Queer Tolkien
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages (SSHMA); Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer Name
Graham N. Drake
Organizer Affiliation
SUNY-Geneseo
Presider Name
Graham N. Drake
Paper Title 1
Niggle, Smith, and Giles: Medieval as Queer
Presenter 1 Name
Stephen Yandell
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Xavier Univ.
Paper Title 2
To All Elf-Friends and Wizard’s-Pupils: "It gets better": Medieval and Modern Categories of the Queer in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Presenter 2 Name
Christopher T. Vaccaro
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Vermont
Paper Title 3
Respondent
Presenter 3 Name
Jane Chance
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Rice Univ.
Start Date
10-5-2013 3:30 PM
Session Location
Schneider 1220
Description
Congress sessions devoted to J.R.R. Tolkien have proven valuable for multiple medieval fields (history, literature, linguistics, medievalism, and pedagogy). A “Queer Tolkien” session (co-sponsored by Tolkien at Kalamazoo) would build on this impressive base and encourage new scholarship in two key ways. First, although scholarship on Tolkien has occasionally addressed topics such as gender non-conformity and homosocial bonding, the lens of Queer Theory differs from that of Gender Theory and other literary approaches, and a session devoted specifically to research through a queer lens has been largely overlooked. Second, while queer readings have sometimes overlapped with current research on Tolkien’s fiction, it has been almost entirely absent in approaches to his scholarly writings (on myth, linguistics, etc.), and this session invites papers covering all areas of the Tolkien corpus.
Stephen Yandell
Xavier University (Cincinnati)
Queer Tolkien
Schneider 1220
Congress sessions devoted to J.R.R. Tolkien have proven valuable for multiple medieval fields (history, literature, linguistics, medievalism, and pedagogy). A “Queer Tolkien” session (co-sponsored by Tolkien at Kalamazoo) would build on this impressive base and encourage new scholarship in two key ways. First, although scholarship on Tolkien has occasionally addressed topics such as gender non-conformity and homosocial bonding, the lens of Queer Theory differs from that of Gender Theory and other literary approaches, and a session devoted specifically to research through a queer lens has been largely overlooked. Second, while queer readings have sometimes overlapped with current research on Tolkien’s fiction, it has been almost entirely absent in approaches to his scholarly writings (on myth, linguistics, etc.), and this session invites papers covering all areas of the Tolkien corpus.
Stephen Yandell
Xavier University (Cincinnati)