Monday, March 24, 2014

Illustrious Illustrators and Authors

Illustrious Illustrators and Authors


I spoke with Dr. Burton about ideas for my paper and it helped me to be more focused on what I wish to say. I discovered that JRR Tolkien, just like Lewis Carroll, initially drew pictures of his works before publishing them. I want my paper to discuss their similarities and reflect the importance of visual images on literature.

Tolkien Illustration of The Lonely Mountain



Working Thesis:
Alice in Wonderland and The Hobbit each describe the protagonists' journeys away from home and through foreign lands. The use of illustrations is essential for the reader to follow Alice through Wonderland, just as imaginative language and thorough word description help the reader to visually perceive Bilbo's adventures. Though one published literary work is full of descriptive images and the other is not, both Lewis Carroll and JRR Tolkien demonstrate that illustrations are essential elements to an author's finished product through their own artistic work.



Working Annotated Bibliography

Carroll, Lewis, and Donald J. Gray. Alice in Wonderland. 3rd ed. New York: WW Norton, 2013. Print.
This is the book we used as we studied Alice in Wonderland. It uses the original work of John Tenniel that was included in the publishing. I will reference the book and it illustrations as examples in my essay.

Hancher, Michael. The Tenniel Illustrations to the "Alice" Books. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1985. Print.
This book is all about the illustrations that John Tenniel devised for Alice. It will help me as I compare the published illustrations with those of Carroll's originals.

Birns, Nicholas. "'The inner consistency of reality': intermediacy in The Hobbit." Mythlore 
31.3-4 (2013): 15+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Carroll, Lewis, and Donald J. Gray. Alice in Wonderland. 3rd ed. New York: WW Norton, 2013. Print.

This is an article that Annalee Norton helped me find. It compares Alice in Wonderland and The Hobbit as it concentrates on The Hobbit achieved a lot as it built off its contemporaries.
I will use this article to demonstrate similarities between the two authors.


Macleod, Jeffrey J., and Anna Smol. "A Single Leaf: Tolkien's Visual Art And

Fantasy." Mythlore 27.1/2 (2008): 105-126. Humanities Source. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

Hammond, Wayne G., and Christina Scull. J.R.R. Tolkien: artist & illustrator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1995. Print.

Tolkien, J. R. R.. The hobbit, or, There and back again. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. Print.

Auger, Emily E. "The Lord Of The Rings' Interlace: Tolkien's Narrative And Lee's Illustrations. (Undetermined)." Journal Of The Fantastic In The Arts 19.1 (2008): 70-155. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 25 Mar. 2014.


What's NEXT


I have a lot of new ideas about the direction I want to take the paper. I am also excited to see what ideas may be sparked by interaction with other people online. Thanks for the help that you have given me so far.

2 comments:

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  2. My one question after reading your thesis is: Why are illustrations are essential elements to an author's finished product? What about books that are very successful that don't have illustrations? Maybe you could give the reasons you feel illustrations matter so that the reader feels like they matter going in to the paper.

    Good luck!

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