In such classic works as The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien depicts a vast, complex world-system. Tolkien's Middle-earth comes to life with intensely detailed historical, geographical, and multicultural content, which is presented through different poetic forms that combine elements of epic, romance, myth, history, and the modern novel. This book analyzes Tolkien's project, paying attention to narrative form and its relation to social contexts, while also exploring his broader philosophical conception of history and the role of individual and collective subjects within it. Tolkien's published and posthumous writings, the film adaptations, and recent scholarship are all examined to provide an enlarged and refined critical perspective of these major works. Drawing upon Marxist literary theory and criticism, Robert T. Tally Jr. calls into question traditional views of race, class, morality, escapism, and fantasy more generally. Through close readings mixed with theoretical speculation, Representing Middle-earth allows readers see Tolkien's world, as well as our own, in a new light.

Table of Contents


Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Perilous Realm in an Era of Multinational Capitalism

Strange Bedfellows: Tol­kien and Marxist Literary Criticism

Towards a Literary Cartography of ­Middle-earth

On the Shadowy Marches of Faërie

1.¿"Almost it seemed that the words took shape": Narrative, History, and the Desire Called Marx

"The theatre of my tale is this earth"

In the Hall of Fire

"Endless untold stories"

2.¿Formulae of Power: Generic Discontinuities in the Saga of the Jewels and the Rings

Harmonizing Heterogeneous Narrative Paradigms

Modern Epics

"The starry sky is a map of all possible paths"

The Red Book of Westmarch

"A more or less mediocre, average English gentleman"

The Cauldron of Story

3.¿Three Rings for the Elven Kings: Trilogizing Tol­kien in Print and Film

"There is no real division into 3": Defining Trilogy

"The rhythm or ordering of the narrative": Trilogizing The Lord of the Rings

"Too much hobbitry": The Hobbit as a Film Trilogy

An Artificially Ordered World

4.¿The Geopolitical Aesthetic of ­Middle-earth: Space, Cinema, and the World System in The Lord of the Rings

"I wisely started with a map"

The Eye of Sauron

The Conspiracy of the Ring

Geopolitical Fantasy

5.¿The Politics of Character: The Dark Lord, the ­Witch-Queen, and the White Wizard

Sauron, Healer of ­Middle-earth

Galadriel, ­Witch-Queen of Lórien

Song of Saruman

"Satan fell": Ethics as False Consciousness

6.¿Let Us Now Praise Famous Orcs: Simple Humanity in ­Middle-earth's Inhuman Creatures

"Whence they came or what they were"

No More Big Bosses!

Human, ­All-Too-Human

Orcs' Untold Stories

7.¿Demonizing the Enemy: Monstrosity, Ethics, and the Sense of the World Wars

Manufacturing Monsters

Sympathy for the Devils

After the Wars

8.¿"Places where the stars are strange": Fantasy, Utopia, and Critique

Surveying the Great Schism

"The world as it appears under the sun"

Reflections on Magic

Beyond Good and Evil

The Fantastic Is Good to Think With

Conclusion: "We should not neglect the red dragons"

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Robert T. Tally Jr. is an Associate Professor of English at Texas State University. He is the author of Frederic Jameson (Pluto, 2014), Utopia in the Age of Globalization (2013), Spatiality (2013), Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel (2011), Melville, Mapping, and Globalization (2009) and the editor of Geocritical Explorations (2011).