Anche se lontani, a volte non si può non parlare di certi eventi. È finalmente stato diffuso il programma dell’International Congress on Medieval Studies, che si svolgerà dal 9 al 12 Maggio 2013. L’incontro riunisce oltre tremila studiosi interessati agli Studi Medievali: è suddiviso in oltre 600 sessioni di lavoro, 3000 tra conferenze, tavole rotonde, workshop e spettacoli. Al suo interno, si svolgerà il Tolkien at Kalamazoo, la sezione dedicata a Tolkien. Si potrebbe definire l’apoteosi dell’appassionato di Tolkien negli Usa: praticamente 6 sessioni di conferenze, 2 sessioni sull’influenza sugli scrittori successivi, un conferenza filologica, due spettacoli, un dramma recitato e anche un incontro commerciale, tutti dedicati a J.R.R. Tolkien… In totale, sono oltre 30 conferenze e altri 8 momenti di riflessione: si rischia l’overdose!!! Il Congresso tradizionalmente presenta due conferenze plenarie, un concerto e una serata danzante.
Da segnalare, tra tutte le cose interessantissime da seguire, una sessione in onore di Verlyn Flieger, in cui alcune delle sue opere saranno analizzate e, si spera, sviluppate ulteriormente: su tutte, la teoria della luce e il volume Schegge di luce (pubblicato anche in italiano da Marietti 1820). Verrà anche presentato il The Tolkien Scholarship Project: Robin Anne Reid dell’università di Texas A&M parlerà della sua intenzione di dimostrare tramite la linguistica come la narrativa e la poesia contenuta nel Signore degli Anelli e il resto del Legendarium di Tolkien non sono un brutto esempio di letteratura modernista (come sostenuto da molti critici come Harold Bloom), eccellenti testi postmoderni, che suscitano anche il rispetto degli studiosi di testi come Beowulf e altri testi medievali. Ne è una continuazione ideale la relazione Théoden, come risposta di Tolkien all’ofermod di Beorhtnoth (The Eorl That Could Have Been: Theoden as Tolkien’s Answer to Beorhtnoth’s ofermod).
Tra le altre sessioni, Arte e musiche de Lo Hobbit, Tolkien studioso medievale, Tolkien and Alterity: In Honor of Jane Chance, le due sessioni sui Racconti dopo Tolkien: il medievalismo e la letteratura Fantasy del ventunesimo secolo, in cui si parlerà anche di autori molti noti come George R. R. Martin, Terry Pratchett e Catherine Fisher. Curiosa tutta la sessione dedicata al “Tolkien eccentrico”, organizzate dalla Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages. Si può concludere segnalando Women in Tolkien’s Professional Life, sessione che schiera i pezzi grossi dei Tolkien Studies, John D. Rateliff con The Missing Women: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lifelong Support for Women’s Higher Education, e soprattutto Douglas A. Anderson con l’importante studio “Professor d’
Ardenne of Liège has arrived to harrass me with philological work”: Simonne d’Ardenne as Student, Collaborator, Translator, and Friend of J. R. R. Tolkien. Per maggiori informazioni si può visitare il sito ufficiale del 48° Congresso Internazionale di Studi Medievali.
Ecco il programma completo in inglese, che si può scaricare anche qui:
Tolkien as Medieval Scholar
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Brad Eden, Valparaiso Univ.
Presider: Brad Eden
And they are making songs about him from here to the sea: Samwise Gamgee as Medieval English Yeoman
Leigh Smith, East Stroudsburg Univ.
A Historiology for England: Tolkien on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
John R. Holmes, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville
Music of the Ainur, Music of the Spheres: Tolkien and Cosmic Harmonies
Janice M. Bogstad, Univ. of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
Tolkien’s Poetic Scholarship: Old English Meter and Modern Poetry
Anna Smol, Mount St. Vincent Univ.
Tolkien as a Celticist: Views of a “Curtain Raiser” of the O’Donnell Lecture Series
Yoko Hemmi, Keio Univ.
In Honor of Verlyn Flieger:
The State of Tolkien Scholarship (A Panel Discussion)
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Brad Eden, Valparaiso Univ.
Presider: Amy Amendt-Raduege, Whatcom Community College
The Geek and the Scholar: Standing Pointy Ear to Mortarboard
Thom Foy, Independent Scholar
Splintered Light and Word: Tolkien’s Myth, Philology, and Faith
Edward L. Risden, St. Norbert College
Whose Myth Is It? Tolkien Scholarship as Interdisciplinary Studies
Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ.
The Tolkien Scholarship Project
Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Saruman’s Coat of Many Colors: Tolkien’s Exploration of Medieval Theories of Light
Michael Wodzak, Viterbo Univ., and Vickie Holtz-Wodzak, Viterbo Univ.
Tolkien and Alterity: In Honor of Jane Chance
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Brad Eden, Valparaiso Univ.
Presider: Christopher T. Vaccaro, Univ. of Vermont
Medieval Organicism or Modern Feminist Science? Bombadil, Elves, and Mother Nature
Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ.
The State of Tolkien and Alterity Scholarship
Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Language and Alterity in Tolkien
Deidre Dawson, Michigan State Univ.
The Alterior Motive: Patterns of Difference and Otherness in Tolkien’s World
Jared Lobdell, Independent Scholar
Art and Music of The Hobbit
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Brad Eden, Valparaiso Univ.
Presider: Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ.
A Game of Tolkien
Ed Ouellette, Air Univ.
Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: From Children’s Story to Epic Film
Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College
Songs of Peril in The Hobbit
Laura Smith, Signum Univ.
Sub-
creation in Action: Music Inspired by The Hobbit
Brad Eden
Women in Tolkien’s Professional Life
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Brad Eden, Valparaiso Univ.
Presider: Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College
“Professor d’Ardenne of Liège has arrived to harrass me with philological work”: Simonne d’Ardenne as Student, Collaborator, Translator, and Friend of J. R. R. Tolkien
Douglas A. Anderson, Independent Scholar
The Missing Women: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lifelong Support for Women’s Higher Education
John D. Rateliff, Independent Scholar
The Eorl That Could Have Been: Theoden as Tolkien’s Answer to Beorhtnoth’s Ofermod
Colin Pajda, St. Louis Univ.
Queer Tolkien
Sponsor: Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages (SSHMA);
Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Graham N. Drake, SUNY–Geneseo
Presider: Graham N. Drake
Niggle, Smith, and Giles: Medieval as Queer
Stephen Yandell, Xavier Univ.
To All Elf-Friends and Wizard’s-Pupils: “It gets better”: Medieval and Modern Categories of the Queer in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Christopher T. Vaccaro, Univ. of Vermont
Respondent: Jane Chance, Rice Univ.
Tolkien Unbound (Performances)
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Brad Eden, Valparaiso Univ.
Presider: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Maidens of Middle-earth: The Silmarillion
Eileen Marie Moore, Cleveland State Univ.
The Waking of Angantyr: A Poetic Drama
(Text by Deborah C. Rogers) based on an Old Norse Saga,
Performed with the Assistance of the Western
Michigan University Department of Theatre
Richard C. West, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
Tales after Tolkien:
Medievalism and Twenty-First-Century Fantasy Literature I
Organizer: Helen Young, Univ. of Sydney
Presider: Carol L. Robinson, Kent State Univ.–Trumbull
Refracted Romance: Re-visioning the Grail Legend in Catherine Fisher’s Corbenic
Molly Brown, Univ. of Pretoria
George R. R. Martin’s Quest for Realism in A Song of Ice and Fire
Shiloh R. Carroll, Middle Tennessee State Univ.
Androgynes, Crossdressers, and Rebel Queens: Modern Representations of Medieval Women Warriors from Tolkien to Martin
Rachael Mueller, Catholic Univ. of America
The Meaning of the Middle Ages: Fans, Authors, and Industry
Helen Young
Tales after Tolkien:
Medievalism and Twenty-First-Century Fantasy Literature II
Organizer: Helen Young, Univ. of Sydney
Presider: Douglas A. Anderson, Independent Scholar
Pratchett’s The Last Continent and Nominalist Questions
Jay Ruud, Univ. of Central Arkansas
A Divergent Medievalism in Robin Hobb’s Tawny Man Trilogy
Geoffrey B. Elliott, Technical Career Institutes
Black and Liminal in Camelot
Kris Swank, Mythgard Institute
The Hunger Games: Reinterpretation of a Medieval Quest Narrative
Stephanie A. Amsell, Southern Methodist Univ.
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eh! magari potessi!