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Document Type

Paper

Abstract

Femininity in JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit has long been read as virtually non-existent. Although Tolkien’s 1937 text remains a compelling story, this absence often means that female readers struggle to find themselves represented in the text. New strains of scholarship, however, claim that by her appearance, interests, behaviour and positioning in a patriarchal society, Bilbo Baggins appears to be more of a woman than a man. In this presentation I take up these emerging arguments, showing how gender relations in The Hobbit deconstruct. In Bilbo and Bilbo’s parents, traditional gender roles are reversed, but ultimately merged. The outcome is a Bilbo who exhibits a feminine-masculine nature that is fluid and transgresses boundaries. It changes not only the way in which Bilbo is perceived, but also the concepts through which we perceive her. It is up to the reader to unify these perceptions, drawing upon the values and interpretations of contemporary society.

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