Dr Dimitra Fimi 

Summary


Position: 
       Lecturer in English
School:          Cardiff School of Education
E-mail:            dfimi@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Telephone:    029 2020 5885
Room No:       B117

Research Groups:
• 
Narratives, Identities and Place 

Research Interests:

• Fantasy literature (history and development from Victorian to contemporary)
• Science Fiction in literature and film
• Classical, Celtic and Norse myth and folklore in literary texts, film and popular culture
• Adaptation of literary works for the screen
• Literature and visual culture

Publications

Books:
Fimi, D. (2008) Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Peer refereed journals:
Fimi, D. (2007) ‘Tolkien’s “‘Celtic’ type of legends”: Merging Traditions’, Tolkien Studies, 4, pp. 51-71.

Fimi, D. (2006) ‘“Mad Elves” and “Elusive Beauty”: Some Celtic Strands of Tolkien’s Mythology’, Folklore, 117:2, pp. 156-170.

Fimi, D. (2006) ‘“Come Sing ye Light Fairy Things Tripping so Gay”: Victorian Fairies and the Early Work of J.R.R. Tolkien’, Working with English: Medieval and Modern Language, Literature and Drama, 2, pp. 10-26. Available at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/working_with_english/Fimi_31_05_06.pdf.

Book chapters:
Fimi, D. (2011) ‘Filming Folklore: Adapting Fantasy for the Big Screen through Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings’, in Bogstad, J.M. and Kaveny, P. E. (eds), Picturing Tolkien:  Essays on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 84-101.

Fimi, D. (2008) ‘Material Culture and Materiality in Middle-earth: Tolkien and Archaeology’, in Wells, S. (ed.), The Ring Goes Ever On: Proceedings of the Tolkien 2005 Conference: 50 Years of The Lord of the Rings. Coventry: The Tolkien Society, pp. 339-44.

Fimi, D. (2008) ‘Ursula Le Guin: Biographical Profile’, in Clark, Robert (ed.) The Literary Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5219 (accessed on 7 February 2011)

Fimi, D. (2008) ‘Peter and Wendy’, in Clark, Robert (ed.) The Literary Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2836 (accessed on 7 February 2011)

(2008) ‘The Little White Bird’, in Clark, Robert (ed.) The Literary Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=329 (accessed on 7 February 2011)

(2008) ‘Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens’, in Clark, Robert (ed.) The Literary Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2832 (accessed on 7 February 2011)

Fimi, D. (2008) ‘Unfinished Tales’, in Clark, Robert (ed.) The Literary Encyclopedia. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5219 (accessed on 7 February 2011)

Fimi, D. (2007) ‘Tolkien and Old Norse Antiquity: Real and Romantic Links in Material Culture’, in Clark, D. and Phelpstead, C. (eds), Old Norse Made New: Essays on the Post-Medieval Reception of Old Norse Literature and Culture. London: Viking Society for Northern Research, pp. 83-99.

Fimi, D. (2006) ‘Victorian Fairyology’, in Drout, M. (ed.), The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. New York: Routledge, pp. 186-7.

Fimi, D. (2006) ‘Greece: Reception of Tolkien, in Drout, M. (ed.), The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. New York: Routledge, pp. 257-8.

Professional / non-refereed publications:
Fimi, D. (2008) ‘Teaching and Studying Tolkien’, Mallorn, 46, pp. 27-9.

Fimi, D. (2007) ‘A Note on Túrin and Oedipus’, Silver Leaves, 1, pp. 9-10

Fimi, D. (2009) ‘Hobbit Songs and Rhymes: The Folklore of Middle-earth’, Lord of the Rings Plaza, Scholars Forum. Available at: http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=232344

Conference papers (selected):
Fimi, D. (2011) ‘Kipling, Tolkien and Romantic Anglo-Saxonism’. 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 12-15 May 2011.

Fimi, D. (2009) ‘Tolkien and the Fairies: Faith and Folklore’. 44th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 7-10 May 2009.

Fimi, D. (2008) ‘Tolkien's Science Fiction Experiments’. Space, Time, Machine and Monster: A Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Conference for the Valleys, organised by Yr Academi Gymreig (The Welsh Academy), University of Glamorgan, Treforest, 21 June 2008

Fimi, D. (2007) ‘Mappa Terrae-mediae: Exploring Middle-earth Cartography and Cosmography’. International Medieval Congress 2007, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds, 9-12 July 2007.

Fimi, D. (2007) ‘Tolkien and the Metaphysics of Language’. 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 10-13 May 2007.

Fimi, D. (2006) ‘Film Folklore and Folklore in Film in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings’. Folklore Society Annual Conference: ‘Folklore, Film and Television: Convergences in Traditional Cultures and Popular Media’, Warburg Institute, London, 31 March - 1 April 2006.

Fimi, D. (2005) ‘“Tears are the Very Wine of Blessedness”: Eucatastrophe, the Sense of Loss and Despair, and Sweet Sorrow in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings’. Sixth International Conference of the Hellenic Association for the Study of English: ‘(Re)Constructing Pain and Joy in Language, Literature, and Culture’, Athens University, 20-23 October 2005.

Fimi, D. (2005) ‘“Needless to Say They Are Not Celtic”: J. R. R. Tolkien's Love-Hate Relationship with “Things Celtic” and How They Sneaked into His Middle-Earth Literature’. Shorter presentation at 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 5-8 May 2005. Extended presentation at Celtic Folk Studies Conference: ‘Folklore and Identity in Celtic Cultures’, Cardiff University, 20-23 July 2005.

Book reviews (selected):
Fimi, D. (2010) Review of Laughing with Medusa: Classical Myth and Feminist Thought, edited by Vanda Zajko and Miriam Leonard. Folklore, 121 (2), pp. 236-238.

Fimi, D. (2009) Review of Concepts of Arthur, by Thomas Green. Speculum: A Journal Medieval Studies, 84 (3), pp. 722-723.

Fimi, D. (2008) Review of Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity, by Alaric Hall. Folklore, 119 (3), pp. 349-51.

Fimi, D. (2008) Review of Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien, by Matthew Dickerson and Jonathan Evans. Folklore, 119 (3), pp. 351-2.

Fimi, D. (2008) Review of Inside Language: Linguistic and Aesthetic Theory in Tolkien, by Ross Smith. Tolkien Studies, 5, pp. 229-33.

Fimi, D. (2007) Review of The Genre of Trolls: The Case of a Finland-Swedish Folk Belief Tradition, by Camilla Asplund Ingemark. Folklore, 118 (3), pp. 365-6.

Fimi, D. (2007) Review of Icelandic Folktales and Legends, by Jacqueline Simpson. Folklore, 118 (3), pp. 366-7.

Fimi, D. (2006) Review of Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth, by Marjorie Burns, Tolkien Studies, 3, pp. 187-190.

 

Profile

Dimitra Fimi is a Lecturer in English Literature. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Athens, Greece and continued with postgraduate studies at Cardiff University, where she gained an MA in Early Celtic Studies (2002) and a PhD in English Literature (2005). Her doctoral thesis focused on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and has now been revised and published as a monograph, titled Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

Dr Fimi has published a series of peer-reviewed articles and has contributed book chapters and reference entries to various books and encyclopaedias. She has presented papers in many conferences locally, nationally and internationally and has been often invited to deliver public lectures. She has developed and taught a variety of lecture-based and online courses in 19th and 20th century literature at Cardiff University and for the Open University in Wales.  Currently she is responsible for a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules at the School of Education.

Dr Fimi has authored numerous book reviews (she is a regular book reviewer for Folklore, the journal of the Folklore Society) and has also served as a peer-reviewer for academic journals (e.g. English: The Journal of the English Association, Oxford University Press; Tolkien Studies, West Virginia University Press and others). She has been interviewed about her research on US television and UK radio and she occasionally reviews the morning newspapers for BBC Radio Wales.

For more information see: http://www.dimitrafimi.com/

Further Information

Invited Lectures (selected):
Fimi, D. (2011) Tolkien’s Wales in the Black Mountains: A Literary Walk. [Public Lecture, Literature Wales Literary Tourism Programme, in association with the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority]. 30 June.

Fimi, D. (2010) The Welsh Language and Tolkien’s “Linguistic Aesthetic”: The Appeal of Sindarin Elvish. [Special Guest Speaker, Festival in the Shire, Pontrhydfendigaid]. 13 August.

Fimi, D. (2009) Tolkien's Welsh Inspirations, Language and Places. [Public Lecture, Pentyrch and District Local History Society]. 25 September.

Fimi, D. (2009) Tales Before Tolkien: Researching the Roots of Modern Fantasy. [Public Lecture, Humanities Forum, Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning]. 11 June.

Fimi, D. (2006) Tolkien and Old Norse Antiquity. [Guest Speaker, Viking Society For Northern Research Student Conference, Oxford]. 26 February.

Media Work (selected):
Filming for three episodes (Beowulf; Thor; Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings) of the series Clash of the Gods for the History Channel (USA), episodes aired August – October 2009

3 radio-interviews on BBC Radio Wales on my research (classical mythology in English literature; fantasy literature; Tolkien Welsh connections and inspiration)

2008 – Currently: Numerous radio reviews of newspapers for BBC Radio Wales, usually commenting on cultural/literary/art topics.