I'd be hesitant to try to analyze any debate about racism in LOTR for this project (although I've read a number of critical essays on the topic, and heard one superb essay on the film, starting with the Orcs' dreadlocks!) for just that reason: I am so invested in the source text that I would not trust myself in this sort of analysis. I team-teach it with a medieval historian and our approach is the "layering" of historical periods/sources in the text, so we cover constructions of "race" in the medieval and the modern periods--but it's not something I've tried to deal with in my fan fiction. (Her recent work, btw, is on the constructions of "Jews" and "heretics" and "pagans" in medieval sermons, looking at how the roots of later racial prejudices were being created in the medieval period.)
I'm just starting to think about it all--well, I started in March, but a lot of stuff intervened, including several conferences!--it's only in the last few days that the intention to write about rhetorics of racisms jelled, and my decision to work across fandoms and to ignore the canon texts sort of came as I was typing this post. I am a very process oriented writer--although I'll admit the feeling of working on the process in a public LJ under my real name is a new one, even for me (I've been known to hand out copies of my rough drafts to my graduate students!), so I'll be walking this high wire in front of you all!
Thank you for the link to the newsletter (newsletters--such a fantastic thing in fandom--and now I wonder if anybody has done any papers on *that* fan creation???)--I'm going to go join the community, or watch it.
I am *very* much looking forward to teaching Chun's book in my class this fall--it's the foundational text (i.e. we're working through it one chapter a week, so a large part of our work the first half of the term will be spent on this text).
no subject
I'd be hesitant to try to analyze any debate about racism in LOTR for this project (although I've read a number of critical essays on the topic, and heard one superb essay on the film, starting with the Orcs' dreadlocks!) for just that reason: I am so invested in the source text that I would not trust myself in this sort of analysis. I team-teach it with a medieval historian and our approach is the "layering" of historical periods/sources in the text, so we cover constructions of "race" in the medieval and the modern periods--but it's not something I've tried to deal with in my fan fiction. (Her recent work, btw, is on the constructions of "Jews" and "heretics" and "pagans" in medieval sermons, looking at how the roots of later racial prejudices were being created in the medieval period.)
I'm just starting to think about it all--well, I started in March, but a lot of stuff intervened, including several conferences!--it's only in the last few days that the intention to write about rhetorics of racisms jelled, and my decision to work across fandoms and to ignore the canon texts sort of came as I was typing this post. I am a very process oriented writer--although I'll admit the feeling of working on the process in a public LJ under my real name is a new one, even for me (I've been known to hand out copies of my rough drafts to my graduate students!), so I'll be walking this high wire in front of you all!
Thank you for the link to the newsletter (newsletters--such a fantastic thing in fandom--and now I wonder if anybody has done any papers on *that* fan creation???)--I'm going to go join the community, or watch it.
I am *very* much looking forward to teaching Chun's book in my class this fall--it's the foundational text (i.e. we're working through it one chapter a week, so a large part of our work the first half of the term will be spent on this text).
Nice to meet you!