History
Comes Alive Series
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
*Please note, access to some of these online
materials is restricted to use by Oakland University Students,
Faculty, and Staff (or from a computer located on the Oakland
University network). Find out
why...