Legacy Portal

This is the Landing Page for preceptor Will Sherwood's Tolkien and the Romantics series. Using the links on this page, you can explore each member of this series by going to its associated module page for more details.

J.R.R. Tolkien's revolutionary depictions of nature have inspired many to respect and cherish the environment. However, if we journeyed back two hundred years, we would discover that radical British Romantic authors were also challenging how readers perceived their surroundings! In this module, we will use ecology to explore the many parallels and contrasts between Tolkien's Arda and the Romantic's portrayals of nature big and small: mountains and meadows, woods and wildernesses, daffodils and dead marshes. This will include examining how characters react to the environment, nature's existence as separate from our own, and the broader concern of the Industrial Revolution's destructive potential.

The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Lecture 1: Visions of Nature
	Discussion 1: What do your Elf-eyes see?
Week 2	Lecture 2: All things Sublime and Beautiful
	Discussion 2: Sublime, Beautiful, or both at once?!
Week 3	Lecture 3: I want to see mountains!
	Discussion 3: One with our environment
Week 4	Lecture 4: Ecology without Humanity
	Discussion 4: What is actually out there beyond the Human sphere?