2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The Possibility of Fantasy Literature - The text of The Lord of the Rings is dominant?

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23652061
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Literature in English
Research Institution	Nagoya University
Principal Investigator	WATANABE Miki 名古屋大学, 国際言語文化研究科, 准教授 (90201235)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	ファンタジー / ジャンル / 道化
Research Abstract	J.R.R.Tolkien's mythical being the hobbit first apperaed in his novel of that name. Described as a creature about half the height of a human, with neither magical powers nor special abilities, the hobbit is presented as the most powerless creature in Middle-earth. It is precisely this apparent weakness that affords the hobbit, functioning as the fool, to serve the future king and quest narrative. The Lord of the Rings is a work that Tolkien to some extent created by adapting the epic poem. That is the reason why it is dominant in the ganre of fantasy literature.