Play and pacifist space: Language in the writing of J. R. R. Tolkien

The work of J.R.R. Tolkien has received a tremendous amount of critical attention that has focused upon his medieval roots or war allegories without considering the political elements of his mythological construction of Arda. Through the construction of a space of Derridian differance and play in the interchange of languages, Tolkien creates an idealized international pacifist system of interaction and interrelation. Tolkien constructed Arda around language and, throughout the narrative texts of Middle-earth, the power of language to transcend physical violence is foregrounded. Language is an alternative to physicality, as power rests in the word. While cynicism and critique dominated the majority of post-war writing, Tolkien's narratives about the communities of Middle-earth defending linguistic and cultural heterogeneity not only embraced the fantasy of Faerie, but also advocated for the ideals of pacifism and the embrace of difference.