Studies in Medievalism for 2013

The 2013 volume of Studies in Medievalism, published as Corporate Medievalism II, has now been released. Details and contents as follows:


Studies in Medievalism XXII
Corporate Medievalism II
Edited by Karl Fugelso

Details

First Published: 18 Jul 2013
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843843559
Pages: 218
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Studies in Medievalism
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
Price: $90
Details updated on 25 Jun 2013

In the wake of the many passionate responses to its predecessor, Studies in Medievalism 22 also addresses the role of corporations in medievalism. Amid the three opening essays, Amy S. Kaufman examines how three modern novelists have refracted contemporary corporate culture through an imagined and highly dystopic Middle Ages. On either side of that paper, Elizabeth Emery and Richard Utz explore how the Woolworth Company and Google have variously promoted, distorted, appropriated, resisted, and repudiated post-medieval interpretations of the Middle Ages. And Clare Simmons expands on that approach in a full-length article on the Lord Mayor's Show in London. Readers are then invited to find other permutations of corporate influence in six articles on the gendering of Percy's Reliques, the Romantic Pre-Reformation in Charles Reade's The Cloister and the Hearth, renovation and resurrection in M.R. James's "Episode of Cathedral History", salvation in the Commedia references of Rodin's Gates of Hell, film theory and the relationship of the Sister Arts to the cinematic Beowulf, and American containment culture in medievalist comic-books. While offering close, thorough studies of traditional media and materials, the volume directly engages timely concerns about the motives and methods behind this field and many others in academia.

Karl Fugelso is Professor of Art History at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Contributors: Aida Audeh, Elizabeth Emery, Katie Garner, Nickolas Haydock, Amy S. Kaufman, Peter W. Lee, Patrick J. Murphy, Fred Porcheddu, Clare A. Simmons, Mark B. Spencer, Richard Utz.


Contents

1 Editorial Note (Karl Fugelso)

2 The Corporate Gothic in New York's Woolworth Building: Medieval Branding in the Original "Cathedral of Commerce" (Elizabeth Emery)

3 Our Future is Our Past: Corporate Medievalism in Dystopian Fiction (Amy S. Kaufman)

4 The Good Corporation? Google's Medievalism and Why It Matters (Richard Utz)

5 "Longest, oldest, and most popular": Medievalism in the Lord Mayor's Show (Clare A. Simmons)

6 Gendering Percy's Reliques: Ancient Ballads and the Making of Women's Arthurian Writing (Katie Garner)

7 Romancing the Pre-Reformation: Charles Reade's The Cloister and the Hearth (Mark B. Spencer)

8 Renovation and Resurrection in M. R. James's "Episode of Cathedral History" (Patrick J. Murphy and Fred Porcheddu)

9 Rodin's Gates of Hell and Dante's Inferno 7: Fortune, the Avaricious and Prodigal, and the Question of Salvation (Aida Audeh)

10 Film Theory, the Sister Arts Tradition, and the Cinematic Beowulf (Nickolas Haydock)

11 Red Days, Black Knights: Medieval-themed Comic Books in American Containment Culture (Peter W. Lee)

CFP Special Issues of SMART

Two recent calls for papers for special issues of Studies of Medieval and Renaissance Teaching from my fellow UConn alums. Full details on the MASSachusetts State Universities MEDIEVAL Blog by clicking the links below:

CFP for Special Journal Issue on Teaching Old Norse LiteratureGuest edited by John Sexton and Andrew Pfrenger
Proposals by 31 August 2013


CFP for Journal Issue on Teaching the Middle Ages and Renaissance with New Techniques and Technologies
Guest edited by Kisha Tracy
Proposals 1 August 2013

CFP Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (12/31/13; St Louis)

Proposals for papers and/or complete sessions are now being accepted for the Second Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies to be held, from Monday, June 16 through Wednesday, June 18 2014, at the midtown campus of Saint Louis University. The conference is hosted by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Details at their website at http://smrs.slu.edu/home. According to the site, "on-campus housing options include affordable, air-conditioned apartments and a luxurious boutique hotel"; in addition to housing, "Inexpensive dorm meal plans are available".

Our Kalamazoo Proposal for 2014

Here is the text of our session proposals for next year's Medieval Congress. Wish us luck.

The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages was founded in 2004 in a concerted effort, as our web site explains, “to promote and foster scholarship on and teaching and discussion of representations of the medieval in post-medieval popular culture and mass media.” Much of the success of our mission has occurred through our presence at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, and we hope that you can look favorably on our proposals organized in commemoration of our upcoming tenth anniversary.

For 2014, we are interested in exploring in more detail the transformations of three popular legends with ties to the medieval period as represented in our contemporary post-medieval culture. Our first session, “The Da Vinci Code and Beyond: The Grail in the Twenty-first Century—A Roundtable in Celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages” , will investigate how the story of the Holy Grail has been adapted in recent works both inspired by either the plot of Dan Brown’s 2003 novel or its successful reintroduction of the Grail legend into the popular consciousness in novels, films, television programs, and educational material. Next, our second session, “Dracula in the Twenty-first Century: Vlad Ţepeş and the (Post-)Modern Vampire--A Roundtable in Celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages”, will explore how the life of and legends about the historic Vlad III and his transformation by Bram Stoker in Dracula has shaped recent texts—fiction, comics, films, television programs, and electronic games—featuring the Vlad/Dracula character, his relations, and/or un-related figures that appropriate aspects of his character to illustrate the central importance of the medieval figure at the heart of the current vampire renascence. Finally, our third session, “What is the Magic of Merlin? The Appeal of the Wizard in the Contemporary World--A Roundtable in Celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages”, will look at the continued popularity of the figure of Merlin and his legend, especially as evidenced by the recent television series Merlin, as well the appeal of other stories of magic-wielders (such as The Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit, The Dresden Files, Harry Potter, The Wizards of Waverly Place, and Legend of the Seeker) to suggest why the legacy of Merlin continues to endure, especially now, despite the passage of centuries.