This book takes a fresh look at Tolkien’s literary artistry from the points of view of both linguistics and literary history, with the aim of shedding light on the literary techniques used in The Lord of the Rings. The authors study Tolkien’s use of words, style, narrative techniques, rhetoric and symbolism to highlight his status as literary artist. Dirk Siepmann uses a corpus stylistic approach to analyse Tolkien’s vocabulary and syntax, while Thomas Kullmann uses discourse theory, literary history and concepts of intertextuality to explore Tolkien’s literary techniques, relating them to the history of English fiction and poetry. Issues discussed include point of view, speeches, story-telling, landscape descriptions, the poems inserted into the body of the narrative, and the role of language in the characterization of the novel’s protagonists. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of literature, corpus linguistics and stylistics, as well as Tolkien fans and specialists.
Author(s): Thomas Kullmann, Dirk Siepmann
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 332
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Authors
List of Tables
1: Introduction
1.1 Tolkien’s Status in Literary History
1.2 Corpus Stylistics
1.3 Metaphor and Metonymy15
1.4 Intertextuality32
Works Cited
Fiction, Poetry, and Other Primary Texts
Critical Works Cited
2: Tolkien as a Stylist: Key Words and Key Collocations in The Lord of the Rings
2.1 Characterizing Tolkien’s Style
2.2 Methodology
2.3 Key Words in The Lord of the Rings2
2.3.1 Key Words Shared with Nineteenth-Century Fiction
2.3.2 Key Words Shared with Modern Fiction
2.3.3 Key Words Shared with Tolkien’s Translation of Beowulf
2.3.4 Key Words Exclusive to The Lord of the Rings
2.4 Key Collocations in The Lord of the Rings
2.5 Key N-Grams in The Lord of the Rings
2.6 Frequent Semantic Fields in The Lord of the Rings
2.7 Tolkien as a Stylist: Conclusion
Appendix
Key Words Exclusive to The Lord of the Rings
Negative Key Words
Works Cited
Primary Texts
Critical Works Cited
3: The Narrative Syntax of The Lord of the Rings
3.1 Background and Method
3.2 Dispreferred Constructions
3.2.1 Word Level
3.2.2 Phrase Level
3.2.3 Clause Level
3.3 Overused Constructions
3.3.1 Word Level
3.3.2 Phrase Level
3.3.3 Clause Level
3.4 Narrative Syntax: Conclusion and Two Sample Paragraphs
Works Cited
Primary Text:
Critical Works Cited:
4: Points of View
Works Cited
Fiction, Poetry and Other Primary Texts
Critical Works Cited
5: Landscape Descriptions
Works Cited
Fiction, Poetry and Other Primary Texts
Critical Works Cited
6: Speeches and Declarations
Works Cited
Fiction, Poetry and Other Primary Texts
Critical Works Cited
7: Storytelling
Works Cited
Primary Texts
Critical Works Cited
8: Poems and Songs
Works Cited
Fiction, Poetry, and Other Primary Texts
Critical Works Cited
9: Language and Character
Works Cited
Fiction, Poetry, and Other Primary Texts
Critical Works Cited
10: Tolkien’s Position in Literary History
Works Cited
Primary Text
Critical Works Cited
Index
