What's wrong with Medievalism: Tolkien, the Strugatsky brothers, and the question of the ideology of fantasy

Abstract

This article addresses the question of the ideology of medievalist fantasy genre through an analysis of Hard to Be a God (1963) by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky with references to J. R. R. Tolkien s The Lord of the Rings. Once we step outside the English-speaking tradition and the various Western ideological trends of the fantasy boom years, the following aspects of medievalist fantasy become particularly apparent: its descent from the historical novels of the nineteenth century, its concern with historiography, and its relation to the pan-European cultural revivalist movements. As a hybrid text, part fantasy and part science fiction, Hard to Be a God offers insights on the ideological tendencies and challenges of medievalist fantasy.