CFP Title: Tolkien’s Medievalism in Ruins: The Function of Relics and Ruins in Middle-earth
Deadline for Abstract Submissions: July 1, 2023
Editors:
Carl Sell and Nick Katsiadas / Slippery Rock University and University of Pittsburgh
Many notable scholars have probed the motif of ruins in ancient and medieval texts: Alain Schnapp, Alan Lupack, Geoffrey Ashe, and Richard Barber read the poetics of ruins in Latin poetry, the Exeter Book, and Arthuriana. Scholars working outside of the Classical Age and Middle Ages have also examined how this topos persists in literary periods up through the Renaissance, Romanticism, and to today. In short, the structural and symbolic purposes of ruins in literary texts have a long history, and the literary-critical history of engaging these poetics influences our interests in essays grounded in reading relationships between literary history and relics and ruins in Tolkien’s legendarium. It is time for a volume on the topic, and we are pleased to welcome proposals from a variety of theoretical approaches for a proposed edited collection.
Throughout J. R. R. Tolkien’s history of Middle-earth, relics and ruins appear as images that capture the mood, personality, and disposition of the characters. From the ruins of Erebor and the relics of Gondolin that appear in The Hobbit to the various images of Amon Sûl, Moria, Osgiliath, and post-war Isengard in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien captures each character’s awareness of the glories of the past and their desires to emulate them. The important roles of relics and ruins in the history of Middle-earth create opportunity for a more formal critical discourse on the topic. This proposed collection of essays will seek to deepen the awareness and importance of relics and ruins in Tolkien's legendarium while simultaneously focusing on how Tolkien’s vision of history functions within and outside of the Middle Ages. In this vein, we are concerned with including essays that address a greater literary history of Tolkien's work. We are equally concerned with including pieces that explore the representation of relics or ruins not only within The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings but, also, the larger legendarium with The History of Middle-earth series, The Silmarillion, and the texts that Christopher Tolkien edited and published after his father's death (The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, The Fall of Gondolin, The Fall of Númenor).
Topics and texts about Tolkien’s legendarium may include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:
Ruins or relics and trauma
Ruins or relics and war
Ruins or relics and nostalgia
Ruins or relics and melancholy
Ruins or relics and loss
Ruins or relics and memory
Ruins or relics and travel
Ruins or relics and Medievalism
Ruins or relics and Arthuriana
Ruins or relics and Classicism
Ruins or relics and Romanticism
Ruins or relics in the First, Second, or Third ages of Middle-earth
Ruins or relics in The History of Middle-earth series
Relics and the Silmarils
Relics and the Arkenstone
Relics and the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin
Relics and Bard’s Black Arrow
Ruins or relics in adaptations of Tolkien
Ruins and Tolkien's "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"
Ruins of Golden Ages
Ruins or relics in Middle-earth and their Literary History
Ruins or relics of Abandoned cities, locations, and peoples
We seek one – two page abstracts for critical essays across periods and nations that address topics related to relics or ruins in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Abstracts should clearly delineate the essay’s argument in relation to this theme. Once abstracts have been collected and accepted, the organizers will craft the book proposal, and they will then submit it for consideration to publishers that have historically demonstrated a record of releasing successful collections related to Tolkien. We ask that abstract submissions follow The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition).
Please send abstract proposals to Nick Katsiadas at Nicholas.katsiadas@sru.edu and Carl Sell at cscarlsell@gmail.com. Those with inquiries may also email us.