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The Modern Scholar: Rings, Swords And Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature (2000)

by Michael D.C. Drout(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

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review 1: What's geekier than reading fantasy literature? Listening to a lecture that actually takes fantasy literature seriously. Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. Drout is a fantasy aficionado and this lecture is perhaps somewhat indulgent on his part, but I think he makes a legitimate argument that fantasy literature is valuable and insightful in that it deals with issues that other literature kind of avoids. He specifically pointed out that more respected literature deals with what death does to the people left behind whereas fantasy deals with what it means to die in general. In that sense, fantasy has strong ties to religion and in fact takes a very moralistic view of the world.Drout's focus for more than half of his lectures is JRR Tolkien. While this seems to be a... moren uneven focus, I actually didn't mind. He provides lots of good background information about Tolkien and his works as well as analysis and interpretation of the works themselves.
review 2: Maybe this was not the best course, I am not sure with so little to base it on, but it was very interesting to hear fantasy treated in a truly academic fashion, with - a survey of major, defining works; - a discussion of the genre's origins and its placement in time; - a comparison of the major authors amongst themselves and of the genre with others; - an identification of the major themes; and - a discussion of what fantasy does well and to what it can still aspire. less

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