Queer Tolkien

Congress sessions devoted to J.R.R. Tolkien have proven valuable for multiple medieval fields (history, literature, linguistics, medievalism, and pedagogy). A “Queer Tolkien” session (co-sponsored by Tolkien at Kalamazoo) would build on this impressive base and encourage new scholarship in two key ways. First, although scholarship on Tolkien has occasionally addressed topics such as gender non-conformity and homosocial bonding, the lens of Queer Theory differs from that of Gender Theory and other literary approaches, and a session devoted specifically to research through a queer lens has been largely overlooked. Second, while queer readings have sometimes overlapped with current research on Tolkien’s fiction, it has been almost entirely absent in approaches to his scholarly writings (on myth, linguistics, etc.), and this session invites papers covering all areas of the Tolkien corpus.Stephen YandellXavier University (Cincinnati)