ALA Session Proposal

I am pleased to announce that the association was able to assemble a complete panel for the upcoming meeting of the American Literature Association. The details of our session follow. I will update further once I receive news of its ultimate fate.

Michael Torregrossa
Founder, The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

The Medieval in American Popular Culture at Home and Abroad: Reflections in Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of Prince Valiant

Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Organizer and Chair: Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

1.     “ ‘My White Knight’: American Medievalism 1890-1920 and the Power of Whiteness,” Faye Ringel, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

2.      “Tilting Down the List, Tilting Down the Ages: The Revival of Jousting at the Turn of the 21st Century,” Karli Grazman, University of Connecticut

3.     “Medieval Marvels and Marvel Superheroes,” Rex Barnes, Columbia University

4.    “American Medievalism in Post-Soviet Fairy-Tale Films,” Kate Koppy, Marymount University

Audio-visual equipment required: projector and screen

The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture seeks to facilitate the spread of information about the representations of the medieval in contemporary popular culture. In commemoration of the eightieth anniversary of the Prince Valiant comic strip, this session explores both how Americans have received the medieval and how American-made medievalisms have influenced new works across the globe. First, Faye Ringel explores some uses that Americans made of the medieval at the turn of the twentieth century, works that might have influenced the creation of the comic. Then, Karli Grazman directs our attention to Americans’ continued interest in the medieval through our recreation of the jousting tournament, a prominent event featured in the strip. Next, Rex Barnes turns our attention towards a different group of comic book heroes and suggests a medieval background for the superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Finally, Kate Koppy highlights how the medievalisms of the Walt Disney Studio, perhaps one of the country’s foremost producers of medievalesque texts, have (like Prince Valiant) in turn inspired new works of medievalism in Russia.