The Psychological Repercussions of the Great War on J. R. R. Tolkien’s Modern Fantay ; The Hobbit as a casr study

Abstract

The psychological impact of the Great War (WWI) on the world was more than massive destruction and physical wounds; it too injured the memories and the minds of those who survived its horrors. This thesis aims to study the impact of the Great War on the literary productions that came after it, notably the psychological repercussions that the experience of the war had on the British writer J. R. R. Tolkien, as the pioneer of the modern fantasy genre, and his works. This paper examines the traumatic response that remerged in this ex-veteran’s literary text, which is manifested through the defence mechanism of escapism and the creation of a virtual world known as "Middle Earth". This dissertation focuses on Tolkien’s first work The Hobbit: or There and Back Again to prove the traces of the war despite of his denial of its terrifying impact on and relevance to his fantasy. By adopting a psychoanalytical approach, this dissertation investigates the correlation between escapism, the core element of fantasy, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Lastly, this paper seeks to discover the reason why Tolkien’s fantasy was different and more preferable by the readers, making it a mass-market and a central literary genre after having been marginalised for a long time.