Mapping Middle-earth: Environmental and Political Narratives in J.R. R. Tolkien’s Cartographies (2024) by Anahit Behrooz

The force driving Anahit Behrooz’s Mapping Middle-earth is a desire todemonstrate that J. R. R. Tolkien’s work deserves to be taken (more) seriouslyin the field of literary studies. The author argues this case by relating maps,mapping, and cartography – within and outside the story world – to a handfulof critical perspectives that currently enjoy certain appeal both within themainstream and among fantasy scholars. And should the book fail to convincesome hobbitophobic critics out there, the fault does not seem to lie either withTolkien’s work or Behrooz discussions of it but with the fact that fantasy(including Tolkien) require more of its analytical tools than some mainstreamcritical perspectives offer when taken off the rack.