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> It was published in 1954, at a time when literary modernism was dominant and pervading the academy. Modernist writers were obsessed with interiority, broke w

> It was published in 1954, at a time when literary modernism was dominant and pervading the academy. Modernist writers were obsessed with interiority, broke with prior literary convention, and traded in irony, ambiguity and convoluted psychology. I don't understand what is being said here. I assume I'm supposed to already be familiar with those literary criticism concepts.

_a_a_a_ 3y ago
Not sure if this helps or is even especially correct but: some decades ago there was a movement towards 'inner space', meaning rather than looking outwards at actions and effects on the world, it was about introspection and what was going on inside characters. This may be what they're talking about with interiority, and probably about the convoluted psychology. Those few books I read of this ilk tended to be very dull. Also bear in mind that literary criticism may be prone to being done for show and self-exhibition, much less about the book itself. This http://www.fudco.com/chip/deconstr.html http://www.fudco.com/chip/deconstr.html (starts with a quote from Donald Norman "Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right") is a painful example of somebody discovering this. It's not funny, it shows somebody's time being wasted as they try to genuinely understand WTF it's all about, and finally 'getting it'. It's well worth a read.
foldr 3y ago
The only literary concept I see there is 'interiority'. All the rest are perfectly ordinary terms that you could look up in a dictionary. I think 'interiority' here refers to an interest in the interior psychological deliberations of characters (which you won't find much of in Tolkein).
goto11 3y ago
"Interiority" means directly showing the interior thoughts and emotions of characters, for example through first-person narrative or stream-of-consciousness. Tolkien follow a more classic style where we see the characters from the outside.

_a_a_a_ 3y ago

Not sure if this helps or is even especially correct but: some decades ago there was a movement towards 'inner space', meaning rather than looking outwards at actions and effects on the world, it was about introspection and what was going on inside characters. This may be what they're talking about with interiority, and probably about the convoluted psychology. Those few books I read of this ilk tended to be very dull. Also bear in mind that literary criticism may be prone to being done for show and self-exhibition, much less about the book itself. This http://www.fudco.com/chip/deconstr.html http://www.fudco.com/chip/deconstr.html (starts with a quote from Donald Norman "Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right") is a painful example of somebody discovering this. It's not funny, it shows somebody's time being wasted as they try to genuinely understand WTF it's all about, and finally 'getting it'. It's well worth a read.

foldr 3y ago

The only literary concept I see there is 'interiority'. All the rest are perfectly ordinary terms that you could look up in a dictionary. I think 'interiority' here refers to an interest in the interior psychological deliberations of characters (which you won't find much of in Tolkein).

goto11 3y ago

"Interiority" means directly showing the interior thoughts and emotions of characters, for example through first-person narrative or stream-of-consciousness. Tolkien follow a more classic style where we see the characters from the outside.