Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity. Patrick Curry

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      DEFENDING

      MIDDLE-EARTH:

       Tolkien: Myth and Modernity

      Patrick Curry

      Table of Contents

       Title Page

Preface

· 1 · INTRODUCTION: RADICAL NOSTALGIA

The Story

Readers vs. Critics

Postmodernity in Middle-earth

Middle-earth in Postmodernity

Three Worlds in One

A Mythology for England?

A Great Book?

· 2 · THE SHIRE: CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS

Englishness

Country Folk

Nation and Class

A Pastoral Fantasy?

Fascist?

Politics in Middle-earth

Radical Nostalgia

       Activum

       ‘Escapism’

       · 3 · MIDDLE-EARTH: NATURE AND ECOLOGY

       Place

       Nature in Middle-earth

       Forests, Woods and Trees

       The War on Trees

       The Tree of Life

       Tolkien and Trees

       The Ring

       Magic vs. Enchantment

       The Ring as Megamachine

       Mordor on Earth

       The War on Life

       Selling Ourselves

       On ‘Sentimentality’

       Life’s a Beech

       Save Us from the Experts

       · 4 · THE SEA: SPIRITUALITY AND ETHICS

       The ‘Problem’ of Evil

       Death

       Luck, Fate, Providence

       A Christian Work?

       A Pagan Work?

       Wizards and Stars

       All and None

       Post-Christian/Neo-Pagan/New Times

       From Religion to Myth to Fantasy

       · 5 · FANTASY, LITERATURE AND THE MYTHOPOEIC IMAGINATION

       Loss and Consolation

       Myth

       Local Mythology

       Universal Myth

       Back to Myth

       Other Approaches to Myth

       Story

       Fantasy

       The Lord of the Rings as Fantasy

       Disney World

       Angela Carter