Fear and Hoping in 20th Century Literature: The Dreams of H. P. Lovecraft and J. R. R. Tolkien

Lovecraft and Tolkien are arguably the two most important authors of fantastic literature in the 20th century. Both created mythologies for the modern age. This presentation reads them side by side. Lovecraft is the author of fear, Tolkien, of hope. Yet psychologically hope and fear are but two sides of the same coin. The concepts used to examine both authors, their similarities and their differences, are nostalgia, the sublime, and dreams.