RELG380

(J.R.R. Tolkien and the Literature of the Inklings.) This seminar will examine the literary legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien and his fellow writers C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield - all pioneers of the twentieth-century fantasy fiction genre. This course will involve close reading of major works by each author as well as opportunity to discuss the fascinating biographical, historical, aesthetic, and mythic underpinnings of their works. The seminar will pay especial attention to the Inklings' intellectual and artistic indebtedness to the medieval past, to their discourses about religion, politics, and ethics, to their eccentric relationship with "literary modernism," and to the way their fiction refracts major twentieth-century events, particularly World Wars I and II. Prerequisite: ENGL 210 or permission of the instructor.