International Medievalism and Popular Culture

International Medievalism and Popular Culture

Author: Louise D'Arcens

Publisher: Cambria Press

Published: 2014-04-18

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1604978643

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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.


Global Medievalism

Global Medievalism

Author: Helen Young

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-10-06

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 100912241X

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The typical vision of the Middle Ages western popular culture represents to its global audience is deeply Eurocentric. The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones imagined entire medievalist worlds, but we see only a fraction of them through the stories and travels of the characters. Organised around the theme of mobility, this Element seeks to deconstruct the Eurocentric orientations of western popular medievalisms which typically position Europe as either the whole world or the centre of it, by making them visible and offering alternative perspectives. How does popular culture represent medievalist worlds as global-connected by the movement of people and objects? How do imagined mobilities allow us to create counterstories that resist Eurocentric norms? This study represents the start of what will hopefully be a fruitful and inclusive conversation of what the Middle Ages did, and should, look like.


World Medievalism

World Medievalism

Author: Louise D'Arcens

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0198825943

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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.


Medieval Popular Culture

Medieval Popular Culture

Author: Aron Iakovlevitch Gourevitch

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 9780521386586

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This book attempts to reconstruct the beliefs and perceptions of the "silent majority" of medieval men and women from the writings of clerical authors, aimed at a wide audience. By scrutinizing the lives of saints, miracle stories, descriptions of fantastic travels, penitential literature, catechisms and similar genres, from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, the author identifies elements of popular culture that found their way into Latin literature through mutual interaction between author and audience. The author thus offers a fresh and original insight into the world of the common man, his everyday habits, beliefs and behavior.


Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo

Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo

Author: Boaz Shoshan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2002-05-16

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 9780521894296

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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

Published: 2015-07-30

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13:

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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.


The Middle Ages in Modern Culture

The Middle Ages in Modern Culture

Author: Karl Alvestad

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-10-07

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1788314786

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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.