Dimitra Fimi – författare

Fimi explores the evolution of Tolkien's mythology throughout his lifetime by examining how it changed as a result of his life story and contemporary cultural and intellectual history. This new approach and scope brings to light neglected aspects of Tolkien's imaginative vision and contextualises his fiction.

First ever critical study of Tolkien’s little-known essay, which reveals how language invention shaped the creation of Middle-earth and beyond, to George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones.This is an annotated edition of Tolkien’s seminal 1930s essay `A Secret Vice’, in which he first revealed his `vice’ of inventing languages in his fantasy fiction.Tolkien’s linguistic invention was a fundamental part of his artistic output, to the extent that later on in life he attributed the existence of his mythology to the desire to give his languages a home and peoples to speak them. As Tolkien puts it in `A Secret Vice’, `the making of language and mythology are related functions’, in fact `coeval and congenital’.In the 1930s Tolkien composed and delivered two lectures in which he explored these two key elements of his sub-creative methodology. In 1931 he gave a talk to a philological society entitled `A Hobby for the Home’. In this talk, later published as `A Secret Vice’, Tolkien unveiled for the first time to a listening public the art which he had both himself encountered and been involved with since his earliest childhood: `the construction of imaginary languages in full or outline for amusement’. `A Secret Vice’ would be edited by Christopher Tolkien for inclusion in The Monsters and the Critics and serves as the principal exposition of Tolkien’s art of inventing languages. But it has often been neglected by critics and this new critical edition will go some way towards re-opening the debate on the importance of linguistic invention in Tolkien’s mythology and the role of imaginary languages in fantasy literature.In addition to all previously unpublished notes and essays by Tolkien connected with the essay, the book discusses the subject of Tolkien’s languages in the wider context of modern fantasy, including the Peter Jackson Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films and Game of Thrones.

First ever critical study of Tolkien’s little-known essay, which reveals how language invention shaped the creation of Middle-earth and beyond, to George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones. J.R.R. Tolkien’s linguistic invention was a fundamental part of his artistic output, to the extent that later on in life he attributed the existence of his mythology to the desire to give his languages a home and peoples to speak them. As Tolkien puts it in ‘A Secret Vice’, ‘the making of language and mythology are related functions’.In the 1930s, Tolkien composed and delivered two lectures, in which he explored these two key elements of his sub-creative methodology. The second of these, the seminal Andrew Lang Lecture for 1938–9, ‘On Fairy-Stories’, which he delivered at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, is well known. But many years before, in 1931, Tolkien gave a talk to a literary society entitled ‘A Hobby for the Home’, where he unveiled for the first time to a listening public the art that he had both himself encountered and been involved with since his earliest childhood: ‘the construction of imaginary languages in full or outline for amusement’.This talk would be edited by Christopher Tolkien for inclusion as ‘A Secret Vice’ in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays and serves as the principal exposition of Tolkien’s art of inventing languages. This new critical edition, which includes previously unpublished notes and drafts by Tolkien connected with the essay, including his ‘Essay on Phonetic Symbolism’, goes some way towards re-opening the debate on the importance of linguistic invention in Tolkien’s mythology and the role of imaginary languages in fantasy literature.

Fimi explores the evolution of Tolkien's mythology throughout his lifetime by examining how it changed as a result of his life story and contemporary cultural and intellectual history. This new approach and scope brings to light neglected aspects of Tolkien's imaginative vision and contextualises his fiction.

Runner-up of the Katherine Briggs Folklore Award 2017Winner of the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth & Fantasy Studies 2019This book examines the creative uses of “Celtic” myth in contemporary fantasy written for children or young adults from the 1960s to the 2000s. Its scope ranges from classic children’s fantasies such as Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain and Alan Garner’s The Owl Service, to some of the most recent, award-winning fantasy authors of the last decade, such as Kate Thompson (The New Policeman) and Catherine Fisher (Darkhenge). The book focuses on the ways these fantasy works have appropriated and adapted Irish and Welsh medieval literature in order to highlight different perceptions of “Celticity.” The term “Celtic” itself is interrogated in light of recent debates in Celtic studies, in order to explore a fictional representation of a national past that is often romanticized and political.

Exploring a range of international works such as films, streaming television series, a graphic novel, and a picture book, this open access book interrogates how, and to what extent, fairy tales are put to work for justice in the areas of environment and ecology, kinship and family, ability and disability, and sex and gender. As Bacchilega and Greenhill demonstrate, some 21st-century fairy tales channel the genre’s wonder to offer otherwise possibilities for being and acting in the world that are not confined to socially sanctioned paths. Drawing on visual and audio-visual case studies of texts such as The Magic Fish, Julián Is A Mermaid, Pokot [Spoor], Gräns [Border], The Dragon Prince, Gatta Cenerentola [Cinderella the Cat], and Sweet Tooth, they examine how the wonder and preternatural of fairy tales model a sustained desire to believe in and realize new ways of existence that have often been too easily dismissed. Guided by theories in fields including ecological, gender, disability, critical race, Indigenous, fantasy, posthuman, and adaptation studies as they intersect with folklore and fairy tale studies, this book examines how creators of wonder tales since the beginning of the new millenium have presented provocations around humans’ political and social relations with nature and culture. Analyzing justice from a variety of positions and establishing how tales of the otherwise can develop optative thinking, Justice in 21st-Century Fairy Tales and the Power of Wonder refutes the conservative, patriarchal, and merely nostalgic Disnified narrative of the genre and insists on the power of wonder within and beyond fairy tales.The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant 435-2019-0691 and The University of Winnipeg, Canada.

Exploring a range of international works such as films, streaming television series, a graphic novel, and a picture book, this open access book interrogates how, and to what extent, fairy tales are put to work for justice in the areas of environment and ecology, kinship and family, ability and disability, and sex and gender. As Bacchilega and Greenhill demonstrate, some 21st-century fairy tales channel the genre’s wonder to offer otherwise possibilities for being and acting in the world that are not confined to socially sanctioned paths. Drawing on visual and audio-visual case studies of texts such as The Magic Fish, Julián Is A Mermaid, Pokot [Spoor], Gräns [Border], The Dragon Prince, Gatta Cenerentola [Cinderella the Cat], and Sweet Tooth, they examine how the wonder and preternatural of fairy tales model a sustained desire to believe in and realize new ways of existence that have often been too easily dismissed. Guided by theories in fields including ecological, gender, disability, critical race, Indigenous, fantasy, posthuman, and adaptation studies as they intersect with folklore and fairy tale studies, this book examines how creators of wonder tales since the beginning of the new millenium have presented provocations around humans’ political and social relations with nature and culture. Analyzing justice from a variety of positions and establishing how tales of the otherwise can develop optative thinking, Justice in 21st-Century Fairy Tales and the Power of Wonder refutes the conservative, patriarchal, and merely nostalgic Disnified narrative of the genre and insists on the power of wonder within and beyond fairy tales.The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant 435-2019-0691 and The University of Winnipeg, Canada.

Focusing on representations of Celtic motifs and traditions in post-1980s adult fantasy literature, this book illuminates how the historical, the mythological and the folkloric have served as inspiration for the fantastic in modern and popular culture of the western world. Bringing together both highly-acclaimed works with those that have received less critical attention, including French and Gaelic fantasy literature, Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy explores such texts as Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Alan Garner's Weirdstone trilogy, the Irish fantasies of Jodi McIsaac, David Gemmell's Rigante novels, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison Keltiad books, as well as An Sgoil Dhubh by Iain F. MacLeòid and the Vertigen and Frontier series by Léa Silhol. Lively and covering new ground, the collection examines topics such as fairy magic, Celtic-inspired worldbuilding, heroic patterns, classical ethnography and genre tropes alongside analyses of the Celtic Tarot in speculative fiction and Celtic appropriation in fan culture.Introducing a nuanced understanding of the Celtic past, as it has been informed by recent debates in Celtic studies, this wide-ranging and provocative book shows how modern fantasy is indebted to medieval Celtic-language texts, folkloric traditions, as well as classical sources.

Focusing on representations of Celtic motifs and traditions in post-1980s adult fantasy literature, this book illuminates how the historical, the mythological and the folkloric have served as inspiration for the fantastic in modern and popular culture of the western world. Bringing together both highly-acclaimed works with those that have received less critical attention, including French and Gaelic fantasy literature, Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy explores such texts as Susanna Clarke''s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Alan Garner''s Weirdstone trilogy, the Irish fantasies of Jodi McIsaac, David Gemmell''s Rigante novels, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison Keltiad books, as well as An Sgoil Dhubh by Iain F. MacLeòid and the Vertigen and Frontier series by Léa Silhol. Lively and covering new ground, the collection examines topics such as fairy magic, Celtic-inspired worldbuilding, heroic patterns, classical ethnography and genre tropes alongside analyses of the Celtic Tarot in speculative fiction and Celtic appropriation in fan culture. Introducing a nuanced understanding of the Celtic past, as it has been informed by recent debates in Celtic studies, this wide-ranging and provocative book shows how modern fantasy is indebted to medieval Celtic-language texts, folkloric traditions, as well as classical sources.

Focusing on representations of Celtic motifs and traditions in post-1980s adult fantasy literature, this book illuminates how the historical, the mythological and the folkloric have served as inspiration for the fantastic in modern and popular culture of the western world. Bringing together both highly-acclaimed works with those that have received less critical attention, including French and Gaelic fantasy literature, Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy explores such texts as Susanna Clarke''s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Alan Garner''s Weirdstone trilogy, the Irish fantasies of Jodi McIsaac, David Gemmell''s Rigante novels, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison Keltiad books, as well as An Sgoil Dhubh by Iain F. MacLeòid and the Vertigen and Frontier series by Léa Silhol. Lively and covering new ground, the collection examines topics such as fairy magic, Celtic-inspired worldbuilding, heroic patterns, classical ethnography and genre tropes alongside analyses of the Celtic Tarot in speculative fiction and Celtic appropriation in fan culture. Introducing a nuanced understanding of the Celtic past, as it has been informed by recent debates in Celtic studies, this wide-ranging and provocative book shows how modern fantasy is indebted to medieval Celtic-language texts, folkloric traditions, as well as classical sources.

Focusing on representations of Celtic motifs and traditions in post-1980s adult fantasy literature, this book illuminates how the historical, the mythological and the folkloric have served as inspiration for the fantastic in modern and popular culture of the western world. Bringing together both highly-acclaimed works with those that have received less critical attention, including French and Gaelic fantasy literature, Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy explores such texts as Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Alan Garner's Weirdstone trilogy, the Irish fantasies of Jodi McIsaac, David Gemmell's Rigante novels, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison Keltiad books, as well as An Sgoil Dhubh by Iain F. MacLeòid and the Vertigen and Frontier series by Léa Silhol. Lively and covering new ground, the collection examines topics such as fairy magic, Celtic-inspired worldbuilding, heroic patterns, classical ethnography and genre tropes alongside analyses of the Celtic Tarot in speculative fiction and Celtic appropriation in fan culture.Introducing a nuanced understanding of the Celtic past, as it has been informed by recent debates in Celtic studies, this wide-ranging and provocative book shows how modern fantasy is indebted to medieval Celtic-language texts, folkloric traditions, as well as classical sources.

Exploring the phenomenon of Femslash fanfiction (fan narratives that bring together heterosexual female characters from mainstream media and fiction), this book analyses fan-authored works as forms of literature worthy of studying at length. It examines the anti-racist, feminist, sapphic fan works produced in response to white supremacist, heteronormative, queerbaiting mainstream fantasy and argues that they represent a significant site of queer healing for marginalised audience members.Focusing on the 'Swan Queen' fandom, where fans pair the ‘white trash’ heroine, Emma Swan and the villainous Latina Evil Queen (Regina Mills) from ABC's hit show Once Upon a Time, Alice Kelly redresses the widespread academic neglect of queer female fandoms and responds to urgent calls to diversify fan and fantasy scholarship. With reference to complex theoretical subjects such as ethnography, sociology, psychology and decolonial, queer, film and media studies, the book also delves into the alternative timescales on which queer female and genderqueer fan authorship runs; offers intriguing insights into fanfiction narrative structures; and tackles the issues of broader fandom representation and contextualization.Making the case that fan texts deserve attention in the academy, Kelly shows how some of the most prolific fan works have the ability to enact colour reparation and a reclamation of memory, fantasy, romance, maternity, childhood, parenting and magic. These fictions serve fan communities as a whole through intersectional challenges to the power dynamics of the source text and within the fandom itself and, as the book demonstrates, offer attendant validation to fantasy fans who have been repeatedly told that the genre is not for them.

A comprehensive history and analysis of the Soviet illustrated editions of The Lord of the Rings published between 1981 and 1993, this book explores the production and reception of these works against a backdrop of oppressive state censorship, restrictive publishing practices and logistical struggles of translating such long texts. Highlighting the intense creativity, innovation and resourcefulness of illustrators from the USSR, Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc demonstrates how new forms of Tolkienian imagery reforged Western fantasy artwork and brought fresh iconographical diversity to late 20th-century fantasy visuals. In employing comparative analysis to reconcile the neglected Soviet illustrations with their popular Western equivalents, the book situates both pictorial traditions within the wider cultural and political contexts of the period and reflects upon their relevance to current debates regarding visual heterogeneity in fantasy.Carefully reconstructing the diverse Middle-earth visions of illustrators such as Gyozo Vida, Jerzy Czerniawski, Yassen Panov, Alexander Korotich, Èduard Zarjanskij, Denis Gordeev and Sergei Iukhimov, Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc broadens notions of how Tolkien's work was received beyond Anglo-centric, Western audiences. A vivid record of artistic reception and the permeability of cultural boundaries during the final years of Communist rule, author Joel Merriner offers an art historian's analysis of these illustrations of Tolkien's beloved work and sheds new light on the role of visual art in shaping cultural content.

Contributions by Douglas A. Anderson, Catherine Butler, Frances Critchley, Virginie Douglas, Vivienne Féasson, Dimitra Fimi, Frances Foster, Andrew Higgins, Kat J. Melia, Michael Mikesell, Amanda Potter, John D. Rateliff, Scott R. Robinson, SF Said, and Lisa Sainsbury Since its publication in 1972, Watership Down has become one of the most celebrated works of twentieth-century children’s literature. With more than fifty million copies sold worldwide, Richard Adams’s tale of a band of rabbits searching for a new home defied expectations with its epic scope, mythological depth, and environmental consciousness—qualities that continue to resonate more than fifty years later. A landmark of crossover fiction, the novel captivates readers of all ages through its sophisticated prose, vividly imagined world, and profound reflections on community, leadership, survival, and the natural world. Yet despite its critical and commercial success, Watership Down has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. This collection offers a long-overdue reappraisal of the novel’s significance, assembling contributions from an international range of scholars of literature, ecology, linguistics, classics, translation, film, and even the creator of Bunnies & Burrows, the Watership Down role-playing game. The essays explore the book’s mythopoeic structure, its place within the epic tradition, its invention of language and lore, and its powerful legacy in animal fiction and ecological thought. They also trace the novel’s complex adaptation history—from the controversial 1978 animated film to the 2018 Netflix miniseries—and examine its wide-reaching influence on writers, gamers, and environmentalists alike. As themes of displacement, climate change, and interspecies understanding come into ever-sharper focus, this volume shows how Adams’s rabbits still have much to teach us.

Contributions by Douglas A. Anderson, Catherine Butler, Frances Critchley, Virginie Douglas, Vivienne Féasson, Dimitra Fimi, Frances Foster, Andrew Higgins, Kat J. Melia, Michael Mikesell, Amanda Potter, John D. Rateliff, Scott R. Robinson, SF Said, and Lisa SainsburySince its publication in 1972, Watership Down has become one of the most celebrated works of twentieth-century children’s literature. With more than fifty million copies sold worldwide, Richard Adams’s tale of a band of rabbits searching for a new home defied expectations with its epic scope, mythological depth, and environmental consciousness—qualities that continue to resonate more than fifty years later. A landmark of crossover fiction, the novel captivates readers of all ages through its sophisticated prose, vividly imagined world, and profound reflections on community, leadership, survival, and the natural world.Yet despite its critical and commercial success, Watership Down has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. This collection offers a long-overdue reappraisal of the novel’s significance, assembling contributions from an international range of scholars of literature, ecology, linguistics, classics, translation, film, and even the creator of Bunnies & Burrows, the Watership Down role-playing game. The essays explore the book’s mythopoeic structure, its place within the epic tradition, its invention of language and lore, and its powerful legacy in animal fiction and ecological thought. They also trace the novel’s complex adaptation history—from the controversial 1978 animated film to the 2018 Netflix miniseries—and examine its wide-reaching influence on writers, gamers, and environmentalists alike. As themes of displacement, climate change, and interspecies understanding come into ever-sharper focus, this volume shows how Adams’s rabbits still have much to teach us.