Abstract
MIDDLE-EARTH MYTHOLOGY OF J.R.R. TOLKIEN: AN INTERTEXTUAL STUDY
The connection of the fantasy literature with the myths that had arised from the mankind’s need to clarify and explain the mysterious universe, puts forward the importance of intertextual relations. The myths that had been created throughout the history, are transferred, transformed and re-created through the collective subconscious. This dynamism enables these myths to be repeated with bearing a stamp of the past. Accordingly, the existence of these myths depends on the culture and society that they live in and their relations with the texts that have been created both in the past and the present. Thus, in the name of dedicating to England, J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythology of Middle Earth, which had been created through nourishing from the antecedent texts, has an elaborative and rich content within the context of intertextual relations. In the period when Tolkien, as a fantasy writer, began to write the Middle-Earth stories, the fantasy literature had not yet been recognized as a genre. Later on, it can be said that modern fantasy literature has became known with Tolkien. The aim of this study is to analyze the concept of intertextuality within the frame of the Middle-Earth mythology which has been created through pretexts and has been reinterpreted through the bridge between mythology and fantasy.
Keywords
Mythology, Intertextuality, Middle Earth Mythology, Fantastic, Collective Unconscious
