Introduction

Summary

The introduction presents the aims, methodology, genre, audience, and content of the book. My focus is on Tolkien’s literary ‘theory’, as informed by his own self-exegesis, that is, by Tolkien’s “experiment” and “observation” of his own literary work and experience as a writer. This explains my methodology, which is primarily inductive and exegetical, grounded as it is on a series of close readings of passages from Tolkien’s works. At the same time, Tolkien’s ‘theory’, however idiosyncratic, cannot be detached from the literary discourses of his age, nor from the traditions in which it is anchored. Despite its scope and specialism, the book is not only addressed to Tolkien readers and scholars, but also to the educated reader of English literature, who might have strong biases about the literary merits of Tolkien’s enterprise. In the book I will thus illustrate the depth and complexity of Tolkien’s literature by focusing on its meta-literary sophistication, that is, its self-reflexive focus on the nature and purpose of literature.