Course Description and Objectives:

Eng 345/545 J.R.R. Tolkien (1-3 UG credits, 1-2 GR credits).

Detailed study of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, with particular emphasis on The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Simarillion, and Tolkien’s critical writings. Examination of genre considerations, including the origins of the world-building model of contemporary fantasy fiction and comparison of written and cinematic versions. Biographical, historical, formalist, feminist, ecocriticial, and other approaches will also be explored by students enrolled for 2 credits and students enrolled for 3 credits will practice teaching Tolkien at the secondary level. Offered Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters.

Recommended: lower-level introduction to literature or advanced literature course or permission of Program Chair.

While Americans have had a love/hate relationship with speculative fiction (SF), including fantasy and science fiction, often relegating it to the pop fiction ghetto, across the Atlantic the view has been different. Orwell, Burgess, Wells, Lewis, M. Shelley, and others have been viewed as major mainstream writers. Significantly, British readers and critics voted The Lord of the Rings as the most important novel of the 20th century. Now, one can of course argue about its literary merits (see: Reader Response and Reception theories), but one cannot underestimate its impact on both its own genre and related ones, including cinematic genres. In this course, we will examine some of Tolkien's major works, taking a look at the biographical, historical, social, and genre underpinnings as well as the views taken by other critical approaches, and then consider the difference between it and the filmed version of his most important novel, The Lord of the Rings, using that comparison as a way of looking at the differences between literature and film.

Given the assumptions stated above, students may expect that they will be called on to read extensively, to discuss those readings in class, and to write regularly concerning the readings and discussions. All of these elements will be factored into the course evaluation system.

In general, the course has these objectives for students to pursue:

(1) Become acquainted with the current approaches to one of the 20th century's major writers
(2) Examine the differences between film and literature as genres
(3) Explore historical and contemporary methods for analyzing literature
(4) Improve analytic writing skills
(5) Practice presentation/teaching skills