Vikingism: Viking-Age Scandinavians in Modern British and North American Media
deadline for submissions:
September 15, 2023
full name / name of organization:
Johanna Hoorenman & Tom Grant, Utrecht University
contact email:
j.e.m.hoorenman@uu.nl
CFP: Edited volume on Vikingism: Viking-Age Scandinavians in Modern British and North American Media
Vikings — their history, traditions, mythology and material culture — have taken contemporary media by storm. Popular culture is awash with Viking tropes and themes which have generated explosive interest in cinema, television, video games, music, literature, genre fiction and comics. This volume aims to provide a ground-breaking and innovative understanding of twentieth- and twenty-first century Vikingism. We are inviting scholars with relevant expertise to contribute essays which address any of the following questions:
- What contemporary culture wars are being fought on Viking battlefields?
- What are the main trends in the recent depictions of Vikings on screen, in video games and in literature, and what do these cultural products communicate to their audiences?
- How have Vikings been used as a trope for British and American narratives of cultural heritage, social values, nationalism and/or Christianity? How have Viking tropes developed across popular and artistic genres and media?
- What socio-cultural developments in Britain and North American are driving the recent surge of interest in the Viking Age?
We are interested in all media genres aimed at the British and American markets, popular and literary, including but not limited to
- British historical fiction, including Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories and their Netflix adaptation The Last Kingdom
- American historical (pulp) novels including Edison Marshall’s The Viking (1951) and West with the Vikings (1962)
- AS Byatt’s Ragnarök, Joanne M Harris’ Gospel of Loki and Runemarks series
- Children’s / YA literature, including John Flanagan’s Brotherband Chronicles and Cressida Cowell’s How to Train your Dragon series
- Comic books: Marvel’s Thor and their screen adaptations
- Games, including: Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
- History Channel’s Vikings and Vikings: Valhalla
- Feature films including The Vikings (1958), Erik the Viking (1989), The Northman (2022)
- Fantasy fiction, including Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, American Gods, Norse Mythology
- Popular romance fiction, including queer romance and trans identities
- Music
Please submit an abstract (max. 300 words) and a short biography (max. 150 words)to both of the editors, Johanna Hoorenman (j.e.m.hoorenman@uu.nl) and Tom Grant (t.o.grant@uu.nl) by 15 September 2023.
Last updated July 28, 2023
