borders of Camelot and who is made Othered, and often monstrous, by those borders. However, there has been an increase in scholarship that has begun to read and write Arthurian literature from the ‘Other side’ in a way that asks readers to consider who the Arthurian mythos have …

Reading, Rending, And Queering The Web Of Story With The Lens Of “Con-Creation” And Process Theology, Cameron Bourquein, Nick Polk

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Recent scholarship has addressed the connected problems of Tolkien as “Author/Author(ity)” and the exclusivist readings of Tolkien’s work that follow this construction (Chunodkar, Emanuel, Reid). This “constructed Tolkien” seems to parallel common readings of his Legendarium’s own Creator God, Eru—understood as the monolithic “Author” of Ea. Yet “subcreation” within Tolkien’s narrative and extra-narrative works is routinely exhibited not as monolithic but rather as literally (and figuratively) multivocal, and hence inherently queer.

In this paper Cameron will propose that the Legendarium can be read through the lens of “con-creation” (the total choice-making activity of all rational beings) both internally as events …

No Place: The Queer Utopia Of Liminality, Harry Gallagher

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

My proposal is a paper on the inherent queerness of the liminal in Jeff Vandermeer’s works, through examples such as the transitional narrative present in the transformation of the Biologist in Annihilation. Especially pertinent is the inherent fighting of Yonic/Phallic imagery happening between her interpretation of a concrete structure as a tower as opposed to a tunnel, which is important to understanding how the Biologist’s trans-masculinity manifests symbolically in the narrative as antithesis to the other cis women on the expedition. Vandermeer’s liminal space in Dead Astronauts also connects to the characters of Moss, a non-binary life form who exists …

Towards An Ethos Of Discussing In-Corporeal Gender In Fantasy Literature: Part I – A ‘Feminine’ Eldil And A ‘Masculine’ Vala, Luke Shelton

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people engaged with others on social media in ways that they had not before. During this time, I was excited to see many new interpretive communities begin and to listen to the kinds of conversations these groups would have about Tolkien. One such conversation that stuck out to me was the way in which I saw some fans interpret Tolkien’s description of the physical characteristics of the Valar. I also happened to be reading through C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy when I saw many of these conversations. I felt that there were several …

I'D Rather Be A River Than A Man: The Trans Jewish Golem/ Trans Inequity, Intersectional Ritual, And Jewish Tikkun Olam (Healing Of The World), Dean Leetal, Valerie Estelle Frankel

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

I'd Rather Be a River than a Man: The Trans Jewish Golem Dean Leetal

This critical commentary revisits the Jewish story of the Golem and reads it as a transgender text. Some say that the Golem inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a story famously interpreted by Susan Stryker as an allegory for her own trans experience: living on the edge of society, her humanity debated, defined by a morally questionable medical establishment. But there are important differences between Frankenstein and the Golem. The Golem is brought to life through language, particularly the Hebrew word ‘emet,’ and is an animated clay tasked …

A Queer Reading Of Octavia Butler’S Kindred, Marietta Kosma

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Throughout Octavia Butler’s Kindred the author raises numerous tensions around the notions of accessibility, disability, equality, and inclusion, exposing the crisis of black futures. My analysis focuses on the way that queerness informs the protagonist Dana’s experiences in the context of slavery, her positioning in the contemporary discourse of neo-liberalism, and her positioning in the prospective future. Very few scholars perceive Dana’s subjectivity as an actual state of being that carries value both materially as well as metaphorically. The materiality of queerness has not constituted part of the larger discourse of the American slave system. By examining how Butler renders …

Sauron, Seduction, And The Queering Mechanism Of The Ring, Mercury Natis

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

It has often been argued that Sauron is barely present in the Lord of the Rings, existing as a villainous presence on the margins of the narrative. This paper will argue that Sauron is actually present throughout the entire narrative, as manifested in the Ring, and through the Ring’s presence as a queering device. The Ring acts out Sauron’s seduction mechanism, a defining character trait as portrayed in the Silmarillion. It is this seduction mechanism that allows the Ring to act as a queering agent throughout the narrative. Ring-lust is inherently queer as it projects a male-presented character’s seductive powers, …

Asexualities, Aromantics, And Autists In Epic Fantasy By Tolkien And Goddard, Robin Anne Reid, Rory Queripel

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

The Mariner (and his wife): Rethinking Aldarion’s (A)sexuality Rory Queripel

“Aldarion and Erendis” (Unfinished Tales) is a rare example in Tolkien’s work of a marriage gone severely awry. Many readings of the tale apportion blame to Aldarion, who is seen as “unwilling” to make the marriage work (Fitzsimmons, 2015), cruel and unfeeling towards Erendis, who herself is characterised as resentful and unaccepting (Rosenthal, 2004). However, these readings rely on an assumption of a cisheteronormative and, more importantly, allosexual relationship between the couple.

This paper proposes an alternate view of Aldarion and his role in the story, suggesting the possibility that …

Closeted Gays Take Hide, A Lamia Has Been Untied: Bbc Merlin And Queer Experiences Beyond Queer Joy, Anna Caterino

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

A decade after its finale, online fandoms have started labeling Merlin (2008-2012) as “date your bully 101” (theroundbartable), a story written by people “giving each other blowjobs while they talk about how much they deserve servants” (vhagarswattle). In light of the most recent models of queer representation, such takes are to be expected. Even so, Merlin is not a mere case of “hoyay” (Kohnen 201-2012) nor does it engage in queerbaiting or use the “Bury Your Gays” trope. The text is tied to the socio-political landscape of the late 2000s which serves as foundation for the show’s tragedy and, although …

Our Flag (And Spaceship) Means Queer: Monstering The Majority Culture, Sara Brown, Kristine Larsen

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Although the television series Our Flag Means Death presents on the surface as a romantic comedy, it is enhanced by mythic elements that infuse the narrative with a clear sense of the fantastic. Here, the pirates exist in a Secondary World that openly draws upon the Primary (both in terms of historiography and legend); hence 18th-century piracy and British colonialism can interact seamlessly with human-to-animal-transformations (paying homage to the Greek myth of Ceyx and Alcyone) without seeming either disconcerting or anomalous – all co-exist comfortably in Faerie. OFMD both inverts and deconstructs mythopoeia; the Primary World myths of the Gentleman …

Gazing Queerly: The Art And Text Around Saruman’S Non-Normativity, Christopher Vaccaro

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

The queer is often defined by its relation to normativity. Michael Warner’s The Trouble with Normal situates queerness in opposition to normalcy, even gay normalcy. Karma Lochrie’s Heterosyncrasies: Female Sexuality When Normal Wasn’t deconstructs a monolithic hetero-normativity. Within the fantasy genre, protagonists frequently reside in a queer relation to normative communities. J. R. R. Tolkien quite often depicts his major characters within his mythopoeic framework as in some way outside of the normal; they’re often odd, fringe outsiders in relation to the larger community to which they are a part. The texts of his legendarium present this queerness fairly clearly—so …

Tolkien’S Queer Landscape: Three Papers On Middle-Earth’S Heterotopias, Will Sherwood, Marita Arvaniti, Mariana Rios Maldonado

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

The following papers will explore Tolkien’s queer landscapes of Middle-earth: from Arda’s highest peaks and hidden underbellies, to her liminal, fae places, using the lens of Michel Foucault’s heterotopias.

Marita Arvaniti will introduce the panel and discuss Tolkien’s Faerian Drama and its relationship to the much-maligned Tom Bombadil episode, focusing on the queer figure of Tom Bombadil himself and his heterotopic domain.

Mariana Rios Maldonado will analyse the Barrow-downs, Dead Marshes, and Paths of the Dead as symbolic sites of death created during harrowing moments in the history of Middle-earth. These are no-places: spaces of Otherness containing the evil and …

Welcome And Announcements, The Mythopoeic Society

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Join us for a screening of the Welcome and Announcements video in the 'Track 1' room, and have a cup of coffee before we get started!

An Enchanted Place

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

The Holy Thorn Of Glastonbury And The Two Trees Of Valinor, Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Journal of Tolkien Research

An old wooden church in Glastonbury rose on the site of the Abbey church taking its place after a fire burnt it. This old church is traditionally considered to have been the eldest church in England, founded by Joseph of Arimathea after landing upon the British shore. Such a legend, probably spread after the Norman Conquests by the Abbey monks who needed to fund the monastery, also relates that Joseph planted his staff upon the highest hill in Glastonbury, and the staff grew branches and roots, transforming into a wonderful thorn tree which, unlike common thorns, bloomed twice a year, …

George R.R. Martin And The Fantasy Form (2019) By Joseph Rex Young And Tweaking Things A Little: Essays On The Epic Fantasy Of J.R.R. Tolkien And G.R.R. Martin (2023), By Thomas Honegger, Andrew Higgins

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review by Andrew Higgins of George R.R. Martin and the Fantasy Form (2019) by Joseph Rex Young and Tweaking Things a Little (2023) by Thomas Honegger

The Tale Of ‘Aldarion And Erendis’: Not Just A Medieval Love Story, Sara Brown

Journal of Tolkien Research

J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife’, published in the Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, is a cautionary tale of a failed marriage that also serves as an indicator of the moral decline of Númenor in the Second Age of Middle-earth. In this relationship is the beginning of the Downfall, heralding the shadow of evil that will entangle events into the Third Age. This paper explores the significance of this story to the history of Middle-earth, as well as its possible roots in medieval texts such as the Prose Edda and the Icelandic Laxdaela Saga.

The Ghost Of John Nisbet: Hugh Macdiarmid’S First Published Work, Alan Riach

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the first published item, a short play, signed with the name 'Hugh M'acDiamid', and sets in its biographical and historical context just after the First World War and in the literary context of 1922 and international modernism, in 1922, viewing it as 'an encapsulation of its moment, and most importantly as an elegiac tribute to a friend,' arguing that 'Performing "Nisbet" as a play intimates the drama of fractured modernist selfhood implicit in the written text,' and concluding that it should be seen 'in the whole national context of Scotland finding a way towards a reconstruction of itself, a …

Denis Saurat’S ‘The Scottish Renaissance Group’ / ‘Le Groupe De “La Renaissance Écossaise”’: An English Translation, Paul Malgrati

Studies in Scottish Literature

Presents an annotated translation of Denis Saurat's 'Le Groupe de la Renaissance Écossaise' (1924), a seminal piece in the history of Scottish modernism, hitherto inaccessible in English, that introduced the works of both Christopher Murray Grieve and Hugh MacDiarmid (considered as two different entities) to the international literary scene.

Of Method: A Propaedeutic To Coleridge's Prose Works, Michael A. Granger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coleridge’s prose works, published and unpublished, demonstrate a thorough and critical testing and understanding of British and German philosophical responses to skepticism and the ability of philosophy to progress by maintaining a double-minded and conflicted suture of both the practical or imaginative eclipse of knowledge and theorizing the hypothetical epistemological absolute that explains the relativity of facticity. Any inadequate method of inquiry stagnates within attempting a purely figurative or purely demonstrative solution to skepticism. Thus, the appropriate way to approach Coleridge’s understanding of philosophy is the struggle to make inquiry adequate though progression. Coleridge’s methodological impulse originates explicitly in a …

Introduction: Denis Saurat On ‘“The Scottish Renaissance” Group’, Scott Lyall

Studies in Scottish Literature

Provides the biographical context and publication history for Denis Saurat’s essay ‘Le groupe de “la Renaissance Écossaise”’, which included Saurat’s French translation of some MacDiarmid poems, describes the essay’s importance in the history of the Scottish Literary Renaissance, explains some shortcomings in Saurat’s perspectives on the ‘renaissance’ and MacDiarmid’s work.

Notes On Contributors

Studies in Scottish Literature

Brief biographical notes on contributors to Hugh MacDiarmid at 100 (SSL 49.1)

Macdiarmid The Spaceman: Extraterrestrial Space In Hugh Macdiarmid’S Poetry From Sangschaw To A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle, Michael H. Whitworth

Studies in Scottish Literature

Looking at Hugh MacDiarmid’s Sangschaw (1925), Penny Wheep (1926), and A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), this article considers MacDiarmid’s use of science, particularly astronomy, in the 1920s. It traces known and possible sources for his scientific knowledge in books and periodicals, especially The New Age. It examines the image of light travelling through space, found in popular astronomy works by Felix Eberty and Camille Flammarion. It also compares his conception of the earth as a moving object in space with that found in poems by Thomas Hardy.

Chitterin’ Lichts: Text And Intertext In Sangschaw And Penny Wheep, Patrick Crotty

Studies in Scottish Literature

The essay takes a new look at an old subject, the role of dictionaries in Hugh MacDiarmid’s so-called ‘early lyrics’. While demonstrating that the poet’s exploration of the lexicographical remains of Scots was more thorough-going and systematic than previous accounts have suggested, it positions his recourse to dictionaries in the intertextual habit that links the lyrics both to the English sonnets and prose sketches of the young Christopher Grieve and the encyclopaedic long poems to which MacDiarmid turned after abandoning Scots in the 1930s. The article attends in particular to the wide-angle allusiveness of Sangschaw and Penny Wheep, arguing that …

‘No Further From The “Centre Of Things”’: Peripheral Citation In Hugh Macdiarmid’S In Memoriam James Joyce, James Benstead

Studies in Scottish Literature

Examines Hugh MacDiarmid’s “citational poetics” – that is, his practice of selecting material from a wide range of pre-existing texts, before transforming that material and then combining it in his own work, often without attribution – and shows how reading MacDiarmid’s long 1955 poem In Memoriam James Joyce with reference to this practice places that text within the lineage of “provincial modernism” identified by Robert Crawford.

‘To “Meddle Wi’ The Thistle”’: C. M. Grieve’S Scottish Chapbook, The Little Magazine, And The Dilemmas Of Scottish Modernism, Scott Lyall

Studies in Scottish Literature

Examines C. M. Grieve’s (Hugh MacDiarmid’s) most important journal enterprise, The Scottish Chapbook, which critics have assumed marks the beginning of a modernist Scottish renaissance. Against this view, this article argues that the range of contributions to the Chapbook were generally not modernist in their formal characteristics, many recalling the Victorian or fin-de-siècle periods. While the Chapbook’s brief lifespan (1922–23) was typical for modernist little magazines, the dilemmas encountered by Grieve’s periodical – restricted finances, lack of avant-garde contributors – are explained here as a side-effect of ‘localist modernism’, a concept defined by Eric B. White.

Introduction: Hugh Macdiarmid At 100, Scott Lyall

Studies in Scottish Literature

Explains the background for this special issue, Hugh MacDiarmid at 100, in the Scottish Revival Network’s conference in August 2022, which marked the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s first appearance in print under that name in The Scottish Chapbook in August 1922, and then, before summarizing the themes of each essay, discusses ways in which MacDiarmid’s legacy and reputation have become central to the Scottish literary canon but somewhat marginal to canonical modernism,

Linguistic Islands: Archipelagic Perspectives In Hugh Macdiarmid’S ‘Vision Of World Language’, Fiona Paterson

Studies in Scottish Literature

Examines the impact of an archipelagic perspective upon Hugh MacDiarmid’s ‘vision of world language’ as set forth in the 1955 poem In Memoriam James Joyce. Informed by his travels to Scottish islands, documented in The Islands of Scotland (1939), and his engagements with Norn in Shetland, MacDiarmid’s vision is both expansive and particular, characterised by its decentralised plurality, and driven by an attempt to capture both simultaneity and progressivism.