The Writers of Wales Database

FIMI, DIMITRA

 
Dimitra FimiDimitra Fimi is Associate Lecturer at Cardiff University. Originally from Greece, Dimitra has studied and worked in Cardiff since 2001. She has also published a series of articles and regularly serves as a regular book reviewer for academic journals. Her research interests include the history of fantasy literature, folklore and popular culture, literary adaptations, and the interaction between literature and visual culture. Dimitra’s online course “Exploring Tolkien: There and Back Again” is open to undergraduate students and adult learners all over the world. Her first title, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) was short-listed for the 2009 Katharine Briggs Folklore Award. 
 
Selected Publications:
Tolkien, Race and Cultural History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
 
Contributed to:
The Literary Encyclopedia (contributor) (www.litencyc.com)
The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment (contributor) (Routledge, 2006)
Old Norse Made New: Essays on the Post-Medieval Reception of Old Norse Literature and Culture (contributor) (Viking Society for Northern Research, 2007)

 
Tolkien, Race and Cultural History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
 
Dimitra FimiTolkien, Race and Cultural History explores the evolution of Tolkien’s mythology by examining how it changed as a result of Tolkien’s life story and contemporary cultural and intellectual history. The book considers Tolkien’s creative writing as an ever-developing ‘legendarium’: an interconnected web of stories, poems and essays, from his early poems in the 1910s to his latest writings in the early 1970s. Consequently, the book is not restricted to a discussion of Tolkien’s best-known works only (The HobbitThe Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion) but examines the whole corpus of his legendarium, including the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series, which has received little attention from critics. This new approach and scope brings to light neglected aspects of Tolkien’s imaginative vision and addresses key features of Tolkien’s creativity: the centrality of the Elves and the role of linguistic invention in his legendarium, as well as race and material culture in Middle-earth.

To purchase this title from palgrave.com please click on the front cover