International Medievalism and Popular Culture

International Medievalism and Popular Culture
Author: Louise D'Arcens
Publisher: Cambria Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2014-04-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1604978643

Today medievalism is increasingly intelligible as a cultural lingua franca, produced in trans- and international contexts with a view to reaching popular international audiences, some of mass scope. This book offers new perspectives on international relations and how global concerns are made available through contemporary medievalist texts. It questions how research in medievalism may help us rethink the terms of internationalism and globalism within popular cultures, ideologies, and political formations. It investigates how the diverse media of medievalism (print; film and television; arts and crafts; fashion; digital media; clubs and fandom) affect its cultural meaning and circulation, and its social function, and engage questions of desire, gender and identity construction. As a whole, International Medievalism and Popular Culture differs from those studies which have concentrated on imaginative appropriations of the middle ages for domestic cultural contexts. It investigates rather how contemporary cultures engage with medievalism to map and model ideas of the international, the trans-national, the cosmopolitan and the global. This book includes examples from Europe, Britain, North America, Australia and the Arab world. It discusses the formation and the impact of popular medievalism in the globalised worlds of Braveheart, Disney and Harry Potter, but it also explores how the contemporary medieval imaginary generates international cultural perspectives, for example in considering Middle Eastern reception of Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, the Byzantinism of Julia Kristeva, and Hedley Bull's postnationalist 'new medievalism'. International Medievalism in Popular Culture is an important contribution to medieval studies, cultural studies, and historical studies. It will be of value to undergraduate, postgraduate and academic readers, as well as to all interested in popular culture or medievalism.

Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo

Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo
Author: Boaz Shoshan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2002-05-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521894296

Elite and that of the people. This book presents a stimulating discussion of a subject previously only touched upon. The author tests his theories against similar phenomena in European society and with reference to several standard authorities in anthropology and social history. Popular culture in medieval Cairo will, therefore, be of interest to students and specialists in Middle Eastern studies and also to medieval historians.

The Middle Ages in Popular Culture: Medievalism and Genre - Student Edition

The Middle Ages in Popular Culture: Medievalism and Genre - Student Edition
Author: Helen Young
Publisher: Cambria Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2015-07-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

Note: this is an abridged version of the book with references removed. The complete edition is available on this website. This fascinating study places multiple genres in dialogue and considers both medievalism and genre to be frameworks from which meaning can be produced. It explores works from a wide range of genres-children's and young adult, historical, cyberpunk, fantasy, science fiction, romance, and crime-and across multiple media-fiction, film, television, video games, and music. The range of media types and genres enable comparison, and the identification of overarching trends, while also allowing comparison of contrasting phenomena. As the first volume to explore the nexus of medievalism and genre across such a wide range of texts, this collection illustrates the fractured ideologies of contemporary popular culture. The Middle Ages are more usually, and often more prominently, aligned with conservative ideologies, for example around gender roles, but the Middle Ages can also be the site of resistance and progressive politics. Exploring the interplay of past and present, and the ways writers and readers work engage with them demonstrates the conscious processes of identity construction at work throughout Western popular culture. The collection also demonstrates that while scholars may have by-and-large abandoned the concept of accuracy when considering contemporary medievalisms, the Middle Ages are widely associated with authenticity, and the authenticity of identity, in the popular imagination; the idea of the real Middle Ages matters, even when historical realities do not. This book will be of interest to scholars of medievalism, popular culture, and genre.

Fantasy and Science Fiction Medievalisms: From Isaac Asimov to A Game of Thrones - Student Edition

Fantasy and Science Fiction Medievalisms: From Isaac Asimov to A Game of Thrones - Student Edition
Author: Helen Young
Publisher: Cambria Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2015-07-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

Note: this is an abridged version of the book with references removed.The complete edition is also available on this website. From advertisements to amusement parks, themed restaurants, and Renaissance fairs twenty-first century popular culture is strewn with reimaginings of the Middle Ages. They are nowhere more prevalent, however, than in the films, television series, books, and video games of speculative genres: fantasy and science fiction. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies and George R. R. Martin's multimedia Game of Thrones franchise are just two of the most widely known and successful fantasy conglomerates of recent decades. Medievalism has often been understood as a defining feature of fantasy, and as the antithesis of science fiction, but such constructs vastly underestimate the complexities of both genres and their interactions. "Medieval" has multiple meanings in fantasy and science fiction, which shift with genre convention, and which bring about their own changes as authors and audiences engage with what has gone before in the recent and deeper pasts. Earlier volumes have examined some of the ways in which contemporary popular culture re-imagines the Middle Ages, offering broad overviews, but none considers fantasy, science fiction, or the two together. The focused approach of this collection provides a directed pathway into the myriad medievalisms of modern popular culture. By engaging directly with genre(s), this book acknowledges that medievalist creative texts and practices do not occur in a vacuum, but are shaped by multiple cultural forces and concerns; medievalism is never just about the Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages in Modern Culture

The Middle Ages in Modern Culture
Author: Karl Alvestad
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2021-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1788314786

This open access book brings together an international team of experts, The Middle Ages in Modern Culture considers the use of medieval models across a variety of contemporary media – ranging from television and film to architecture – and the significance of deploying an authentic medieval world to these representations. Rooted in this question of authenticity, this interdisciplinary study addresses three connected themes. Firstly, how does historical accuracy relate to authenticity, and whose version of authenticity is accepted? Secondly, how are the middle ages presented in modern media and why do inaccuracies emerge and persist in these works? Thirdly, how do creators of modern content attempt to produce authentic medieval environments, and what are the benefits and pitfalls of accurate portrayals? The result is nuanced study of medieval culture which sheds new light on the use (and misuse) of medieval history in modern media. This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

Medievalism and Orientalism

Medievalism and Orientalism
Author: J. Ganim
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2016-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1137090391

This unique study traces fundamental parallels between medieval European and Middle Eastern cultures. By examining sources in cultural history, literature, and architecture, this book reveals mutual influences evident in the development of the current conception of the Middle Ages.

The Persistence of Medievalism

The Persistence of Medievalism
Author: A. Weisl
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780312239688

The Persistence of Medievalism seeks to examine the ways medieval genre shapes contemporary public culture. Through an exploration of several contemporary cultural phenomena, this book reveals the narrative underpinnings of public discourse. The ways these particular forms of storytelling shape our assumptions are examined by Weisl through a series of examples that demonstrate the intrinsic ways medievalism persists in the modern world, thus perpetuating archaic ideas of gender, ideology, and doctrine.

World Medievalism

World Medievalism
Author: Louise D'Arcens
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2021
Genre: Arts, Modern
ISBN: 0198825943

Explores the ways in which a range of modern textual cultures have continued to engage creatively with the medieval past in order to come to terms with the global present.

The Cambridge Companion to Medievalism

The Cambridge Companion to Medievalism
Author: Louise D'Arcens
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2016-03-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 110708671X

An introduction to medievalism offering a balance of accessibility and sophistication, with comprehensive overviews as well as detailed case studies.