International Medievalisms
From Nationalism to Activism
Published on 14. February 2023
Book
Hardback
228 pages
978-1-84384-606-2 (ISBN)
Description
Identifies and investigates international medievalism through three distinct strands: "Internationally Nationalist", "Someone Else's Past?", and "Activist Medievalism".
Medievalism - the reception of the Middle Ages - often invokes a set of tropes generally considered 'medieval', rather than consciously engaging with medieval cultures and societies. International medievalism offers an additional interpretative layer by juxtaposing two or more national cultures, at least one of which is medieval. 'National' can be aspirational: it might refer to the area within agreed borders, or to the people who live there, but it might also describe the people who understand, or imagine, themselves to constitute a nation. And once 'medieval' becomes simply a collection of ideas, it can be re-formed as desired, cast as more geographically than historically specific, or function as a gateway to an even more nebulous past.
This collection explores medievalist media from the textual to the architectural. Subjects range from The Green Children of Woolpit to Refugee Tales, and from Viking metal to Joan of Arc. As the contributors to each section make clear, for centuries the medieval has provided material for countless competing causes and cannot be contained within historical, political, or national borders. The essays show how the medieval is repeatedly co-opted and recreated, formed as much as formative: inviting us to ask why, and in service of what.
Medievalism - the reception of the Middle Ages - often invokes a set of tropes generally considered 'medieval', rather than consciously engaging with medieval cultures and societies. International medievalism offers an additional interpretative layer by juxtaposing two or more national cultures, at least one of which is medieval. 'National' can be aspirational: it might refer to the area within agreed borders, or to the people who live there, but it might also describe the people who understand, or imagine, themselves to constitute a nation. And once 'medieval' becomes simply a collection of ideas, it can be re-formed as desired, cast as more geographically than historically specific, or function as a gateway to an even more nebulous past.
This collection explores medievalist media from the textual to the architectural. Subjects range from The Green Children of Woolpit to Refugee Tales, and from Viking metal to Joan of Arc. As the contributors to each section make clear, for centuries the medieval has provided material for countless competing causes and cannot be contained within historical, political, or national borders. The essays show how the medieval is repeatedly co-opted and recreated, formed as much as formative: inviting us to ask why, and in service of what.
Reviews / Votes
International Medievalism is a very approachable collection that would work well in the undergraduate classroom and that provides medieval studies students and their instructors helpful avenues of inquiry. The subject matter allows for an easy introduction to medievalism and medieval studies, and the essays easily assigned to support work across multiple disciplines. The volume would be of particular interest to those teaching medievalism and popular culture, or those teaching or studying contemporary medievalist games and media, particularly in terms of the political work that media promotes and supports (purposely or inadvertently). * STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEACHING *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
6 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
514 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84384-606-2 (9781843846062)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2023
1st Edition
Boydell & Brewer
€48.99
Available for download
E-Book
02/2023
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€48.99
Available for download
Persons
MARY BOYLE is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford and Junior Research Fellow at Linacre College, Oxford. MARY BOYLE is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford and Junior Research Fellow at Linacre College, Oxford. Florian Gassner received his PhD in Germanic Studies from the University of British Columbia; followed by lectureship at Mount Allison University, postdoctoral fellowship at the New Europe College in Bucharest, and DAAD-Lektorat at the Donetsk National University. He is Associate Professor of Teaching at the University of British Columbia. CAROLYNE LARRINGTON is Emerita Professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford and Emerita Research Fellow in medieval English literature at St John's College, Oxford. Matthias D. Berger holds a PhD in English from the University of Bern and is currently training to be a teacher.
Content
List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction, Mary Boyle
I. Internationally Nationalist
1. Making up the Middle Ages: Roman Scotland and Medievalism in the Eighteenth Century, Kristina Hildebrand
2. Emma Letherbrow's Gudrun: Kudrun for 'Modern' Victorians, Mary Boyle
3. Nationalism and Colonialism: The Early German Reception of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, Florian Gassner
4. Inhabiting an Unpredictable Past - the Paradoxes of Russian Cultural Historicism, Michael Makin
II. Someone Else's Past?
5. The Medievalism of Gregor Jordan's Ned Kelly, Sabina Rahman
6. 'The Northland of Old': The Use and 'Misuse' of (Medieval) Iceland, Hannah Armstrong
7. 'Out of My Country and Myself I Go': A Discourse of the Troubadour in British and Irish Literature, Kayleigh Ferguson
8. 'The old magic of the mind': the Influence of Wales and Medieval Welsh Literature in John Cowper Powys's, Maiden Castle, Felix Taylor
III. Activist Medievalism
9. 'Green Growing Pains': the 'Green Children of Woolpit' and Child Refugees, Carolyne Larrington
10. Medievalisms of Welcome: Medieval Englishness and the Nation's Migrant Other in Refugee Tales, Matthias D. Berger
11. Nordic Giants: Using Left-Wing Post-Rock to Deepen Our Understandings of White Supremacist Interpretations of Vikings, Eirnin Jefford Franks
12. 'The Great Original Suffragist': Joan of Arc as a Symbol in the U.S. Women's Suffrage Movement, Suzanne LaVere
Index
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction, Mary Boyle
I. Internationally Nationalist
1. Making up the Middle Ages: Roman Scotland and Medievalism in the Eighteenth Century, Kristina Hildebrand
2. Emma Letherbrow's Gudrun: Kudrun for 'Modern' Victorians, Mary Boyle
3. Nationalism and Colonialism: The Early German Reception of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, Florian Gassner
4. Inhabiting an Unpredictable Past - the Paradoxes of Russian Cultural Historicism, Michael Makin
II. Someone Else's Past?
5. The Medievalism of Gregor Jordan's Ned Kelly, Sabina Rahman
6. 'The Northland of Old': The Use and 'Misuse' of (Medieval) Iceland, Hannah Armstrong
7. 'Out of My Country and Myself I Go': A Discourse of the Troubadour in British and Irish Literature, Kayleigh Ferguson
8. 'The old magic of the mind': the Influence of Wales and Medieval Welsh Literature in John Cowper Powys's, Maiden Castle, Felix Taylor
III. Activist Medievalism
9. 'Green Growing Pains': the 'Green Children of Woolpit' and Child Refugees, Carolyne Larrington
10. Medievalisms of Welcome: Medieval Englishness and the Nation's Migrant Other in Refugee Tales, Matthias D. Berger
11. Nordic Giants: Using Left-Wing Post-Rock to Deepen Our Understandings of White Supremacist Interpretations of Vikings, Eirnin Jefford Franks
12. 'The Great Original Suffragist': Joan of Arc as a Symbol in the U.S. Women's Suffrage Movement, Suzanne LaVere
Index