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.