» Preliminary programme

For further information, visit the » Seminar website.

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Picture: Collegium Jenense

Tolkien’s Influence on Fantasy

Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is, of course, neither the earliest nor the only work of fantasy that has exerted an influence on the development of the genre. Yet it is arguably one of the most important sources for many of the key texts of 20^th and 21^st century fantasy and is very often used as a work of reference (author xy is “the new Tolkien”, “the Tolkien of xy” etc.). Its enormous popularity has made it almost impossible to ignore or even to avoid contact with its key-elements and stock-characters, such as maps, magic rings, elves, dwarves, wizards etc. They have been adapted by numerous later writers and artists and have become familiar icons of popular culture. Writing fantasy seemed, for a long time, to offer only two choices: to write in the tradition established by Tolkien, or against it. Recent authors, however, approach the ‘tradition’ with greater freedom and while acknowledging their debt to Tolkien, they no longer feel bound by the ‘authority’ of the master. This development has been furthered by a general trend towards the transgression of genre borders and the posthumous publication of much of the background material related to the ‘sub-creation’ of Middle-earth has opened up new vistas and provided ample opportunities for independent ‘sub-creation’.

The Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena is hosting the 9^th Seminar of the Deutsche Tolkien Gesellschaft (DTG) from 27–29 April 2012. The Seminar aims at exploring the various aspects of Tolkien’s influence (or, alternatively, non-influence) on the development of fantasy and contributions (either in German or English) not only from scholars but also writers/authors and other artists are welcome.

Please send a short abstract of your paper (no longer than one page) till 30 November 2011 to Thomas Fornet-Ponse: hither-shore@tolkiengesellschaft.de.

Picture: Cancion de la princesa oscura by Javier Bolado

The new Hither Shore has arrived! Volume 7 of the academic yearbook of the German Tolkien Society deals with Tolkien and Romanticism.

Tolkien and Romanticism presents the written version of most presentations from Tolkien Seminar 2010 at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. The volume includes many reviews, a note on publishing about Tolkien and the following articles:

• Stars Above a Dark Tor: Tolkien and Romanticism, Anna E. Slack (Cambridge)
• Romanticism, Symbolism, and Onomastics in Tolkien’s Legendarium, Annie Birks (Angers)
• Mittelerde als Ausdruck romantischer Kreativität und Sehnsucht, Oliver Bidlo (Essen)
• ‘The past is another country‘ – Romanticism, Tolkien, and the Middle Ages, Thomas Honegger (Jena)
• Disenchanted with their Age: Keats’s, Morris’s, and Tolkien’s Great Escape, Marie-Noëlle Biemer (Frankfurt)
• Celtic Influences and the Quest of National Identity, Doreen Triebel (Jena)
• J.R.R. Tolkien und die romantische Nostalgie, Julian T.M. Eilmann (Aachen)
• ‘There and back again‘ – a Romantic Walk? Eine kritische Betrachtung von J.R.R. Tolkiens The Hobbit aus dem Blickwinkel der Romantik, Thomas Scholz (Frankfurt)
• Outer and Inner Landscapes in Tolkien: Between Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Dostoevskij, Emanuele Rimoli (Roma), Guglielmo Spirito (Assisi)
• ‘Secondary Belief‘: Tolkien and the Revision of Romantic Notion of Poetic Faith, Eduardo Segura (Granada)
• Beauty, Perfection, Sublime Terror. Some Thoughts on the Influence of E. Burke‘s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful on Tolkien‘s Creation of Middle-earth, Stefanie Schult (Greifswald)
• Reading Tolkien‘s Work in the Light of Hugo‘s Notions of the Sublime and the Grotesque, Marguerite Mouton (Paris)
• Tolkien, Newman und das Oxford Movement, Thomas Fornet-Ponse (Bonn)
• Tolkien, the Philistine, and the Politics of Creativity, Martin G.E. Sternberg (Bonn)
• Falsche Harmonie oder: Darf man nach Auschwitz noch vom Auenland träumen?, Fabian Geier (Bamberg)

The new volume can be ordered directly from the publisher Scriptorium Oxoniae or via Amazon for 23€.

More information at the conference web site.

Das »Call for Papers« ist auf deutsch und englisch vorhanden und kann auch als PDF heruntergeladen werden:

• Call for Papers: Tolkien und die Romantik (Tolkien and Romanticism) (HTML)
• Call for Papers: Tolkien und die Romantik (Tolkien and Romanticism) (PDF)

Der Stichtag für die Abgabe von Beitragsvorschlägen inklusive einem kurzen Abstract ist der 30. November 2009.

»In a hole in the ground …« – The Hobbit or Here We Go Again

Vorläufiges Programm/ Preliminary Programme für das 5. Tolkien Seminar der DTG
an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
25.-27. April 2008

Wie auch im letzten Jahr, so findet das diesjährigen Tolkien Seminar der DTG an der FSU in Jena statt. Das Thema lautet, passend zur Ankündigung des neuen Film, »The Hobbit«.
im folgenden aufgelistet ist das vorläufige Programm des Seminars.

Freitag / Friday 25 April 08
Senatssaal Universität Hauptgebäude / University Main Building (Fürstengraben 1)

13.30–14.00 Registration in front of the Senatssaal (speakers can collect their name-badges)
14.00–14.30 Eröffnung, Grusswort des Dekans / Opening Ceremony; address by the dean
14.30–15.15 Fanfan Chen, The Eucharistic Poetics of The Hobbit
15.15–16.00 Judith Klinger, Changing Perspectives: Secret Doors and Narrative Thresholds in The Hobbit

Pause/break

16.30–17.15 William Spirito, Wolves, Ravens and Eagles: a mythic presence in a hobbit’s tale
17.15–18.00 Doreen Triebel, »Sing we now softly, and dreams let us weave him!«: Dreams and Dream Visions in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit
18.00–18.30 Präsentation der Neuerscheinungen zu Tolkien (Hither Shore 4, Konferenzband Jena Shorter Works und weitere Neuerscheinungen zu Tolkien)

19.00–21.00 Dinner at the Gasthaus zur Noll (close to the University Main Building)

Samstag / Saturday 26 April 08
Hörsäle / Lecture hall 7 Carl-Zeiss-Strasse 3 (Campus Ernst-Abbe-Platz)

9.00–09.45 Allan Turner, Dungeons, Dragons and Dwarves: Concepts of Desire in The Hobbit
9.45–10.30 Blanca Grzegorczyk, »Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure«: On Moral Imagination in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit
11.00–11.45 Thomas Fornet-Ponse, Man lebt nicht nur vom Gold allein – Reichtumskritik als zentrales Motiv des Hobbit
11.45–12.30 Martin Sternberg, »The Treasure of my House — Motivgeschichte und Funktion des Arkensteins im Hobbit«

Lunchbreak

15.00–15.45 Heidi Steimel, The Dwarven Philharmonic Orchestra
15.45–16.30 Julian Eilmann, Lieder und Gedichte in J. R. R. Tolkiens »Der Hobbit«

Pause/break

17.00–17.45 Anna Slack, Seeing Fire and Sword, or Refining Hobbits

19.00 Gemeinsames Dinner der Vortragenden und interessierten Zuhörer in der Noll Voranmeldung notwendig! / Dinner at the Noll for all speakers and interested conference attendants

Sonntag / Sunday 27 April 08
Senatssaal Universität Hauptgebäude / University Main Building (Fürstengraben 1)

09.00–09.45 Fabian Geier, Vom magischen Ring zum Ring der Macht – Die Evolution von Tolkiens Magiebegriff vom Hobbit zum Herr der Ringe
09.45–10.30 Piotr Florek, »The Hobbit« and Paratextuality

Pause/break

11.00–11.45 Christian WeichmannSehen und (nicht) gesehen werden — Augen als Schutz und Bedrohung im Hobbit
11.45–12.30 Dirk Vanderbeke, The not-quite-moving-pictures: The comic-book adaptation of The Hobbit

12.30–13.00 Schlussdiskussion und Verabschiedung / Final discussion, conclusion & goodbyes

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