[Bêthberry]

What an excellent discussion your thread generated, Child! I'm sorry I missed its initial activity, but perhaps I can suggest a context in which to view the inclusion of Tolkien in more American curricula.

Before we take this inclusion to represent something specifically related to Tolkien, I think it would be relevant to consider how American university curricula have changed over the last fifty or even one hundred years.

It is not only Tolkien who has been newly included. We can find other popular writers besides Tolkien now being included on reading lists and being made the subject of scholarly lectures. We would also find that other forms of previously overlooked literatures are now the subject of courses, such as literature of the formerly British colonies, Black literature (particularly in the U.S.), working class literature. Norman Feltes at York University in Toronto was responsible for 'unearthing' a substantial amount of reading material which was devoured by the working classes in nineteenth century England but which was largely ignored by the leisurely and academic classes. I doubt I need to mention that women writers have in particular been the recipients of a great deal of academic interest where previously most were ignored.

So, I wonder if it less a new found respect for and interest in Tolkien and more a wider appreciation of what constitutes acceptable reading material for academic study. One could of course be as cynical as Squatter and suggest that, in the 'publish or perish' academic world, finding new authors to publish about is tantamount to an academic version of 'Survivor.'