Professor Jace Crouch will present the lecture "Lord of the Rings, Narnia and the Middle Ages: Medievalism in J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, 2006 in the Oakland Center Oakland Room. Professor Crouch specializes in the intellectual and cultural history of Medieval Europe, particularly early Germanic civilizations. His recent work has focused on law and society in Visigothic Spain. He is currently preparing a book on Saint Isidore of Seville.
Professor Crouch's own overview of this presentation:
A medievalist’s consideration of C.S. Lewis and (especially) J.R.R. Tolkien not only as medievalizing mythographers and poets, but also as participants in a second Oxford Movement towards Christian orthodoxy in the increasingly modernist, secularized, industrialised, and ideologized “mass man” ambient culture of the 20th century (and beyond). I will also consider the similarity of CSL and JRRT to other anti-modernists, such as Catholic Revival writers and historians Chesterton and Belloc; the historian Christopher Dawson; the Southern Agrarians from John Crowe Ransom through Wendell Berry; the “small is beautiful” movement; and other movements towards or champions of the culture of life and particularism over the ubiquitous mass-culture of nihilism that has characterized the 20th century, and thus far the 21st century as well. Lest these prefatory remarks seem insufficiently puckish, I hope to have considerable fun with various attempts to demythologize and remythologize both history and religion. Promises, promises ...
Articles related to this lecture*:
Concerning J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis
Hiley, Margaret. Stolen Language, Cosmic Models: Myth and Mythology in Tolkien. Modern Fiction Studies v. 50 no4 (Winter 2004) p. 838-60
Morrow, Jeffrey L. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in Light of Hans Urs von Balthasar. Renascence v. 56 no3 (Spring 2004) p. 181-96
Person, James E. The Transcendent in Tolkien. Modern Age v. 45 no3 (Summer 2003) p. 274-7
Schwartz, Sanford. Cosmic Anthropology: Race and Reason in "Out of the Silent Planet" Christianity & Literature v. 52 no4 (Summer 2003) p. 523-5
Shippey, Tom. From Page to Screen: J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson. World Literature Today v. 77 no2 (July/September 2003) p. 69-72
Special Issue: J. R. R. Tolkien. Modern Fiction Studies v. 50 no4 (Winter 2004) p. 807-1014
Wood, Ralph C. Conflict and Convergence on Fundamental Matters in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Renascence v. 55 no4 (Summer 2003) p. 315-38
Books related to this lecture avaiable at Kresge
Library:
Books mentioned in Professor Crouch's
own overview of this presentation:
Dawson, Christopher. Medieval essays
Berry, Wendell. Sex, economy, freedom & community : eight essays
Ransom, John Crowe. Selected essays of John Crowe Ransom
Belloc, Hilaire. On the place of Gilbert Chesterton in English letters
Chesterton, G. K. The man who was Chesterton
Belloc, Hilaire. At the sign of the lion
Angyal, Andrew J. Wendell Berry
Young, Thomas Daniel. Gentleman in a dustcoat : a biography of John Crowe Ransom
Speaight, Robert. The life of Hilaire Belloc
Sullivan, John. G. K. Chesterton; a centenary appraisal
The Inklings
Barfield, Owen. Owen Barfield on C.S. Lewis
Barfield, Owen. Poetic diction: a study in meaning.
Lewis, CS. Chronicles of Narnia
Lewis, CS. Out of the silent planet
Lewis, CS. Perelandra
Lewis, CS. That hideous strength
C.S. Lewis. The Discarded Image
C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories” in The monsters and the critics, and other essays or Poems and stories
J.R.R. Tolkien, “Smith of Wooton Major” in Poems and stories
J.R.R. Tolkien, “Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics” in The monsters and the critics, and other essays
Other Books by J.R.R. Tolkein at Kresge Library
Other Books by C.S. Lewis at Kresge LIbrary
Inkling Criticism:
Humphrey Carpenter, The Inklings
Verilyn Fleiger, Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien’s World
Bradley J. Birzen, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth
Historians and Historiography:
Benedetto Croce, History as the Story of Liberty
Christopher Dawson, Dynamics of World History
Christopher Dawson, The Crisis of Western Education
José Ortega Y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses
G.F.W. Hegel, The Philosophy of History
Theologians and Philosophers:
Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life
The Southern Agrarians:
Twelve Southerners, I’ll Take My Stand: the South and the Agrarian Tradition
Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences
Wendell Berry, What Are People For?
Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace
Oakland University, Kresge Library
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