A summary of a paper given by Professor Christina Lee at the University of Nottingham’s “Making the Medieval Relevant” Conference.
Making the Medieval Relevant: Crossing Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Studies on Disease and Disability
November 20, 2015 By
Celebrating Agincourt 600 at the Wallace Collection
October 26, 2015 By
This week, historians around the world are gearing up to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, one of the most significant battles of the Hundred Year’s War.
High-Tech Feudalism: Warrior Culture and Science Fiction TV
November 9, 2014 By
“Richard ΠΙ with aliens” is how Cornell (102) describes “Sins of the Father,” an episode of Star Trek: TheNext Generation (hereafter TNG) in which the Klingon warrior Worf, son of Mogh, seeks to restore his family’s honour by exposing and challenging those responsible for falsely accusing his dead father of treason to the Klingon Empire.
The Hero’s Journey: Beowulf, Film, and Masculinity
November 2, 2014 By
Beowulf is one of many examples of a story that employs the rhetoric of the hero. The plight of the main character Beowulf is the focus of the tale, and the tasks that he must overcome throughout the course of the poem provide insight into the development of the character of the hero.
Vikings, the barbaric heroes: exploring the Viking image in museums in Iceland and England and its impact on identity
October 6, 2014 By
This study analyses the responses of Icelandic and English individuals in regards to their views on the Viking image as represented within museums and in society.
ARTICLES: The Deflation of the Medieval in Joyce’s Ulysses
September 23, 2014 By
For James Joyce, Irish nationalism, with its appeal to patriotic emotionality and promotion of interest in the archaic and medieval Irish past, was suspect.
CONFERENCE: The Historical Novel Society – London 2014
September 19, 2014 By
My review of the recent Historical Novel Society conference that took place in London, England.
Extralegal and English: the Robin Hood Legend and Increasing National Identity in the Middling Sorts of Late Medieval England
September 15, 2014 By
The legend was clearly not the only work of popular culture in what I propose as the long fifteenth century, but it does serve as a very useful representation for examining the growth of Englishness.
The American Dark Ages and the Terrorist Witch in Season of the Witch
July 21, 2014 By
In this article we argue that medieval films are not to be analyzed according to their faithfulness to the known historical sources, but that they can only be fully analyzed by understanding medievalist codes, traditions and (filmic) intertextuality.
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘A Knight’s Tale’
May 19, 2014 By
Staying home on a Sunday night? Looking for a fun medieval movie to watch? Here is my review of ‘A Knight’s Tale’ for your Sunday night selection!
St George’s Day: A Cultural History
January 27, 2014 By
The modern celebration of St. George’s Day, frequently associated with intense English nationalism, grew out of a religious feast that commemorated a Middle-Eastern individual who died protesting an intolerant empire.
Cutting and Running from the (Medieval) Middle East: The Mises-hors-scène of Kingdom of Heaven’s Double DVDs
November 23, 2013 By
Cutting and Running from the (Medieval) Middle East: The Mises-hors-scène of Kingdom of Heaven’s Double DVDs Richard Burt 15 | 2007 : Le Moyen Âge mis en scène : perspectives contemporaines Abstract “There is no escaping the parallels with our time, when leaders who try to make peace are admired, but their efforts are subverted by […]
Getting Schmedieval: Of Manuscript and Film Prologues, Paratexts, and Parodies
November 9, 2013 By
Getting Schmedieval: Of Manuscript and Film Prologues, Paratexts, and Parodies Richard Burt (Guest Co-Editor, University of Florida) EXEMPLARIA: VOL. 19, NO. 2, SUMMER 2007, 217 – 242 Abstract This introduction examines how historical effects in cinematic medievalism are produced through analogies between their shared marginal paratexts, including historiated letters, prefaces, opening title sequences, film prologues, and intertitles. […]
Human Monstrosity in Terminator II: Judgement Day, Beowulf and The Passion of St Christopher
May 6, 2013 By
The idea of a humanoid monster that can be reluctantly empathized with can be traced back to various source texts. For example, Grendel in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf is a bloodthirsty savage, however upon a close reading of the poem he appears more human.
“One Woman with Many Faces”: Imaginings of Mary Magdalen in Medieval and Contemporary Texts
March 31, 2013 By
This project explores these contradictory and myriad imaginings of Mary Magdalen, emphasizing particularly the connections to be made between those emerging from the later Middle Ages and in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.
Under the Greenwood Tree : Outlaws in Medieval England and modern medievalist crime novels
January 27, 2013 By
A recurring theme in several medievalist crime novels is the subject of outlaws. They are used to create ambience, they can be the adversary and main threat to the protagonists, they can be cast in somewhat more heroic roles, and they are sometimes essential to the plot.
“What do we do? Hop on a bus to medieval times?”:Medievalisms of Robin of Sherwood and Charmed
January 8, 2013 By
Three different medievalist narrative styles have been identified for the purposes of this volume, Medieval in Motion: modernist medievalism, post-modernist medievalism and neo-medievalism.
You Are What You Eat: Hildegard of Bingen’s Viriditas
October 21, 2012 By
Hildegard argues in the beginning of Physica that humans become what they eat.
The Influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on Popular Culture
September 20, 2012 By
This paper will trace the history of the
Middle Earth mythology and its popularity. By studying the example of The Lord ofthe Rings I hope to demonstrate how art not only gets pulled into the system of popular and mass culture, but also how art has an influence on the system. An interesting question comes up when studying this topic. Why did Tolkien become popular?
Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament – a Review
September 10, 2012 By
What is Medieval Times? Medievalists.net decided to see for ourselves and go to the Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament in Toronto, Canada. Here is our review of the show:
The Sufi Influence on Spanish Jews
September 7, 2012 By
By reintroducing true stories of positive interactions between Muslims and Jews, we can begin to change the contemporary dialogue away from the schoolyard “you’re either with us or against us” attitude of this young millennia, towards a more Gandhian approach, where a just peace for everyone involved is the only true option…
The verity of facts depicted in Braveheart
July 15, 2012 By
So our basic aim was to bring only true facts about the life of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and the Scottish War of Independence, to compare all these facts with the film version and to enlight the mind of readers and film spectators.
Robin Hood Comes of Age
May 6, 2012 By
While some Robin Hood books are clearly intended for young readers, others blur the boundaries, sometimes in ways we can applaud, since they help break down artificial boundaries dividing fiction for children from that for adults.
Elements of the Arthurian Tradition in Harry Potter
April 3, 2012 By
Both heroes exist to save their people from doom. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who authored Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) in 1136, Arthur ‘led his troops against the Saxons, who were still making trouble in various parts of the country, and after various vicissitudes he defeated them on a hill outside Bath, wielding a wonderful sword called Caliburn’1 (Ashe, ‘Quest’).
Coconuts in Camelot: Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the Arthurian Literature Course
February 20, 2012 By
Student enthusiasm for Monty Python’s film contrasts with the noticeably more restrained stance of scholarly opinion which, while rarely omitting to mention the film’s existence in discussions of cinematic Arthuriana, has relatively little to say about the actual film.
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