Call for Papers
2008 DTG Decennial Tolkien Seminar, Jena
Call for Papers for the
2008 DTG Decennial Tolkien Seminar 2008 at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (Germany)
— with the participation of the Walking Tree Publishers
25-27 April 2008
'In a hole in the ground ...' — The Hobbit or Here We Go Again
The Hobbit has often been treated solely as a 'prequel' or 'little brother' to The Lord of the Rings – with the consequence that it has attracted little substantial scholarly and critical attention. The publication of the two volumes of John Rateliff’s The History of the Hobbit may change this and kindle a new interest in Tolkien’s first literary success. The time has thus come to heed Tolkien’s words (he was talking about Beowulf, though) and evaluate The Hobbit as a piece of art/literature in its own right and not merely as a quarry for elements connected with the larger ‘legendarium’, although this aspect may not be completely ignored either.
The 2008 DTG Seminar, which is part of the tenth-anniversary celebration activities of the DTG, invites scholars from all walks of academia to explore The Hobbit from different angles. Possible topics include the narrative structure, the narrator, imagery, symbolism, protagonist development, sources and analogues etc.
Conference languages are English and German.
Please send proposals for contributions together with a short outline to the Hither Shore Board of Editors at
hither-shore[at]tolkiengesellschaft.de
till 30 October 2007
