Impressions
News
22.04.2010: Anna E. Slack, who is not able to participate in the seminar because of the flight-restrictions, kindly made her paper available online – you can find it here.
22.04.2010: Since there will not be be a second session on Saturday (because of the recent air-traffic restrictions), all lectures will take place in the 'Senatssaal University Main Building' (Fürstengraben 1).
21.04.2010: Due to the restrictions in the air-traffic, several of our speakers from abroad had to cancel their participation. We hope that the situation is improving and that we don't have any further cancellations. Please check the conference website regularly for updates and changes.
General
'Romanticism' has frequently been named as an important influence on Tolkien. However, a comprehensive analysis investigating the complex relationship between
the Professor's work and the different varieties of 'Romanticism' remains a desideratum. Tolkien's achievements as philologist, medievalist, poet and author would not
have been possible without the changes brought about by Romanticism in the fields of art, music, philology, literature, philosophy and politics in the late 18th and early
to mid-19th centuries – developments (often nationally diversified) that are usually subsumed under the heading of 'Romanticism'.
It is the aim of the seventh DTG conference to explore not only Tolkien's indebtedness to Romanticism in this broad meaning of the term, but also to discuss his importance as an author and scholar who persisted in the continuation and modification of 'romantic' impulses in a severely 'anti-romantic' environment. The topic has also been selected in the hope of giving new impulses to research into this period. This is necessary since scholars have as yet focussed predominantly on 'the Middle Ages' as the main source of cultural inspiration for Tolkien's work, to the detriment of other (equally?) important periods of influence.
The DTG conferences traditionally reach out across the linguistic and academic boundaries. They provide a platform for international Tolkien scholars to present their research,
to exchange ideas and lay the foundations for international co-operations. The speakers of the Jena conference hail from France, Spain, Italy, England, Germany and Switzerland.
The official conference languages are English and German.
Jena, which has already hosted the DTG conferences in 2005, 2007, and 2008, has developed over the last decade into one of the European centres for Tolkien-studies. This is mainly due to the implementation of Tolkien-studies as part of the academic teaching-programme and, of course, as a focus of research at the Friedrich-Schiller-University. The Department of English Studies regularly offers courses on Tolkien's work or on related subjects – thus students can attend a lecture on his work this coming term (Summer 2010). Furthermore, the Department of English Studies is proud to count Prof. Dr. Dirk Vanderbeke, Prof. Dr. Thomas Honegger, and Dr. Allan G. Turner among its staff – all scholars with a keen interest in matters Tolkien. The Department and the Friedrich-Schiller-University also support events such as the DTG conference by providing lecture rooms, technical support, infrastructure etc. – which allows us to keep the conference free of charge and open to the public.
Jena has not only a broad public interested in matters literary and cultural, but it also sports a rich 'romantic' heritage that makes it uniquely suited for hosting a conference
on 'Tolkien and Romanticism'. Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel put Jena on the map and attracted some of the greatest German thinkers, so that, around 1800, Jena was one of the centres
of German philosophy. Furthermore, the German 'Frühromantik' ('Early Romanticism') originated in Jena at that time. The Schlegel brothers and their wives Caroline and Dorothea Veit
constituted the centre of a convivial and sophisticated circle that comprised, among others, Tieck, Novalis, and Brentano. A guided tour focussing on the romantic heritage offers
the chance to visit some of the places associated with this period.
Today, Jena still offers a varied and vibrant cultural life. The city, with its 100'000 inhabitants, is the home of 26'000 students, which means that the character of the town is greatly influenced by student-life. Jena's central and compact location offers easy access to ICE and other train connections and within town all places of importance and relevance for the conference can be reached on foot within 5 to 10 minutes.
A selection of papers is going to be published in revised form in Hither Shore, the bilingual yearbook of the DTG.