This book takes a fresh look at Tolkiens literary artistry from the points of view of both linguistics and literary history, with the aim of shedding light on the literary techniques used inThe Lord of the Rings. The authors study Tolkiens 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 Tolkiens vocabulary and syntax, while Thomas Kullmann uses discourse theory, literary history and concepts of intertextuality to explore Tolkiens 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 novels 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.
Thomas Kullmann is Professor of English Literature at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. He has published widely on Shakespeare and the English Renaissance, English childrens literature and the nineteenth- and twentieth-century novel.
Dirk Siepmann is Professor of English as a Second Language at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. He has 25 years of experience in applied linguistics, with an extensive background in corpus linguistics and language teaching. He has authored 12 books, including two major monographs on translation studies and one on contrastive linguistics, and has co-authored or edited a further 14 volumes.
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Tolkien as a Stylist: Key Words and Key Collocations.- Chapter 3: The Narrative Syntax ofThe Lord of the Rings.- Chapter 4: Points of View.- Chapter 5: Landscape Descriptions.- Chapter 6: Speeches and Declarations.- Chapter 7: Storytelling.- Chapter 8: Poems and Songs.- Chapter 9: Language and Character.- Chapter 10: Tolkiens Position in Literary History.
