J.R.R. Tolkien : the Hobbit and the Lord of the rings

J. R. R. Tolkien is arguably the most influential and popular of all fantasy writers. Although his position and status have long been controversial, his popularity has not faded. His best-loved works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, have sold millions of copies around the world and continue to enthral readers young and old. This lively collection of original essays examines The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the light of children's literature theory and approaches, as well as from adult and fantasy literature perspectives. Exploring issues such as gender, language, worldbuilding, and ecocriticism, the volume also places Tolkien's works in the context of a range of visual media, including Peter Jackson's film adaptations. Over the last few decades, literary criticism has come increasingly to consider its relation to politics, socio-economics, gender, psychoanalysis, language and cultural values. Chaucer's most popular and widely studied work, the Canterbury Tales, boasts a body of criticism which well reflects the diversity of scholarly readings, from the New Critical to the postmodern. The essays gathered here offer the student some of the best and most provocative readings of the Tales as well as a wide-range of critical approaches. The editors' introduction outlines these developing schools of Chaucerian criticism against the background of the history of literary criticism itself, giving students an illuminating context in which to assess the complex and rewarding work of this great poet "Angela Carter's writings have been a source of pleasure, puzzlement and controversy ever since she started publishing in the 1960s. Until her death in 1992, she was one of Britain's most exciting contemporary authors, particularly with her fantastical fictions and her feminist political essays on sex, gender and class. Carter identified herself as a feminist and most of her writings explore the subject of gender, usually in difficult and daring ways." "This collection of literary critical studies provides a selection from the many different responses which her works have evoked over the past twenty years. Together they explore most of Carter's major writings and demonstrate a variety of feminist theoretical approaches."--Jacket These essays explore the range of Thomas's work. They use approaches such as Marxism, feminism and deconstruction neglected by critics, and focus on relationships with surrealism, modernism, popular culture and his contemporaries. A collection of essays on one of the twentieth century's most popular yet critically neglected authors, this book explores the full range of Thomas's work. It uses approaches - such as marxism, feminism and deconstruction - previously neglected by critics and focuses on his complex relationships with surrealism, modernism, Wales, popular culture, the USA and his own contemporaries. In doing so, it restores Thomas to his rightful place as a major twentieth century literary figure and cultural icon "Revenge has been a preoccupation in all societies from ancient times to the present day. In Western culture, the revenge plot has been one of the linchpins of narrative structure; it is central to much Greek tragedy and was immensely popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. In this volume Stevie Simkin has collected essays on five plays which are representative of the revenge tragedy genre: The Spanish Tragedy, The Revenger's Tragedy, The Changeling, The White Devil and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. These plays are a rich source of ideas about Renaissance society and politics; recurrent issues include sexuality, the complex relations of gender and power, and the relationship between the individual and the state."--Jacket This New Casebook On Seamus Heaney Follows The Astonishingly Rapid Growth Of A Literary Reputation. Using Reviews As Well As Extended Academic Essays, It Presents A Debate To Which The Poet Himself Has Made Influential Critical Contributions And Which Changes Direction With The Publication Of Each New Book Of Poems. In Particular, The Casebook Shows How A Wide Range Of Contemporary Theoretical Approaches Have Been Brought Into Play As Heaney Has Become Increasingly Central For General Readers Of Poetry, Academics And Students At School And University. Edited By Michael Allen. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 267-270) And Index. This edited collection of brand new essays examines The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the light of children's literature theory and approaches. Exploring issues such as gender, language, narrative, and ecocriticism, the volume also places Tolkien's most popular works in the context of a range of visual media including the film adaptations The essays gathered in this volume exemplify the current diversity in contemporary criticism and cover a broad range of topics including gender, religious politics, nationalism, topography, colonialism and 'medico-moral' discourse Bram Stoker's greatly underrated Dracula is not only a well-written and formally inventive sensation novel but also one of the most important expressions of the social and psychological dilemmas of the late nineteenth century. A fresh and dynamic New Casebook of brand new essays, edited by a leading scholar in the field, which explores The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings from a range of children's literature perspectives