Advertisement
Books Features

New Medieval Books: What is Medieval?

What is Medieval?: Decoding Approaches to the Medieval and Medievalism in the 21st Century

Edited by Claire Kennan & Emma J. Wells

Brepols
ISBN: 978-2-503-60068-0

A collection of 14 essays explores the concept of medievalism in depth. The book acknowledges that “the tradition of the ‘medieval’ has been used and abused throughout history,” but it also highlights how scholars can challenge outdated narratives and present fresh, engaging approaches for the public to connect with the Middle Ages.

Excerpt:

This volume seeks to move the Middle Ages away from any previous ‘Dark Age’ connotations or suggestions that the era was barbarous or regressive, or even associated/fetishised with ‘otherness’, to illustrate how critical curiosity of the era has been received, imagined, invoked, used, misused, abused, and refashioned in the Medieval, Early Modern, Modern, Modern and Contemporary periods. The aim of this volume is to break down disciplinary, geographic, and other boundary limits, and examine the dynamics of the medieval and neomedieval in the realms of representational, perceptual, pedagogical and historiographical practice over the last 1500 years or so.

Advertisement

Who is this book for?

This book is aimed at members of the academic community with an interest in medievalism and public engagement. The essays are organised into four categories: teaching, digitisation, the fetishisation and sexualisation of the medieval past, and other forms of its manipulation.

The Editors

Claire Kennan is a Medieval Historian and Associate Research Fellow at Royal Holloway. You can follow her on Instagram or X/Twitter.

Advertisement

Emma J. Wells is a historian, author, broadcaster and consultant. You can follow her on Instagram or X/Twitter.

This is the second book in their series Reinterpreting the Middle Ages: From Medieval to Neo

You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website.

You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk

Advertisement