Tolkien the Postmodernist

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

Certainly, this is an idea underlying some works of postmodernism, but I'd argue that more generally, postmodernism is interested in questioning whether, and how, language is able to reflect reality or truth, without necessarily positing a particularly firm answer to that question.

I would agree with you. I was using hyperbole for the point of clarifying Tolkien's difference with the post modernists.

Just as a suggestion, there might be something relevant in Tolkien's "Essay on Phonetic Symbolism" , included in the new Fimi edition of "A Secret Vice", for his thoughts on sound and sense or Fimi's essay "Language as Communication vs Language as Art: J.R.R. Tolkien and early 20thcentury radical linguistic experimentation” which is in the JoTR. I don't remember them well enough to offer any thoughts and my reading time is limited these days.