More on Tolkien Criticism

Following up on Norbert Schürer’s “Tolkien Criticism Today” article that we previously discussed, Robin Ann Reid, herself a Tolkien scholar, has posted a rebuttal.

Schürer’s argument was essentially that Tolkien criticism had to navigate a difficult path between the difficulty of the material, and the popularity of the material; at once being scholarly and critical, yet still appealing to the fans which requires being not too critical. In his view, most criticism fails to navigate this path correctly.

Reid disagrees. Strongly.  In her view, all literary criticism is at risk of descending into cheerleading for the fans (and frequently does so), while the field of Tolkien studies is filled with excellent scholarly works that do not pander to fans.

Her first point is that to evaluate a work of Tolkien criticism one must be aware of the author's intended audience. Whereas some works are written with other academics in mind, others are surveys aimed at students, and still others are aimed at a wider general audience. Schürer, she argues, often evaluates works intended for a general audience according to standards that should be applied to academic criticism.

Second, Reid argues that, if anything, Tolkien scholars have typically mocked fans rather than pandered to them:

One major Tolkienist, who is one of the experts on Tolkien scholarship ... Michael D. C. Drout and his co-author Hilary Wynne call out Tolkien critics for *mocking* fans.

In their bibliographic essay, they argue that academics need to stop making fun of fans in their Tolkien scholarship: Endnote 36: "Among the many critics who go in for fan-mocking, the most distinguished are Rosebury (1–3) and Humphrey Carpenter in his January 20, 1997 interview in The Independent (cited by Pearce, 3)") (in: "Tom Shippey's J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century and a Look Back at Tolkien Criticism since 1982," (2000), Michael D. C. Drout and Hilary Wynne). 

Third, Reid gives examples of the many self described (non academic) fans who are themselves are quite critical of Tolkien.

I am not well enough read in the area of Tolkien scholarship to weigh in on this debate.  But if I ever choose to become better read in this area, I could do worse than start with Reid's long bibliography of works of Tolkien criticism.