PhD Research

My PhD research uses corpus linguistics to explore the depiction of Tolkien’s female characters in fanfiction.

J.R.R. Tolkien has received frequent criticism for the seeming lack of female characters in his Middle-earth Legendarium; while there is not a lack of female characters, it is true that the majority of his female characters do not receive the same narrative development or attention as their male counterparts. This is where fanfiction comes in, as writers and readers of Tolkien fanfiction- Tolkienfic- have taken these characters and essentially filled-in-the-blanks by developing their characterizations for their own stories.

What characterizations become popular and are circulated within the Tolkienfic community can tell us a good deal about how Tolkienfic writers, the majority of whom identify as women- connect and respond to the Professor’s work through this medium.

What is Corpus Linguistics?

Corpus linguistics studies language on a large scale. Instead of looking at individual words or phrases, corpus linguistics uses large collections of text- corpora- and looks for patterns and trends in how language is used.

When it comes to studying fanfiction, corpus linguistics provides a means of picking up on any trends in how fans craft narratives. This is especially useful for understanding how less developed characters, such as many of Tolkien’s female characters, are depicted when there is little canonical information for fanfiction writers to base these depictions on.

So why female characters?

Well, in part because I am a female fan of Tolkien.

Like I said, Tolkien has frequently been criticized for his lack of female characters when a more accurate criticism would be that his Legendarium lacks developed female characters. Take Lothiriel of Dol Amroth, for example. As the daughter of Prince Imrahil and wife of Eomer, she is intimately connected with major players in The Lord of the Rings and yet she does not even appear within the narrative; the only information Tolkien gives us about her appears in the Appendices or in The Histories of Middle-earth (HoMe). But fanfic writers have developed entire characterizations for her in Tolkienfic, filling in the gaps left by the Professor.

Studying the depiction of Tolkien’s female characters in Tolkienfic provides insight into how fans receive and respond to these characters and the canon texts.