The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium

From Tolkien Gateway
Revision as of 17:35, 30 August 2019 by LorenzoCB (talk | contribs)
The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth Corporeality
The Body in Tolkien Legendarium.jpg
AuthorChristopher Vaccaro
PublisherMcFarland
Released15 August 2013
Formatpaperback
Pages200
ISBN978-0786474783

The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth Corporeality is a 2013 book edited by Christopher Vaccaro about J.R.R. Tolkien's works.

Contents

  • Introduction
    • by Christopher Vaccaro
Part I. The Transformation of the Body
  • The Body in Question: The unhealed wounds of Frodo Baggins
  • Incorpoeality and transformation in The Lord of the Rings
    • by Yvette Kisor
  • Frodo's body: Liminality and the experience of war
    • by Anna Smol
Part II. The Body and the Spirit
  • The Hröa and Fëa of Middle-earth: Health, ecology and war
    • by Matthew Dickerson
  • The ugly elf: Orc bodies, Perversion and Redemption in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings
    • by Jolanta N. Komornicka
Part III. The Discursive Body
  • "Light" (noun, 1) or "light" (adjective, 14b)? Female bodies and femininities in The Lord of the Rings
    • by Robin Anne Reid
  • A Body of Myth: Representing Sauron in The Lord of the Rings
Part IV. The Body and the Source Material
  • Emblematic Bodies: Tolkien and the depiction of female physical presence
    • by James T. Williamson
  • Extending the Reach of the Invisible Hand: A gift looks for gain in the gifting economy of Middle-earth
    • by Jennifer Culver
  • Tolkien's whimsical mode: Physicalities in The Hobbit
    • by Christopher Vaccaro
  • About the contributors
  • List of names and terms

From the publisher

The timely collection of essays is thematically unified around the subject of corporeality. Its theoretical underpinnings emerge out of feminist, foucauldian, patristic and queer hermeneutics. The book is organized into categories specific to transformation, spirit versus body, discourse, and source material. More than one essay focuses on female bodies and on the monstrous or evil body. While Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is central to most analyses, authors also cover The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and material in The History of Middle-earth.