Antyk w prozie J. R. R. Tolkiena

• Authors: Piętka Radosław

Title variants

EN

ANTIQUITY IN J. R. R. TOLKIEN’S PROSE WORKS

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article tends to analyse the problems concerning the reception of classical texts and ideas in twentieth century, using as an example the prose works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkiens’s oeuvre and its problematic relationships with classical tradition serve in this paper as an illustration of the diverse approaches, methods, and styles of lecture concerning the nature of literary allusivity. As a point of departure in the paper has been taken the reflection on the common phrase about “antiquity in something” deployed broadly in the reception studies. The questions raised here are as follows: what does precisely “in” mean in that metaphor? Or, to put in more general terms, when an allusion to another text can be treated as an inherent part of interpretation? Answer to these questions was possible due to Umberto Eco’s statements in the well-known dispute relating to the interpretation and overinterpretation; in conclusion the author was trying to show that Eco’s criterion of textual economy in interpretation justifies somehow (in author’s opinion) the new look on the essential Tolkien’s symbol, i.e. the ring of power, as a symbol of the Roman imperial rule. This means (in the context of the translatio imperii and cultural change from pagan to Christian empire) that ‘The Lord of the Rings’ can be seen in a way as a novelistic version of Augustine’s ‘The City of God’

Keywords

EN

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien; reception studies; ancient tradition; literary theory

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium Graecae et Latinae
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 95-117

Dates

published

2011-06-30

Contributors

author

Piętka Radosław

• Instytut Filologii Klasycznej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, ul Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań , Poland