CFP World-Building: Tolkien, His Precursors and Legacies (9/1/19; Kalamazoo 5/7-10/2020)

World-Building: Tolkien, His Precursors and Legacies
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/07/31/world-building-tolkien-his-precursors-and-legacies

deadline for submissions:
September 1, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Fantasy Research Hub, School of Critical Studies, Univ. of Glasgow
contact email:
Dimitra.Fimi@glasgow.ac.uk
Call for Papers:"Medieval World-Building: Tolkien, His Precursors and Legacies”

sponsored by the Fantasy Research Hub, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow,

55th International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 7-10, 2020) Kalamazoo, Michigan



The recent volume Sub-creating Arda: World-building in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Works, its Precursors, and Legacies (2019), edited by D. Fimi and T. Honegger, examines the importance of invented story-worlds as spaces for primary-world social commentary, or as means for visualizing times and places not accessible to the reader. Tolkien was one of the foremost proponents of literary world-building, what he called “sub-creation,” and his Middle-earth has had unrivaled influence on subsequent world-building efforts. Yet, Tolkien’s own sub-creations were born from medieval story-worlds such as Beowulf, Kalevala, Volsungasaga, and others. This paper session examines the emergent, interdisciplinary research field of world-building through Tolkien’s Middle-earth, its medieval precursors, and/or its modern legacies.

Papers might be on such topics as mythopoeia, design, systems of magic, geology, geography, cartography, cosmology, ecology, sociology, demographics, cultural anthropology, materiality, religion, philosophy, language—literally anything that goes into world-building—in conjunction with the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, or his medieval/medievalist precursors, or his worldbuilding legacy in literature or other fields. Papers on interdisciplinary topics are welcome.

A paper proposal for the International Congress on Medieval Studies comprises a single-page abstract of the proposed paper and a completed Participant Information Form (PIF). (The new PIF will be available on the conference website https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions in July 2019.)

Please send your proposals with “Tolkien World-Building” in the subject line to:

Dimitra Fimi (Dimitra.Fimi@glasgow.ac.uk) AND Kris Swank (KSwank@pima.edu)

The deadline is September 1, 2019.


Last updated August 1, 2019

CFP Deadscapes: Wastelands, Necropoli, and Other Tolkien-Inspired Places of Death, Decay, and Corruption (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 05/2020)

Deadscapes: Wastelands, Necropoli, and Other Tolkien-Inspired Places of Death, Decay, and Corruption
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/07/29/deadscapes-wastelands-necropoli-and-other-tolkien-inspired-places-of-death-decay-and

deadline for submissions:
September 15, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Tales after Tolkien Society
contact email:
talesaftertolkien@gmail.com

A paper session at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University (www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress) examining depictions of what comes in the wake of war and death in works in the Tolkienian tradition; Carrie Pagels will preside.

Many of the "standard" fantasy works, ranging from the epics through Arthuriana into Tolkien and beyond, make much of grand wars fought on massive scales. They also, at times, look at what is left behind when the war is done, the graveyards filled and memorials erected. The session looks at how such things are constructed in works in the Tolkienian fantasy tradition and what functions they serve for readers in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Short proposals are welcome; please send to talesaftertolkien@gmail.com on or before 15 September 2019. Proposals from graduate students, those outside traditional academe, and traditionally underrepresented groups are especially welcome.


Last updated July 29, 2019