Some News about #Kzoo2023...And Updates

𝔑ews arrived today about the panels that the Society had proposed to the International Congress on Medieval Studies for its 2023 iteration. Of the three sessions that the Society had voted at the 2022 AGM to propose, only one was accepted: the paper session Religion along the Tolkienian Fantasy Tradition: New Medievalist Narratives. While it is something of a disappointment to have only one of the three sessions accepted, the Society looks forward to the abstracts and papers that are sure to follow.

The session will broadly examine depictions of formal religion, real-world or in-milieu, in recent (post-2000) works in the Tolkienian fantasy tradition--here, conceived loosely as fantasy works, irrespective of medium, that make use of a more or less "authentic" European Middle Ages (itself a somewhat nebulous term, as has been noted) as a primary reference for their milieux and their trappings. While it is a commonplace that religious observance was a prominent concern in medieval life, Tolkien notably largely avoids substantial overt depiction of religious forms in his works, and those authors who follow after him largely do, as well. Even those authors who are explicit about the inclusion of religion--Martin and Hobb come to mind as attention-grabbing examples, and others can be found--are far less overt about religious practices. The disjunction is curious and invites exploration...such as the session hopes to do.

Submissions for the session will be accepted via the Congress's platform, which should appear on the "Submissions" page once it goes live. Early-career researchers, persons working off of the tenure track or outside academe entirely, and persons from traditionally marginalized populations are especially encouraged to submit abstracts; the Society welcomes diverse voices working from formal and embedded approaches.

Members of the Society are encouraged to spread word of the session and to submit proposals to it, as well.

Information about the AGM will be posted once it becomes available.

Additionally, the Society still hopes for contributions from its members and other interested parties to this webspace. From an earlier announcement of the same:

The Tales after Tolkien Society, which seeks to provide a forum to examine use of the medieval and medievalism in post-Tolkien popular culture, is seeking guest contributors to its blog (talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com). Contributors need not have any institutional affiliation—we prize the voices of those on the outside. Posts can be of any length and can treat any work of any genre in any medium so long as it makes use of medieval/ist tropes and figures. We’re happy to see many topics, including (but certainly not limited to!)

• How reading / having read Tolkien influences your work, scholarly and creative;
• How reading medieval/ist work influences your own;
• How participation in / engagement with fandoms influences your own; and
• How you see a particular contemporary / recent work or body of work making use of the medieval.

More information is available at https://talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com/p/contributing.html. Interested? Email the Society at talesaftertolkien@gmail.com; we’d love to hear from you!

Note, too, that more regular activities will resume in this webspace soon; thank you for reading!