Overview
- Combines corpus linguistic approaches with elements of literary theory to situate Tolkien within the history of English prose fiction
- Challenges the view that novels in the fantasy sub-genre are necessarily less well-crafted from a stylistic point of view
- Examines Tolkien’s use of words, narrative techniques, style, rhetoric and symbolism within the context of mainstream twentieth-century literature
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About this book
This book takes a fresh look at Tolkien’s literary artistry from the points of view of both linguistics and literary history, with the aim of shedding light on the literary techniques used in The Lord of the Rings. The authors study Tolkien’s use of words, style, narrative techniques, rhetoric and symbolism to highlight his status as literary artist. Dirk Siepmann uses a corpus stylistic approach to analyse Tolkien’s vocabulary and syntax, while Thomas Kullmann uses discourse theory, literary history and concepts of intertextuality to explore Tolkien’s literary techniques, relating them to the history of English fiction and poetry. Issues discussed include point of view, speeches, story-telling, landscape descriptions, the poems inserted into the body of the narrative, and the role of language in the characterization of the novel’s protagonists. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of literature, corpus linguistics and stylistics, as well as Tolkien fans and specialists.
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Keywords
Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“This work will serve as a valuable reference for the serious Tolkien scholar for many years to come, laying the groundwork for future studies into the artistry of Middle-earth.” (Sharon L. Bolding, Mythlore, Vol. 41 (1), October, 2022) “In all the criticism devoted to Tolkien, there has been one great gap: analysis of his sheer ability as a writer, not least his capacity to vary styles from epic to novelistic, and his skill at establishing character through dialogue. The gap has now been filled by this very welcome work from Professors Kullmann and Siepmann, which opens the way for a proper appreciation, both of Tolkien’s own art, and his true place in literary history.” (Tom Shippey, Saint Louis University, USA)
“In this coherently structured and clearly written study – the first major publication on the topic since Steve C. Walker’s The Power of Tolkien’s Prose (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) – the authors are entering largely unexplored territory. The combination of corpus-based linguistic analysis and traditional literary examination of Tolkien’s style provides a number of new insights and is a most welcome step in the direction of reviving the scholarly discourse on Tolkien’s style.” (Thomas Honegger, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Thomas Kullmann is Professor of English Literature at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. He has published widely on Shakespeare and the English Renaissance, English children’s literature and the nineteenth- and twentieth-century novel.
Dirk Siepmann is Professor of English as a Second Language at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. He has 25 years of experience in applied linguistics, with an extensive background in corpus linguistics and language teaching. He has authored 12 books, including two major monographs on translation studies and one on contrastive linguistics, and has co-authored or edited a further 14 volumes.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Tolkien as a Literary Artist
Book Subtitle: Exploring Rhetoric, Language and Style in The Lord of the Rings
Authors: Thomas Kullmann, Dirk Siepmann
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69299-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-69298-8Published: 06 May 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-69301-5Published: 07 May 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-69299-5Published: 05 May 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 319
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour
Topics: Linguistics, general, Stylistics, Twentieth-Century Literature, Fiction, Literature, general, Literary History