This CFP is for the International Conference of Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, 2019.

It is for a paper session titled The Legacy of Tolkien's Medievalism in Contemporary Works. The session will examine the continuing influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on conceptions of the Middle Ages and the medieval that is prevalent in academic and popular cultures in any medium.

As has been amply attested, Tolkien’s medievalist work in his Middle-earth corpus has exerted an outsized influence on subsequent fantasy and medievalist popular culture, and, following Paul B. Sturtevant’s assertions in The Middle Ages in Popular Imagination, it is largely or chiefly through popular cultural engagement with the materials that people—both the general public and those who become the students and scholars of the medieval—develop their early understandings of the Middle Ages.

Decades on, Tolkien’s influence on popular culture—books, yes, but also movies, tabletop games, video games, television series, music, and other elements of popular understanding—continues to be felt, and continued examination of that influence is therefore warranted.

For more information, you can visit the society website: https://talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com/2018/06/doing-more-to-get-ready-f...