Many a Tale of Dread: The Dystopian Interface of Totalitarianism and Colonial Imperialism in the Númenor Narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien

Abstract

ABSTRACT Utopian literature is a literature of interfaces, as it is a discursive space in which countless modes and genres meet and converse. Utopia’s shadow, dystopia, is ‘a lens through which we filter historical reality’, and dystopian discourses have enabled productive and critical scrutiny of the excesses of modern history, although their role in perceiving the interconnectedness of political enormities is still developing. This article utilises dystopia as an interface for comparing the speculative representation of oppressive and destructive political actions in the form of totalitarianism and imperialist colonial policy. It will make a case study of this in the revisions from 1934 to the late 1950s of the dystopian Númenor narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien, which engage with themes of totalitarian and colonial subjugation. This will demonstrate how dystopian representation enhances understanding of totalitarianism and imperialism as interrelated phenomena.