Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Edidin, Aron

Area of Concentration

Environmental Studies

Abstract

This thesis examines current cultural-environmental problems through looking at the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and extrapolating the environmental themes and messages inherent in his work. The theoretical basis of this thesis comes out of the scholarly disciplines of ecocriticism and radical nostalgia. These work as relevant disciplines for this thesis as ecocriticism incorporates an analysis of literature which examines the interaction between humanity, society, and nature. Radical nostalgia, as defined by Patrick Curry's book Defending Middle Earth provides also provides a useful framework with which to present the fantastical and nostalgic nature of Tolkien's work in a way which can motivate practical activism in the present. The thesis takes the argument that Tolkien's work contain valuable environmental themes which qualify them as nature-writing as well as can provide useful insights to the problems in how our current dominant cultural systems engage in problematic interactions with the environment. It proposes various solutions to environmental problems rooted in culture based off of Tolkien's presentation of culture and nature, primarily focusing on The Lord of the Rings saga. To do this the thesis examines each Realm, chapter-by-chapter, presenting the cultural-environmental themes from the text and then applying them to relevant environmental practice in the present.

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