J. R. R. Tolkien was born in South Africa to British parents. His family moved back to England before he was four, though his father stayed behind. Tolkien was a child of the Victorian British Empire, but was also orphaned by the time he was twelve years old. He was a Catholic in a largely Protestant country, and later a historical philologist in a more modern-leaning college. Tolkien understood marginalization and feelings of difference, and he was very sympathetic to this. In his work, we clearly see his sympathies towards women’s challenges, and towards the plight of indigenous peoples. That said, Tolkien could not step completely outside of the systemic problems of his culture. At times he falls back on culturally-recognized tropes and images that certainly do not dismantle racial or gender stereotypes, and may even reinforce them.

This course explores the issues of race, sexuality, gender, and Othering in the mythological legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien, focusing primarily on The Lord of the Rings. We will examine the effects of gender on male and female characters, including the types of femininity and masculinity portrayed. We will confront the role of race in the texts, including issues around Blackness, Whiteness, and ethnicity. We will explore these questions simultaneously, through the intersections of race, gender, and issues of sexuality in Middle-earth. Tolkien’s writing continues to resonate in twenty-first century culture; this course aims to read his work through a twenty-first century optic.