Tolkien and the mystery of literary creation / Giuseppe Pezzini.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pezzini, Giuseppe, 1984- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973--Criticism and interpretation.

Tolkien, J. R. R.

Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiii, 430 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

Taking his readers into the depths of a majestic and expansive literary world, one to which he brings fresh illumination as if to the darkness of Khazad-dûm, Giuseppe Pezzini combines rigorous scholarship with an engaging style to reveal the full scale of J. R. R. Tolkien's vision of the 'mystery of literary creation'. Through fragments garnered from across a scattered body of writing, and acute readings of primary texts (some well-known, others less familiar or recently published), the author divulges the unparalleled complexity of Tolkien's work while demonstrating its rich exploration of literature's very nature and purpose. Eschewing any overemphasis on context or comparisons, Pezzini offers rather a uniquely sustained, focused engagement with Tolkien and his 'theory' on their own terms. He helps us discover - or rediscover - a fascination for Tolkien's literary accomplishment while correcting long-standing biases against its nature and merits that have persisted fifty years after his death.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgements

Note on the Text

A Note on Cross-References

A Note on Capitalisation

A Note on Quotations

List of Abbreviations

Primary Sources and Abbreviations

Introduction

A Piece of Tolkien Scholarship

Structure and Overview

I The Cats of Queen Berúthiel: Linguistic Aesthetic and Literature for Its Own Sake

I.1 'Names Come First': From Berúthiel to Eärendil

I.1.1 The 'Undiscovered' Berúthiel and Her Exceptionality

I.1.2 The Textual History of Berúthiel: Linguistic Tinkering, Phonoaesthetics, and Narrative Unfolding

I.1.3 Linguistic Inspiration and the Secret Vice

I.1.4 The Thrilling Encounter with Éarendel/Eärendil

I.1.5 Scientific and Artistic Curiosity: Primary Exegesis and Creative Heuristic

I.2 'Gratuitous' Creations and the Re-awakening of Sea-Longing

I.2.1 From Meaningless Language to Purposeless Art

I.2.1.1 Tolkien on Joyce's Nonsense and the Debate about Language

I.2.1.2 Tom Bombadil's 'Nonsense' and Tolkien's Philosophy of Language

I.2.1.3 Functionless Art: Beauty versus Power

I.2.2 The Unconsciousness of Creation: Dreaming, Art, and Imagination

I.2.2.1 Linguistic Dreams and the Atlantis Complex

I.2.2.2 Meta-literary Dreams in the Secondary World

I.2.2.3 An All-Pervasive Unconsciousness

I.2.3 Tolkien's Contemplative Dynamism: Philology and Etymology

I.2.3.1 The Journey of Creation and Its Aesthetic Drive

I.2.3.2 Not (Just) Psychology: Rationality, Awakening, and Inspiration

I.2.4 The 'Otherness' of Artistic Dreams and the Indwelling of the Imperishable Flame

I.2.5 Sea-Longing and Creative Nostalgia

I.2.5.1 St Andrews and the Horns of Ylmir

I.2.5.2 Eärendil's Hope: The Inspiration of Creative Desire.

I.3 The Paradox of Creation and the Purpose of Purposeless Beauty

I.4 Epilogue: Berúthiel's Fate

II The Authors of the Red Book: Meta-textual Frames and Writing as Discovery and Translation

II.1 The Meta-textual Frame of Middle-earth

II.1.1 The Paratext of The Lord of the Rings

II.1.2 The First Author of the Red Book: Bilbo Baggins

II.1.3 The Second Author of the Red Book: Frodo Baggins

II.1.4 Bilbo's Extended and Incomplete Authorial Role

II.1.5 Frodo and the 'Collective' Narratives of The Lord of the Rings

II.1.6 Sam's Authorial Voice: Narrative, Style, and the Meta-textual Frame

II.1.7 The Other Volumes of the Red Book and Its Textual History

II.1.8 The Hidden Presence: Tolkien's Authorial/Editorial Voice

II.1.9 Summing Up

II.2 The (Double) Meaning of the Meta-textual Frame

II.2.1 The 'Secondary' Function of the Meta-textual Frame

II.2.1.1 Realism, Historia, and the Mythopoetic Ambition

II.2.1.2 Stylistic Realism, Narrative Focalisation, and 'Philosophical' Bias

II.2.1.3 Hobbito-Centrism: Narrative and Themes

II.2.1.4 Merging Myth into History: The 'Symbolism' of the Hobbits

II.2.2 The 'Primary' Meaning of the Meta-textual Frame

II.2.2.1 The Intrusion of the Hobbit

II.2.2.2 Composition: The 'Self-Unfolding' of the Story

II.2.2.3 Writing as a 'Labour Pain': The 'Otherness' of the Story

II.2.2.4 Writing as Translation and Reporting: The Imperfectness and 'Partiality' of (Human) Stories

II.2.2.5 Writing as Co-authoring: The 'Truth' of Human Stories and the Writer of the Story

II.2.3 Summing Up

III The Lords of the West: Cloaking, Freedom, and the Hidden 'Divine' Narrative

III.1 The Unnamed Authority in The Lord of the Rings

III.1.1 Explicit References to 'Religion'

III.1.2 An Invisible Lamp: The Hidden 'Divine Narrative'.

III.1.2.1 The Eagles of the Lords of the West

III.1.2.2 Dreams and Inspiration

III.1.2.3 The (West) Wind

III.1.2.4 Gandalf the Emissary

III.1.2.5 Chance, Fortune, and Fate

III.1.2.6 Narrative and Election

III.2 Secondary Meanings: Cloaking and Freedom

III.2.1 Respect for Created Freedom

III.2.2 The Freedom of the One

III.3 Primary Meanings: Cloaking and Sub-creation

III.3.1 The Freedom of the Sub-creator: Cloaking as a Guarantee and Limit

III.3.2 Applicability and Fantastic Recovery: The Freedom of the Reader

III.3.3 A Heart-Racking Desire

III.3.4 Glimpsing the Light of God in Incomplete Stories

III.3.5 Conclusions

IV Beren and Frodo: Intratextual Parallels and the Universality of the Particular

IV.1 The 'Seamless Web of Story': Parallelism in the Secondary World

IV.1.1 Cross-Referencing to Elder Tales

IV.1.2 Joining the Single Story: Narrative Constants

IV.1.3 Bilbo and Aragorn: Genealogical Connections

IV.1.4 Renewals and Tributaries

IV.1.5 The Spring at Every Doorstep

IV.2 Criss-crossing between Secondary and Primary Planes

IV.2.1 The Unfailing Line of Lúthien

IV.2.2 Allegory versus Story

IV.2.2.1 Tolkien and Allegory: An Unsolvable Contradiction?

IV.2.2.2 The Allegorical Potential of Non-allegorical Stories

IV.2.3 Modes and Motives, between Primary and Secondary Worlds

IV.3 Conclusions: Tolkien and the Universality of the Particular

IV.3.1 The Endlessness of Story

IV.3.2 Narrative Continuity and the Single Author

IV.3.3 Renewal and (Unique) Embodiment

IV.3.4 Echoing the Evangelium

V Gandalf's Fall and Return: Sub-creative Humility and the 'Arising' of Prophecy

V.1 Gandalf's Fall and the Loss of Hope

V.1.1 A Reticent Account and Unclear Exegesis

V.1.2 A Self-Sacrifice

V.1.3 Obedience to 'The Rules'.

V.1.4 Gandalf's Problematic Ontology and His Assimilation to 'Lower' Creatures

V.1.5 Accepting the Gift of Ilúvatar

V.1.6 Hoping beyond Hope: Amdir versus Estel

V.1.7 Sub-creative Co-operation and the Sacrifice of the Sub-creator

V.1.8 Eru's Intrusion and the Death of Gandalf

V.2 The Arising of Prophecy

VI The Next Stage: The Death of the Author and the Effoliation of Creation

VI.1 The Death of the Sub-creator

VI.1.1 Abiding by the Rules and Developing Inner Powers: Writing as Gardening

VI.1.2 The 'Other' and Unforeseen Life of Literature

VI.1.3 Writing as Imperfect Interpreting: Giving Up Intention and Domination

VI.1.4 The Hopeful Despair of the Writer and Christ as the Only 'Literary Critic'

VI.1.5 Dying for Parish and the Co-operation with Modernity

VI.2 The Resurrection of the Author: Taking Up to the Primary Plane

VI.2.1 The Gift of Completion and the Enhancement of Imagination

VI.2.2 The Gift of Realisation and (Sub-)creative Mise-en-abyme

VI.2.3 The Gift of Ramification and the Transcending Vocation of the Sub-creator

VI.2.4 The Gift of Harmony and the Healing Power of Literature

VI.2.5 The Gift of Prophecy and the Final Music

VI.3 Explicit

VII Epilogue: A Short Introduction to the Ainulindalë

VII.1 Textual History

VII.2 Structure and Content

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 18 Apr 2025).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-47969-5

1-009-47970-9

1-009-47971-7

OCLC:

1517975851