Tolkien and race

J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings have been said to embody outmoded attitudes to race.[1][2][3] However, scholars have noted that he was influenced by Victorian attitudes to race and to a literary tradition of monsters, and that he was anti-racist both in peacetime and during the two World Wars.[4]

With the late 19th century background of eugenics and a fear of moral decline,[5] some critics believed that the mention of race mixing in The Lord of the Rings embodied scientific racism.[6][7] Other commentators thought that Tolkien's description of the orcs was modelled on racist wartime propaganda caricatures of the Japanese.[8] Critics have noted, too, that the work embodies a moral geography, with good in the West, evil in the East.[9]

Against this, Tolkien strongly opposed Nazi racial theories, as seen in a 1938 letter he wrote to his publisher,[10][T 1] while in the Second World War he vigorously opposed anti-German propaganda.[10] His Middle-earth has been described as definitely polycultural and polylingual,[3] while scholars have noted that attacks on Tolkien based on The Lord of the Rings often omit relevant evidence from the text.[11][12][13]

  1. ^ Yatt 2002.
  2. ^ Bhatia 2003.
  3. ^ a b Straubhaar 2004, pp. 101–117.
  4. ^ Fimi 2018.
  5. ^ Rogers & Underwood 2000, pp. 121–132.
  6. ^ Reid 2021.
  7. ^ Perry 2021.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ibata Chicago Tribune 2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Magoun 2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Rearick 2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Curry 2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chism Race Ethnicity was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chism Racism Charges was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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