Critical Race & Ethnic Studies: Tolkein:Gender/Race, the Other

Introductory courses addressing the representation and construction of race in literature and/or the contributions of ethnically diverse writers to the American culture. May repeat for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Cross-listed with: ENGL 1210.

Crosslisted with ENGL 1210 A Total combined enrollment = 40 Open to degree and PACE students

J. R. R. Tolkien was born in South Africa to British parents of English and German descent. The family servants were people of color. His family moved back to England before he was four, though his father stayed behind. Though he was a privileged male child of the Victorian British Empire, he was also orphaned by the time he was twelve years old. But this was not the only experience that marginalized him. He was a Catholic in a largely Protestant country, and later a historical philologist in a more modern-leaning college. Tolkien understood marginalization and feelings of difference. And he was very sympathetic to the plight of others. He denied the Nazi government of Germany the rights to have his work translated. In his work we clearly see his sympathies towards women’s challenges and towards the plight of indigenous peoples. That said, Tolkien could not step completely outside of the systemic problems of his culture. At times he falls back on culturally recognized tropes and images that certainly do not dismantle racial nor gender stereotypes. This course explores the intersectional issues of race, sexuality, and gender in the mythological legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien as well as within the English and American cultural contexts in which it was composed and read. Discussions and assignments will be directed at how The Lord of the Rings has become a contested ideological apparatus and an incendiary device for both liberal and far-right/authoritarian movements in the United States.