Archive of posts tagged theory and methodology of Tolkien studies

Particularities of Study of Arda as an Invented World: Theory and Methodology

Mints M. (Amdir), ‘Osobennosti izucheniia Ardy kak vymyshlennogo mira: voprosy teorii i metodologii’, Palantir, no. 80 (2020): 25–42.

The article (in Russian) deals with main questions of theory and methodology of Tolkien studies, including the object of research, the nature of (sub)creative legacy of J. R. R. Tolkien, world of Arda as a separate imaginative work, texts and pictures by Tolkien as primary sources, ‘external’ and ‘internal’ history of Arda, Tolkien studies as a field of interdisciplinary research etc. The text is revised and extended according to the results of its discussion at VesCon-2019 (Moscow annual Tolkien festival) and to the suggestions of the editorial board of Palantir. I’m grateful to everyone who took part in the discussion for their additional useful ideas, as well as to Arthoron who finally made me finish this (nine-years old!) work 😉

Text of the article

Archive of the journal (at the website of the Tolkien Society of Saint-Petersburg)

This work is important for me for personal reasons as well. While being a post-graduate, and for the first years after the end of my term, I had a terrible stage fright, and it was at Major Tolkien Seminar in Saint-Petersburg in 2010 where I made my first report on theory and methodology that I was surprised to feel the fright had disappeared 🙂

Theory and Methodology of Tolkien Studies (in Russian)

The report was made at the 6th Tolkien Seminar in Saint Petersburg on 30 January 2010. I am analysing the existing approaches to the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien and trying to form a new synthetic approach that could resolve various issues of Tolkien studies using methods of different academic disciplines on the basis of a common methodology. The text of the report (PDF, in Russian).