According to recent reports there were some racially insensitive comments made at last month's International Medieval Congress at Leeds (and the perception of a lack of real engagement with and exploration of the conference theme of "Otherness"). A full report of the controversy can be accessed at http://www.chronicle.com/article/Medievalists-Recoiling-From/240666. The group Medievalists of Color has posted its response at http://medievalistsofcolor.com/medievalists-of-color-/on-race-and-medieval-studies.
Hopefully, we can all learn to be more aware of others and avoid such occurrences in the future.
Michael Torregrossa
Founder/Blog Editor
PS. If I am misrepresenting this, do let me know in the comments section. My information is all third hand.
Sunday, August 6, 2017
Call for Papers for Kalamazoo 2018 (and Some Thoughts)
The call for papers for next May's 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo has been posted online only this year. The link is as follows: https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/events.
The organizer, the Medieval Institute, has also posted some details on the selection of session proposals at https://wmich.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/u434/2017/medieval-academic-program-2018.pdf. It is a (vague) window into an apparently arcane process, but does not go into enough detail to explain why what one thinks is an otherwise good session is rejected and another group gets multiple sessions accepted each and every year. (We wonder especially how does one superbly justify multiple sessions in a one-page document and how is a very generalized topic [and especially two or more sessions of them] considered to be superbly justified? Also, is it fair to all for some groups to have four or more sessions, when those of smaller groups are rejected?) Hopefully, a more transparent document will be forthcoming.
Michael Torregrossa,
Founder and Blog Editor
PS. We welcome your feedback on this issue. Do post to the comments below or send a message to medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com.
The organizer, the Medieval Institute, has also posted some details on the selection of session proposals at https://wmich.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/u434/2017/medieval-academic-program-2018.pdf. It is a (vague) window into an apparently arcane process, but does not go into enough detail to explain why what one thinks is an otherwise good session is rejected and another group gets multiple sessions accepted each and every year. (We wonder especially how does one superbly justify multiple sessions in a one-page document and how is a very generalized topic [and especially two or more sessions of them] considered to be superbly justified? Also, is it fair to all for some groups to have four or more sessions, when those of smaller groups are rejected?) Hopefully, a more transparent document will be forthcoming.
Michael Torregrossa,
Founder and Blog Editor
PS. We welcome your feedback on this issue. Do post to the comments below or send a message to medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com.
CFP Monstrous Medievalism (8/31/17; Leeds 2018)
A worthy endeavor (with more to follow):
Monstrous Medievalism: Toxic Appropriations of the Middle Ages in Modern Popular Culture and Thought (Leeds 2018)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2017/06/24/monstrous-medievalism-toxic-appropriations-of-the-middle-ages-in-modern-popular
deadline for submissions:
August 31, 2017
full name / name of organization:
MEARCSTAPA (monsters: the experimental association for the research of cryptozoology through scholarly theory and practical application)
contact email:
rward@lincoln.ac.uk
Monstrous Medievalism: Toxic Appropriations of the Middle Ages in Modern Popular Culture and Thought (Leeds 2018)
MEARCSTAPA plans to submit a session of 3 or 4 papers to the 2018 International Medieval Congress at Leeds. The Congress theme is “Memory.” Our hope is that this session will run as a twin-session to our proposed panel for Kalamazoo 2018 on Monstrous Medievalisms.
The medieval period continues to be misidentified both as a primitive and savage ‘dark ages’ and as an idealized utopian golden age of racial and religious homogeny. In both cases, aspects of medieval culture—stories, motifs, and themes—are appropriated and reimagined (that is, remembered and reconstructed) in ways that celebrate and promote the othering of certain racial and ethnic groups or cultures. Medievalists should be made uncomfortable by the realization that we share some interests with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other groups dedicated to the oppression, segregation, and even elimination of racial and ethnic groups or cultures. Medievalists should feel even more uncomfortable when this othering—intentional or otherwise—becomes common in the presentation of the Middle Ages in various popular cultural media.
These medievalisms use the Middle Ages—our Middle Ages—to advance their racist agendas, which have frequently resulted in malicious acts against individuals and groups. In short, the Middle Ages are often put to monstrous work in modern popular thought and culture, frequently used by one community to attack another. The Middle Ages thus become othered and estranged from the scholars who study and teach from positions of acceptance and inclusion. These monstrous medievalisms use the period to foster some of the most pernicious ideologies of the present day and distort our understanding of the past. We ask, whose Middle Ages are they? And in so doing, we seek to confront these monstrous medievalisms, to unravel and make sense of them in order to dismantle the negative work they do.
Papers for this panel might address topics such as:
We invite papers from all disciplines and national traditions. Additionally, MEARCSTAPA will provide an award of $500 to the best graduate student submission to this or any of its sessions to help offset the costs of travel and lodging for the IMC.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words together with a brief bio to session organizer Renée Ward (rward@lincoln.ac.uk) by 31 August 2017. Please include your name, title, and affiliation on the abstract itself. All abstracts will be vetted by the MEARCSTAPA board and the full session will be submitted to the Congress mid-September 2017.
Last updated June 26, 2017
Monstrous Medievalism: Toxic Appropriations of the Middle Ages in Modern Popular Culture and Thought (Leeds 2018)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2017/06/24/monstrous-medievalism-toxic-appropriations-of-the-middle-ages-in-modern-popular
deadline for submissions:
August 31, 2017
full name / name of organization:
MEARCSTAPA (monsters: the experimental association for the research of cryptozoology through scholarly theory and practical application)
contact email:
rward@lincoln.ac.uk
Monstrous Medievalism: Toxic Appropriations of the Middle Ages in Modern Popular Culture and Thought (Leeds 2018)
MEARCSTAPA plans to submit a session of 3 or 4 papers to the 2018 International Medieval Congress at Leeds. The Congress theme is “Memory.” Our hope is that this session will run as a twin-session to our proposed panel for Kalamazoo 2018 on Monstrous Medievalisms.
The medieval period continues to be misidentified both as a primitive and savage ‘dark ages’ and as an idealized utopian golden age of racial and religious homogeny. In both cases, aspects of medieval culture—stories, motifs, and themes—are appropriated and reimagined (that is, remembered and reconstructed) in ways that celebrate and promote the othering of certain racial and ethnic groups or cultures. Medievalists should be made uncomfortable by the realization that we share some interests with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other groups dedicated to the oppression, segregation, and even elimination of racial and ethnic groups or cultures. Medievalists should feel even more uncomfortable when this othering—intentional or otherwise—becomes common in the presentation of the Middle Ages in various popular cultural media.
These medievalisms use the Middle Ages—our Middle Ages—to advance their racist agendas, which have frequently resulted in malicious acts against individuals and groups. In short, the Middle Ages are often put to monstrous work in modern popular thought and culture, frequently used by one community to attack another. The Middle Ages thus become othered and estranged from the scholars who study and teach from positions of acceptance and inclusion. These monstrous medievalisms use the period to foster some of the most pernicious ideologies of the present day and distort our understanding of the past. We ask, whose Middle Ages are they? And in so doing, we seek to confront these monstrous medievalisms, to unravel and make sense of them in order to dismantle the negative work they do.
Papers for this panel might address topics such as:
- Appropriations of the medieval image and narrative in Nazi propaganda
- Contemporary White Pride/White Nationalist appropriations of the medieval symbols and signs (tattoos, banners, album covers, banners)
- Racist responses to inclusion in “Medieval” film
- The medieval fantasies of white identity in the Anglo-Saxon enthusiasm of the founding fathers
- Racialized Monsters in the contemporary medieval fantasy
- Race War as trope in Ancient and Medieval period films, video games, and/or books
- "Unintentional" rehearsals of racist ideologies in popular media
We invite papers from all disciplines and national traditions. Additionally, MEARCSTAPA will provide an award of $500 to the best graduate student submission to this or any of its sessions to help offset the costs of travel and lodging for the IMC.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words together with a brief bio to session organizer Renée Ward (rward@lincoln.ac.uk) by 31 August 2017. Please include your name, title, and affiliation on the abstract itself. All abstracts will be vetted by the MEARCSTAPA board and the full session will be submitted to the Congress mid-September 2017.
Last updated June 26, 2017
CFP Authenticity and Authority in Medievalism (9/10/2017; Kalamazoo 2018)
A couple of calls for papers for Kalamazoo. (We wish them luck, but we remain puzzled how some groups were allowed two or more sessions while many others were rejected).
Authenticity and Authority in Medievalism: Kalamazoo Medieval Congress 2018 Call for Papers Announcement published by Ken Mondschein on Friday, July 21, 2017
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/187720/authenticity-and-authority-medievalism-kalamazoo-medieval
Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 10, 2017
Location: Michigan, United States
Subject Fields: Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Early Modern History and Period Studies, Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Theatre & Performance History / Studies, Music and Music History
We would like to present a call for papers for the following two sessions on medievalism and the modern Middle Ages for the 2018 Medieval Congress at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI:
1. “Can These Bones Come To Life?” 1: Authenticity in Re-construction, Re-enactment, and Re-creation
We invite historians, scholars of literature, archaeologists, musicologists, theater historians and performers, as well as recreationist-performers such as dancers, musicians, historical fencers, brewers, and textile researchers to submit papers for a unique interdisciplinary session on the insights into history that can be gained from attempts to reconstruct medieval arts, as well as the historiographical issues involved in such work. For this year’s first session, we would like to examine the fraught idea of “authenticity” in all its meanings, from the sense of “verisimilitude to a historical artifact” usually used in reenactment circles; to whether a performance of a piece of music, dance, or fencing match can ever be “authentic”; to the philosophical sense of “authenticity” in the sense of “being true to one’s (socially constructed) self” and its implications for the place of medievalist hobbies in the modern habitus (including ideas of race, class, and gender); to the ways in which an idea of “authentic” national culture can be used to turn such activities to troublesome ends.
2 “Can These Bones Come To Life?” 2: Authority in Re-construction, Re-enactment, and Re-creation
For our second session, we would like to interrogate the idea of “authority.” Who is an authority in recreation/reenactment? What is an “authoritative” recreation? How can authority be gained or lost? How does this either correspond to, or challenge, academic notions of authority? When should academics step in to challenge incorrect or troublesome ideas? Possible subjects for papers include sociological examinations of the peerage system or idea of “renown” in the Society for Creative Anachronism, the dismissal of scholarly authority the historical martial arts movement in favor of a “do it yourself” model, and the permeable boundaries between scholars and performers in early music, dance, and theater. Is authority of academic medievalists on the wane, in favor of a vision of a Middle Ages ruled by self- (or crowd-) appointed authorities and the entertainment industry? Finally, how do scholarly claims to “expertise” match with our living in a post-factual world?
Note that all papers will have the opportunity to be published in our ongoing series of proceedings.
Please send abstracts of up to 300 words, current CV, and the Participant Information Form (available on the Congress’ Submissions page, http://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to ken -at- kenmondschein dot com by September 10, or sooner if possible.
Contact Info:
Ken Mondschein
Contact Email:
ken@kenmondschein.com
URL:
http://kenmondschein.com
Authenticity and Authority in Medievalism: Kalamazoo Medieval Congress 2018 Call for Papers Announcement published by Ken Mondschein on Friday, July 21, 2017
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/187720/authenticity-and-authority-medievalism-kalamazoo-medieval
Type: Call for Papers
Date: September 10, 2017
Location: Michigan, United States
Subject Fields: Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Early Modern History and Period Studies, Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies, Theatre & Performance History / Studies, Music and Music History
We would like to present a call for papers for the following two sessions on medievalism and the modern Middle Ages for the 2018 Medieval Congress at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI:
1. “Can These Bones Come To Life?” 1: Authenticity in Re-construction, Re-enactment, and Re-creation
We invite historians, scholars of literature, archaeologists, musicologists, theater historians and performers, as well as recreationist-performers such as dancers, musicians, historical fencers, brewers, and textile researchers to submit papers for a unique interdisciplinary session on the insights into history that can be gained from attempts to reconstruct medieval arts, as well as the historiographical issues involved in such work. For this year’s first session, we would like to examine the fraught idea of “authenticity” in all its meanings, from the sense of “verisimilitude to a historical artifact” usually used in reenactment circles; to whether a performance of a piece of music, dance, or fencing match can ever be “authentic”; to the philosophical sense of “authenticity” in the sense of “being true to one’s (socially constructed) self” and its implications for the place of medievalist hobbies in the modern habitus (including ideas of race, class, and gender); to the ways in which an idea of “authentic” national culture can be used to turn such activities to troublesome ends.
2 “Can These Bones Come To Life?” 2: Authority in Re-construction, Re-enactment, and Re-creation
For our second session, we would like to interrogate the idea of “authority.” Who is an authority in recreation/reenactment? What is an “authoritative” recreation? How can authority be gained or lost? How does this either correspond to, or challenge, academic notions of authority? When should academics step in to challenge incorrect or troublesome ideas? Possible subjects for papers include sociological examinations of the peerage system or idea of “renown” in the Society for Creative Anachronism, the dismissal of scholarly authority the historical martial arts movement in favor of a “do it yourself” model, and the permeable boundaries between scholars and performers in early music, dance, and theater. Is authority of academic medievalists on the wane, in favor of a vision of a Middle Ages ruled by self- (or crowd-) appointed authorities and the entertainment industry? Finally, how do scholarly claims to “expertise” match with our living in a post-factual world?
Note that all papers will have the opportunity to be published in our ongoing series of proceedings.
Please send abstracts of up to 300 words, current CV, and the Participant Information Form (available on the Congress’ Submissions page, http://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions) to ken -at- kenmondschein dot com by September 10, or sooner if possible.
Contact Info:
Ken Mondschein
Contact Email:
ken@kenmondschein.com
URL:
http://kenmondschein.com
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Coming Soon: Paperback Edition of Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture
Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture
Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture Paperback edition: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/medieval-afterlives-in-contemporary-culture-9781350021617/
Published: 08-24-2017 Format: Paperback Edition: 1st Extent: 368 ISBN: 9781350021617 Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations Dimensions: 7 1/2" x 9 3/4" List price: $44.95
(Also available in hardcover [published in 2015]: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/medieval-afterlives-in-contemporary-culture-9781441129604/)
(Also available as an e-book)
About Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture
With contributions from 29 leading international scholars, this is the first single-volume guide to the appropriation of medieval texts in contemporary culture.
Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture covers a comprehensive range of media, including literature, film, TV, comic book adaptations, electronic media, performances, and commercial merchandise and tourism. Its lively chapters range from Spamalot to the RSC, Beowulf to Merlin, computer games to internet memes, opera to Young Adult fiction and contemporary poetry, and much more.
Also included is a companion website at https://medievalafterlives.wordpress.com/ aimed at general readers, academics, and students interested in the burgeoning field of medieval afterlives, complete with:
- Further reading/weblinks
- 'My favourite' guides to contemporary medieval appropriations
- Images and interviews
- Guide to library archives and manuscript collections
- Guide to heritage collection
Table of contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Living Medieval
Gail Ashton
I: True to Life: in the performance
1.Spamalot: Lovingly Ripping Off / Ripping On the Establishment
Jeff Massey and Brian Cogan
2. Medievalisms in Contemporary Opera
Robert Sturges
3. Medieval religious plays in England: afterlives and new lives through performance
Margaret Rogerson
4. Staging Chaucer: Mike Poulton and the Royal Shakespeare Company's Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
Sarah Peverley
5. You Can't Do This to Disney! Popular Medievalisms in the Classroom
Meriem Pagès
6. Medieval Times: Tournaments and Jousting in Twenty-first Century North America
Elizabeth Emery
II: To Turn You On: the pleasures of texts- film, TV, gaming
7. From Anglo-Saxon to Angelina: Adapting Beowulf for Film
Stewart Brookes
8. Contemporary Neomedieval Digital Gaming: An Overview of Genres
Daniel T. Kline
9. Survey of 21st 'Medieval' Film
Lesley Coote
10. 'Camelot must come before all else': Fantasy and family in the BBC Merlin
Philippa Semper
11. Electronic Tolkien: Characterization in Film and Video Games
Carol L. Robinson
12. Chaucer in a (Television) Box: The BBC Canterbury Tales (2003)
Kathleen Coyne Kelly
III: More Than This: reimagings and reappropriations
13. Global Chaucers
Candace Barrington and Jonathan Hsy
14. Silence in the Library?-Medievalist Poetry Shout-Out
Gail Ashton
15. Coming of Age in the Middle Ages: The Quest for Identity in Medieval Novels for Young Adults
Angela Jane Weisl
16. Australian Medievalism: Time and Paradox
Louise D'Arcens
17. Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe as Contemporary Cult Figures
Fiona Tolhurst
18. Conjuring the Ghosts of Camelot: Tintagel and the Medievalism of Heritage Tourism
Laurie A. Finke and Susan Aronstein
IV: Avalon: icons and artefacts
19. Medievalism and Heroism in Arthurian Literature for Young People
Ann F. Howey
20. New Age and Neopagan Medievalisms
Karolyn Kinane
21. 21st-Century Templar
Cory James Rushton
22. Malory's Afterlives in Contemporary Culture
Raluca L. Radulescu
23. 'We Are Robin Hood': The Outlaw Tradition in Contemporary Popular Culture
Rob Gossedge
24. Harry Potter and Medievalism
Renée Ward
V: The Space Between: new media and fandom
25. Social Networking, Participatory Culture, and the Fandom World of Harry Potter
Amanda K. Allen
26. 'Nightcrawler's Inferno' and other Hellish Tales: Comics Adaptations of Dante
Jason Tondro
27. From Camelot to Kaamelott: The Arthurian Legend in British, American and French Comics
Daniel Nastali
28. Afterlives of Medieval Manuscripts
Wendy Scase
29. Medieval Memes
Maggie M. Williams and Lauren C. Razzore
Notes on Contributors
Select Bibliography
Index
Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture
Link to CFP on Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives (9/15/17; Kalamazoo 2018)
The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture is sponsoring a session for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies on the topic of "Medieval Monsters and Their Afterlives", Please submit proposals and required information by 15 September 2017. Complete details can be accessed at http://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/2017/06/cfp-medieval-monsters-and-their.html.
Michael Torregrossa
Founder
Michael Torregrossa
Founder
CFP International Association for Robin Hood Studies for Kalamazoo 2018 (9/1/17)
The International Association for Robin Hood Studies has also posted their calls for papers for the 2018 Medieval Congress. Session details are as follows:
1. Multicultural, Multimedia Outlaws (Session of Papers)
The outlaw figure is a universal cross-cultural phenomenon. This session solicits papers that analyze adaptations of narratives about outlaws, whether literary or historical, male or female, from any period (medieval through contemporary), in any medium (ballad, saga, drama, novel, young adult fiction, films, television, comic books, opera, music, to name a few) from any location (Britain, Europe, America(s), Australia, Asia, ranging from the Merry Men to Icelandic outlaws, Ned Kelly, Pancho Villa, and Moll Flanders.
Please send 300-word abstracts, a brief bios, and completed Participant Information Forms to Lorraine Kochanske Stock (lstock@uh.edu) by September 1, 2017.
2. Oral Tactics of Medieval Outlaw Literature (Session of Papers)
This formal session of papers explores the modes of writing and of performance (and their interconnectedness) that exist within medieval outlaw tales. From the The Outlaw’s Song of Trailbaston to the late-medieval rhymes, plays, games, and “talkings” of Robin Hood, medieval outlaw tales are, like the medieval lyric, ad hoc, improvisatory, and situational works or literature. This session, inspired by Ingrid Nelson’s recent study Lyric Tactics, explores the ways in which the religious, societal, political, and manuscript contexts inform the genre, form, vernacular language, semantics, and voice of a medieval outlaw tale.
Please send 300-word abstracts, a brief bios, and completed Participant Information Forms to Lesley Coote (L.A.Coote@hull.ac.uk) and Alexander L. Kaufman (akaufman@aum.edu) by September 1, 2017.
Here is a link to the ICMS’s Participant Information Form:
http://www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions
1. Multicultural, Multimedia Outlaws (Session of Papers)
The outlaw figure is a universal cross-cultural phenomenon. This session solicits papers that analyze adaptations of narratives about outlaws, whether literary or historical, male or female, from any period (medieval through contemporary), in any medium (ballad, saga, drama, novel, young adult fiction, films, television, comic books, opera, music, to name a few) from any location (Britain, Europe, America(s), Australia, Asia, ranging from the Merry Men to Icelandic outlaws, Ned Kelly, Pancho Villa, and Moll Flanders.
Please send 300-word abstracts, a brief bios, and completed Participant Information Forms to Lorraine Kochanske Stock (lstock@uh.edu) by September 1, 2017.
2. Oral Tactics of Medieval Outlaw Literature (Session of Papers)
This formal session of papers explores the modes of writing and of performance (and their interconnectedness) that exist within medieval outlaw tales. From the The Outlaw’s Song of Trailbaston to the late-medieval rhymes, plays, games, and “talkings” of Robin Hood, medieval outlaw tales are, like the medieval lyric, ad hoc, improvisatory, and situational works or literature. This session, inspired by Ingrid Nelson’s recent study Lyric Tactics, explores the ways in which the religious, societal, political, and manuscript contexts inform the genre, form, vernacular language, semantics, and voice of a medieval outlaw tale.
Please send 300-word abstracts, a brief bios, and completed Participant Information Forms to Lesley Coote (L.A.Coote@hull.ac.uk) and Alexander L. Kaufman (akaufman@aum.edu) by September 1, 2017.
Here is a link to the ICMS’s Participant Information Form:
http://www.wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions
CFP Tales Afer Tolkien Society for Kalamazoo 2018
The Tales After Tolkien Society have announced their sessions for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies. Sessions are as follows:
Send submissions to geoffrey.b.elliott@gmail.com.
Further information is on their website at http://talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com/2017/06/kalamazoo-2018.html.
I. Reclaiming the Dead and the Undead
A paper session, the panel seeks to interrogate appropriations of medieval concepts of un/death in contemporary media, attending to how the medieval corporeal/spiritual divide is reinscribed and transgressed by the appropriations. In brief, it means to look at how recent ideas of un/death correspond with medieval antecedents and what that correspondence suggests.
II. Medievalism in Metal
A roundtable, the panel seeks to investigate medieval referentiality--acoustic, iconographic, thematic, and otherwise--in metal music and among metal bands. (The session will likely need to make use of a/v equipment.)
Send submissions to geoffrey.b.elliott@gmail.com.
Further information is on their website at http://talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com/2017/06/kalamazoo-2018.html.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
ALA 2017 Update 2/25
It is with sadness that I report that the organizers have rejected
our panel proposal on "The Medieval in American Popular Culture at Home
and Abroad: Reflections in Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of
Prince Valiant" (details at https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/2017/01/ala-session-proposal.html) for the upcoming meeting of the American Literature Association.
Hopefully, we can celebrate this milestone of medievalism at some other venue this year.
Michael Torregrossa
Founder
Hopefully, we can celebrate this milestone of medievalism at some other venue this year.
Michael Torregrossa
Founder
Friday, February 10, 2017
CFP 500-Year Commemoration of Martin Luther's 95 Theses Conference (3/1/2017)
500-Year Commemoration of Martin Luther's 95 Theses
https://www.cfplist.com/CFP.aspx?CID=6965
Event: 10/31/2017 - 11/03/2017
Abstract: 03/01/2017
Location: Berrien Springs, Michigan
Organization: Andrews University
The Andrews University Departments of History & Political Science and Religion & Biblical Languages in collaboration with the Office of Research and Creative Scholarship and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists’ Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research proudly announces its upcoming conference to commemorate the 500-year anniversary of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses. We welcome all scholarly paper or session proposals for the conference to be held at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, from October 31 to November 3, 2017.
The program committee welcomes scholarly proposals from all disciplines, time periods, and locales—with the common thread relating to Martin Luther, Protestantism, and/or the Reformation. Roundtable discussions that foster audience involvement are welcome as well. Please provide a 250-word abstract and cv by March 1, 2017 to:
Dr. Stephanie Carpenter
Department of History & Political Science
Buller Hall 126
8488 E Campus Circle Drive
Berrien Springs, MI 49104-0010
email: lutherconference@andrews.edu
website: https://www.andrews.edu/cas/history/lutherconference/
Contact Email: carpenter@andrews.edu
Website: https://www.andrews.edu/cas/history/lutherconference/
https://www.cfplist.com/CFP.aspx?CID=6965
Event: 10/31/2017 - 11/03/2017
Abstract: 03/01/2017
Location: Berrien Springs, Michigan
Organization: Andrews University
The Andrews University Departments of History & Political Science and Religion & Biblical Languages in collaboration with the Office of Research and Creative Scholarship and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists’ Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research proudly announces its upcoming conference to commemorate the 500-year anniversary of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses. We welcome all scholarly paper or session proposals for the conference to be held at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, from October 31 to November 3, 2017.
The program committee welcomes scholarly proposals from all disciplines, time periods, and locales—with the common thread relating to Martin Luther, Protestantism, and/or the Reformation. Roundtable discussions that foster audience involvement are welcome as well. Please provide a 250-word abstract and cv by March 1, 2017 to:
Dr. Stephanie Carpenter
Department of History & Political Science
Buller Hall 126
8488 E Campus Circle Drive
Berrien Springs, MI 49104-0010
email: lutherconference@andrews.edu
website: https://www.andrews.edu/cas/history/lutherconference/
Contact Email: carpenter@andrews.edu
Website: https://www.andrews.edu/cas/history/lutherconference/
CFP The First Hamlet, Special Issue of Critical Survey (3/15/2017)
The First Hamlet: A Special Issue of Critical Survey
https://www.cfplist.com/CFP.aspx?CID=7225
Event: 09/01/2017
Abstract: 03/15/2017
Location: Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Organization: Critical Survey
Call for Papers:
The First Hamlet
A Special Issue of Critical Survey
Guest Editor: Terri Bourus, Indiana University Indianapolis(IUPUI)
tbourus@iupui.edu
The 1603 edition of Hamlet, the first surviving text of Shakespeare’s most famous play, was, for most of the twentieth century, dismissed as a ‘bad quarto’, the most conspicuous inhabitant of the ghetto of ‘memorial reconstruction’. This theory was widely proclaimed as a ‘fact’, which had been proven by the scientific methods of the New Bibliography. It was also widely accepted as a ‘fact’ that references to a play called ‘Hamlet’ in 1589, 1594, and 1596 referred to an earlier, lost tragedy, probably written by Thomas Kyd.
These ‘facts’ began to unravel in the 1990s when the whole theory of memorial reconstruction was challenged by Laurie Maguire, Paul Werstine, and others. In 2014, two monographs on the 1603 edition (the ‘first quarto’, or ‘Q1’) were published, almost simultaneously: Young Shakespeare’s Young Hamlet: Print, Piracy, and Performance (by Terri Bourus) and Hamlet After Q1: An Uncanny History of the Shakespeare Text (by Zachary Lesser). In different ways, both books challenged the orthodox editorial and critical dismissal of Q1. In 2015, the third edition of the Norton Shakespeare included, in addition to the canonical Hamlet (based on the Second Quarto, conflated with additions from the Folio), an edited text of the 1603 edition. In February 2016, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a 5200-word article by Ron Rosenbaum on the controversy surrounding Shakespeare's 'Badass Quarto' (the title of a production of Q1 in Washington D.C.).
In 2017 Critical Survey will publish a special issue on ‘The First Hamlet’, guest-edited by Terri Bourus. We invite papers of 4000-7000 words, addressing issues surrounding the first quarto, or the ‘lost Hamlet’, or both, from a variety of perspectives: critical, theatrical, historical, pedagogical, and bibliographical. We are interested in the history of criticism, the history of the book, and the history of performance, in data-mining and statistical analysis, in the experiments of directors and actors, the experience of teachers, the analysis of verse and prose. Whatever the subject, essays should be clear, concise, and accessible.
Informal inquiries about possibilities for essays, as well as proposals for book reviews, performance reviews, and review essays, are welcome and encouraged. Please direct all correspondence to the guest editor, Terri Bourus at tbourus@iupui.edu
Submissions should be sent to the above email address by 15 March 2017 as Microsoft Word documents. Two (anonymous) hard copies for peer review, should also be sent, along with a separate cover letter, to the mailing address for Critical Survey:
Critical Survey
English Literature Group
School of Humanities
University of Hertfordwhite
De Havilland Campus
Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB
United Kingdom
A style guide and additional submission information is available online:
http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/cs/
Contact Email: tbourus@iupui.edu
https://www.cfplist.com/CFP.aspx?CID=7225
Event: 09/01/2017
Abstract: 03/15/2017
Location: Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Organization: Critical Survey
Call for Papers:
The First Hamlet
A Special Issue of Critical Survey
Guest Editor: Terri Bourus, Indiana University Indianapolis(IUPUI)
tbourus@iupui.edu
The 1603 edition of Hamlet, the first surviving text of Shakespeare’s most famous play, was, for most of the twentieth century, dismissed as a ‘bad quarto’, the most conspicuous inhabitant of the ghetto of ‘memorial reconstruction’. This theory was widely proclaimed as a ‘fact’, which had been proven by the scientific methods of the New Bibliography. It was also widely accepted as a ‘fact’ that references to a play called ‘Hamlet’ in 1589, 1594, and 1596 referred to an earlier, lost tragedy, probably written by Thomas Kyd.
These ‘facts’ began to unravel in the 1990s when the whole theory of memorial reconstruction was challenged by Laurie Maguire, Paul Werstine, and others. In 2014, two monographs on the 1603 edition (the ‘first quarto’, or ‘Q1’) were published, almost simultaneously: Young Shakespeare’s Young Hamlet: Print, Piracy, and Performance (by Terri Bourus) and Hamlet After Q1: An Uncanny History of the Shakespeare Text (by Zachary Lesser). In different ways, both books challenged the orthodox editorial and critical dismissal of Q1. In 2015, the third edition of the Norton Shakespeare included, in addition to the canonical Hamlet (based on the Second Quarto, conflated with additions from the Folio), an edited text of the 1603 edition. In February 2016, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a 5200-word article by Ron Rosenbaum on the controversy surrounding Shakespeare's 'Badass Quarto' (the title of a production of Q1 in Washington D.C.).
In 2017 Critical Survey will publish a special issue on ‘The First Hamlet’, guest-edited by Terri Bourus. We invite papers of 4000-7000 words, addressing issues surrounding the first quarto, or the ‘lost Hamlet’, or both, from a variety of perspectives: critical, theatrical, historical, pedagogical, and bibliographical. We are interested in the history of criticism, the history of the book, and the history of performance, in data-mining and statistical analysis, in the experiments of directors and actors, the experience of teachers, the analysis of verse and prose. Whatever the subject, essays should be clear, concise, and accessible.
Informal inquiries about possibilities for essays, as well as proposals for book reviews, performance reviews, and review essays, are welcome and encouraged. Please direct all correspondence to the guest editor, Terri Bourus at tbourus@iupui.edu
Submissions should be sent to the above email address by 15 March 2017 as Microsoft Word documents. Two (anonymous) hard copies for peer review, should also be sent, along with a separate cover letter, to the mailing address for Critical Survey:
Critical Survey
English Literature Group
School of Humanities
University of Hertfordwhite
De Havilland Campus
Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB
United Kingdom
A style guide and additional submission information is available online:
http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/cs/
Contact Email: tbourus@iupui.edu
Blog Updates 2/10/17
I've been catching up on posting some calls for papers this week.
Please send any notices of interest to the Association to medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com.
Michael Torregrossa,
Founder
Please send any notices of interest to the Association to medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com.
Michael Torregrossa,
Founder
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Kalamazoo 2017 Program Update 2/2
Sorry for the typo:
The program for this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies is now live at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/events.
The Association stands by the congress and, especially, the Medieval Academy of America in its encouragement (at http://www.themedievalacademyblog.org/medieval-academy-of-america-response-to-immigration-executive-order/) that we must "learn from – rather than ignore – the past we work to illuminate".
The program for this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies is now live at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/events.
The Association stands by the congress and, especially, the Medieval Academy of America in its encouragement (at http://www.themedievalacademyblog.org/medieval-academy-of-america-response-to-immigration-executive-order/) that we must "learn from – rather than ignore – the past we work to illuminate".
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
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
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.
Saturday, January 7, 2017
SMART Fall 2016
STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEACHING
Fall 2016 (Volume 23, Issue 2)
QUEER PEDAGOGY (feature collection guest edited by Graham N. Drake)
- GRAHAM N. DRAKE Introduction to Queer Pedagogy (A Roundtable)
- MICHELLE M. SAUER Queer Pedagogy, Medieval Literature, and Chaucer
- SUSANNAH MARY CHEWNING Queer Pedagogy in the Two-Year College
- LISA WESTON Queer Pedagogy, Medieval Literature, and the Writing of Difference
ELIZABETH WILLIAMSEN Foreign Territory: Teaching the Middle Ages through Travel Writing
JANE BEAL Reading in a Roundtable, Socratic Dialogue, and Other Strategies for Teaching Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
HILLARY M. NUNN and LAUREN A. SCARPA Student Encounters with Suicide in Julius Caesar
GAEL GROSSMAN Student Food Schema of the Medieval Diet Based on Self-Selected Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
CHRISTINA FRANCIS The Usefulness of Eli Stone to Teaching Medieval Narrative
HELEN DAMICO Book Review: Old English Liturgical Verse: A Student Edition, edited by Sarah Larratt Keefer
BRIGITTE ROUSSEL Book Review: Women and Writing c. 1340–c. 1650: The Domestication of Print Culture, edited by Anne Lawrence-Mathers and Phillipa Hardman
JENNY REBECCA RYTTING Book Review: Women in Late Medieval and Reformation Europe 1200–1550, by Helen M. Jewell
SUSAN KENDRICK Book Review: Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance, edited by Scott L. Newstock and Ayanna Thompson
RICHARD KAY Book Review: Bede and the End of Time, by Peter Darby
AILEEN A. FENG Book Review: Short History of the Renaissance, by Lisa Kaborycha
GLENN DAVIS Book Review: Old English Reader, edited by Murray McGillivray
STEPHEN F. EVANS Book Review: Sex Acts in Early Modern Italy: Practice, Performance, Perversion, Punishment, edited by Allison Levy
SMART Spring 2016
STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE TEACHING
Spring 2016 (Volume 23, Issue 1)
BETSY CHUNKO-DOMINGUEZ and EDWARD TRIPLETT Digital Humanities and Medieval Studies: The Plan of St. Gall as a Case Study on Shifting Pedagogical Concerns
ALAN S. AMBRISCO Battling Monstrosity in Beowulf and Grendel (2005): Using a Film Adaptation to Teach Beowulf
KATHERINE GUBBELS Queer Approaches to Teaching Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
CAROL JAMISON J. K. Rowling’s Own Book of Chivalry: Incorporating the Harry Potter Series in an Arthurian Literature Course
JULIA FINCH Medieval Manuscripts, Digital Users, and the University Classroom
YVONNE SEALE Imagining Medieval Europe in the College Classroom
KATHLEEN FORNI Ackroyd’s Deviant Chaucer: Translation and Target Cultures
ALISON A. BAKER Opposing Forces: Understanding Classical Gods in Medieval and Early Modern Literature
JOEL ROSENTHAL Teaching The Medieval History Survey: All of Europe!!
NANCY VAN DEUSEN Book Review: The Renaissance Reform of Medieval Music Theory: Guido of Arezzo between Myth and History, by Stefano Mengozzi
MARTHA W. DRIVER Book Review: Women in England in the Middle Ages, by Jennifer Ward
ANNETTE LEZOTTE Book Review: Renaissance Art Reconsidered: An Anthology of Primary Sources, edited by Carol M. Richardson, Kim W. Woods, and Michael W. Franklin
BRIGITTE ROUSSEL Book Review: The Medieval Sea, by Susan Rose
NANCY VAN DEUSEN Book Review: Gregorian Chant, by David Hiley
ANNETTE LEZOTTE Book Review: Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings 1300–1550, by Lisa Monnas
MARY OLSON Book Review: A Gentle Introduction to Old English, by Murray McGillivray
LESLEY A. COOTE Book Review: British Outlaws of Literature and History: Essays on Medieval and Early Modern Figures from Robin Hood to Twm Shon Catty, edited by Alexander L. Kaufman
CFP Studies in Medievalim 2017
Came across the following today:
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR STUDIES IN MEDIEVALISM:
By blatantly concentrating on constructs, medievalism studies may seem to avoid the problems of defining an authentic Middle Ages. But what do such studies presume about that middle ages or any other? About the studies’ medievalist subjects? About the medievalist subjects’ constructs of the Middle Ages? When it comes to authenticity, how do medievalism studies relate to the Middle Ages? To medievalism? To (other) postmedievalism? To neomedievalism? Studies in Medievalism, a peer-reviewed print and on-line publication, is seeking 3,000-word (including notes) essays on these questions, as well as 6,000 to 12,000-word (including notes) articles on any postmedieval responses to the Middle Ages. Please send all submissions in English and Word to Karl Fugelso (kfugelso@towson.edu) by August 1, 2017. For a style sheet, please download the STYLE SHEET here.
Further details at http://www.medievalism.net/sim.html.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR STUDIES IN MEDIEVALISM:
By blatantly concentrating on constructs, medievalism studies may seem to avoid the problems of defining an authentic Middle Ages. But what do such studies presume about that middle ages or any other? About the studies’ medievalist subjects? About the medievalist subjects’ constructs of the Middle Ages? When it comes to authenticity, how do medievalism studies relate to the Middle Ages? To medievalism? To (other) postmedievalism? To neomedievalism? Studies in Medievalism, a peer-reviewed print and on-line publication, is seeking 3,000-word (including notes) essays on these questions, as well as 6,000 to 12,000-word (including notes) articles on any postmedieval responses to the Middle Ages. Please send all submissions in English and Word to Karl Fugelso (kfugelso@towson.edu) by August 1, 2017. For a style sheet, please download the STYLE SHEET here.
Further details at http://www.medievalism.net/sim.html.
Friday, January 6, 2017
Call for Papers: Medieval in American Popular Culture: Reflections in Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of Prince Valiant
CALL FOR PAPERS: THE MEDIEVAL IN
AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE
SESSION PROPOSED FOR 2017 ANNUAL
CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAN LITERATURE ASSOCIATION
TO BE HELD AT THE WESTIN COPLEY
PLACE, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS FROM 25 TO 28 MAY 2017
PAPER PROPOSALS DUE BY 28 JANUARY
2017
The
Medieval in American Popular Culture:
Reflections
in Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of Prince
Valiant
The comic strip Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur was launched in 1937 and
continues to be produced to this day. Begun by illustrator Hal Foster and now
under the direction of writer Mark Schultz and artist Thomas Yeates, Prince Valiant celebrates its eightieth
anniversary in 2017. This is a significant achievement for a work of popular
medievalism. In recognition of this milestone, the Association for the
Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture
seeks papers that explore the appeal (either in the United States or abroad) of
the strip and its characters and/or the significance of other works of American
medievalism both in the past and in the world today. The session is being
submitted for consideration at the 2017 meeting of the American Literature
Association to be held in Boston, Massachusetts, from 25-28 May 2017.
We
are especially interested in proposals that respond to one of more of the
following questions:
·
Why is the medieval popular in the United
States, a nation with no physical connections to the medieval past?
·
What is the continued appeal of the medieval to
Americans?
·
Do Americans do different things with medieval
material compared to their contemporaries around the globe?
·
How have Americans’ view of the medieval changed
over time?
·
Why do some forms of American-made medievalism
endure while others are forgotten?
·
How well do American-made medievalisms translate
into other media and/or cultural settings?
Please submit
proposals to the organizers at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com
no later than 28 January 2017. Please use “Medieval in American Popular
Culture” as your subject line. A complete proposal should include the
following: your complete contact information, a clear and useful title of your
paper, an abstract of your paper (approximately 250 to 600 words), a brief biographical
statement explaining your academic status and authority to speak about your
proposed topic, and a note on any audio/visual requirements.
Final papers
should be delivered between 15 and 20 minutes, depending on the number of
presenters. Potential presenters are reminded that the rules of the conference
allow individuals to present only one paper at the annual meeting.
Further details on the Association
for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular
Culture can found at http://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com.
Additional information about the
conference and the American Literature Association can be found at http://americanliteratureassociation.org/.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Kalamazoo 2017 Advance Notice
Please check out our blog, Medieval Studies on Screen, for details on our call for papers for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies. The session is devoted to animated representations of the medieval and is offered in memory of the late Michael N. Salda, author of Arthurian Animation: A Study of Cartoon Camelots on Film and Television.
Details at http://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/2016/06/cfp-animating-medieval-proposals-by.html.
Details at http://medievalstudiesonscreen.blogspot.com/2016/06/cfp-animating-medieval-proposals-by.html.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
CFP Conference on Medievalism in Contemporary Popular Culture (7/31/2016; France 11/25-26/2016)
Came across this on the Medieval Academy News blog:
Call for Papers – “Getting Medieval”: Medievalism in Contemporary Popular Culture
Posted on June 13, 2016 by Chris
http://www.themedievalacademyblog.org/call-for-papers-getting-medieval-medievalism-in-contemporary-popular-culture/
This conference, organized at the Jean-François Champollion National University Institute (“Champollion University”) in the historic episcopal city of Albi, France – site of the thirteenth-century Albigensian Crusades – will take place on 25-26 November 2016. Please send proposals of 100-250 words for 20-minute papers (in English or French) to john.ford@univ-jfc.fr along with a brief CV before 31 July 2016 for full consideration.
Cette journée d’étude aura lieu les 25 et 26 novembre 2016 à l’Institut National Universitaire Jean-François Champollion dans la ville épiscopale d’Albi dans le Tarn. Les propositions de communications (250-500 mots, en anglais ou français) sont à envoyer accompagné d’un court CV à john.ford@univ-jfc.fr avant le 31 juillet 2016.
PRESENTATION:
Today’s “pop” culture is rich with allusions to the Middle Ages, not only in literature and visual arts – as it always has been in past centuries (e.g., the pre-Raphaelites or Twain’s Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, etc.) – but also in graphic novels and comics, on the big screen and the little one, not to mention the computer screens of electronic gamers as well as amusement parks, festivals and fairs.
But how much of what is presented in a medieval context – either as actual “remakes” of old accounts or simply loosely employing a medieval setting or theme – accurately reflects the Middle Ages, and to what extent do these medieval constructs change or distort the reality of the age? When changed, to what extent is the epoch romanticised as, for example, an idealized Camelot where “the rain may never fall till after sundown?” To what extent is it vilified, making the expression “to get medieval on [somebody]” suggest a horrific vengeance? How do these constructs inform our understanding of the Middle Ages, and how important is it (if at all) to be entirely accurate? Finally, to what extent do such alterations update the texts or tales, keeping them alive and evolving, and why is it a perennial favourite, replayed year after year, decade after decade, indeed, century after century?
This conference hopes to respond to some of these questions by opening a dialogue between various disciplines: literature, history, historical linguistics, visual arts, cinema, theatre, television, etc., in order to study the enduring popularity of medieval themes and the ways in which medieval tales and texts are transmitted, preserved, distorted, renewed and built upon in the creation of new, decidedly modern popular culture in Europe, North America and the world of the 21st century.
This conference hopes to explore ways in which medieval texts, tales and traditions are used (or abused!) and used to fashion entirely new works that ultimately form part of contemporary pop culture in its own right, not only in the modern age, but in ages past. It might also address ways in which authors from the Renaissance until now (e.g., Spenser, Shakespeare, Yeats, etc.) have contributed to our modern conception of the Middle Ages, both myth and reality.
Some aspects to consider might include the importance of accuracy in portrayals purportedly based on actual texts (such as the Vikings series, or various remakes of Beowulf), and to what extent is liberal treatment acceptable, even to be encouraged? To what extent is received wisdom, often quite dubious, employed in original works with a medieval feeling or theme, though not necessarily a medieval setting like Game of Thrones or Harry Potter?
In addition to the works listed above, the conference is open to any proposition addressing the use of medieval works or themes in any aspect of popular culture in any subsequent age, leading to its entrenched place in the pop culture of today – not only in fiction and art, but in any form of entertainment or representation. Finally, the value of both medieval literature and culture, as well as popular culture, and the interdependence of both, is to be explored.
PRESENTATION:
La culture populaire d’aujourd’hui est riche en allusions au Moyen Age, non seulement dans la littérature et les arts visuels – comme elle l’a toujours été dans les siècles passés (par exemple, les préraphaélites ou Connecticut Yankee dans la cour du roi Arthur de Twain, Idylles du roi de Tennyson, ou le Hobbit et le Seigneur des Anneaux de Tolkien, etc.) – mais aussi dans les romans graphiques et dans les bandes dessinées, sur le petit comme sur le grand écran, ainsi que sur les écrans d’ordinateur des amateurs de jeux vidéos, les parcs d’attractions, les festivals et les foires.
Mais combien de ces références dont le contexte est médiéval – présentées comme de nouvelles versions de vieux récits ou tout simplement utilisant de manière plus libre un cadre ou un thème médiéval – reflètent fidèlement le Moyen Age ? Et de quelle manière et dans quelle mesure ces références médiévales modifient-elle ou déforment-elle la réalité de cette époque ? A quel point cette époque est-elle romancée comme, par exemple, dans un Camelot idéalisé où «la pluie ne peut tomber qu’après le coucher du soleil »? Dans quelle mesure est-elle, comme l’atteste l’expression « Jouer à la flamme bien moyenâgeuse » qui implique la menace d’une vengeance féroce, diabolisée, vilipendée? Dans quelle mesure et à quel point ces constructions, ces références, influencent-elles sur notre compréhension du Moyen Age? Est-il donc important d’être exact ? Enfin, dans quelle mesure ces modifications mettent-elles à jour les textes et les récits en leur permettant de rester en vie et en constante évolution ? Et pourquoi le Moyen Age est-il l’éternel sujet favori, exploité année après année, décennie après décennie, siècle après siècle?
Cette journée d’étude va tenter de répondre à ces questions en ouvrant le dialogue par le biais de différentes disciplines : histoire, littérature, linguistique diachronique, arts visuels, cinéma, théâtre, télévision, mais aussi via les jeux vidéos et les parcs d’attraction, etc. Il s’agira d’étudier la popularité durable des thèmes médiévaux et la manière dont les récits et les textes médiévaux sont transmis, conservés, déformés, renouvelés et utilisés pour construire la nouvelle culture populaire résolument moderne, de l’Europe, de l’Amérique du Nord et du monde du 21ème siècle.
Il est important de considérer l’importance de la précision dans les représentations prétendument basées sur des textes réels, comme par exemple la série Vikings, ou les divers remakes de Beowulf. Et, dans quelle mesure ce libre traitement est-il acceptable, ou même à encourager? Dans quelle mesure les idées reçues, souvent douteuses, sont-elles employées dans des œuvres originales au contexte médiéval, mais pas forcément dans un cadre véritablement médiéval comme Game of Thrones ou Harry Potter?
Outre les ouvrages mentionnés ci-dessus, la conférence est ouverte à toute proposition portant sur l’utilisation des œuvres ou des thèmes médiévaux dans tous les aspects de la culture populaire actuelle ou antérieure, les conduisant à une place ancrée dans la culture populaire moderne – non seulement dans la fiction et l’art, mais dans toute forme de divertissement ou de représentation. Enfin, la valeur de la littérature et de la culture médiévales, de la culture populaire, ainsi que leur interdépendance, sera étudiée.
Call for Papers – “Getting Medieval”: Medievalism in Contemporary Popular Culture
Posted on June 13, 2016 by Chris
http://www.themedievalacademyblog.org/call-for-papers-getting-medieval-medievalism-in-contemporary-popular-culture/
This conference, organized at the Jean-François Champollion National University Institute (“Champollion University”) in the historic episcopal city of Albi, France – site of the thirteenth-century Albigensian Crusades – will take place on 25-26 November 2016. Please send proposals of 100-250 words for 20-minute papers (in English or French) to john.ford@univ-jfc.fr along with a brief CV before 31 July 2016 for full consideration.
Cette journée d’étude aura lieu les 25 et 26 novembre 2016 à l’Institut National Universitaire Jean-François Champollion dans la ville épiscopale d’Albi dans le Tarn. Les propositions de communications (250-500 mots, en anglais ou français) sont à envoyer accompagné d’un court CV à john.ford@univ-jfc.fr avant le 31 juillet 2016.
PRESENTATION:
Today’s “pop” culture is rich with allusions to the Middle Ages, not only in literature and visual arts – as it always has been in past centuries (e.g., the pre-Raphaelites or Twain’s Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, etc.) – but also in graphic novels and comics, on the big screen and the little one, not to mention the computer screens of electronic gamers as well as amusement parks, festivals and fairs.
But how much of what is presented in a medieval context – either as actual “remakes” of old accounts or simply loosely employing a medieval setting or theme – accurately reflects the Middle Ages, and to what extent do these medieval constructs change or distort the reality of the age? When changed, to what extent is the epoch romanticised as, for example, an idealized Camelot where “the rain may never fall till after sundown?” To what extent is it vilified, making the expression “to get medieval on [somebody]” suggest a horrific vengeance? How do these constructs inform our understanding of the Middle Ages, and how important is it (if at all) to be entirely accurate? Finally, to what extent do such alterations update the texts or tales, keeping them alive and evolving, and why is it a perennial favourite, replayed year after year, decade after decade, indeed, century after century?
This conference hopes to respond to some of these questions by opening a dialogue between various disciplines: literature, history, historical linguistics, visual arts, cinema, theatre, television, etc., in order to study the enduring popularity of medieval themes and the ways in which medieval tales and texts are transmitted, preserved, distorted, renewed and built upon in the creation of new, decidedly modern popular culture in Europe, North America and the world of the 21st century.
This conference hopes to explore ways in which medieval texts, tales and traditions are used (or abused!) and used to fashion entirely new works that ultimately form part of contemporary pop culture in its own right, not only in the modern age, but in ages past. It might also address ways in which authors from the Renaissance until now (e.g., Spenser, Shakespeare, Yeats, etc.) have contributed to our modern conception of the Middle Ages, both myth and reality.
Some aspects to consider might include the importance of accuracy in portrayals purportedly based on actual texts (such as the Vikings series, or various remakes of Beowulf), and to what extent is liberal treatment acceptable, even to be encouraged? To what extent is received wisdom, often quite dubious, employed in original works with a medieval feeling or theme, though not necessarily a medieval setting like Game of Thrones or Harry Potter?
In addition to the works listed above, the conference is open to any proposition addressing the use of medieval works or themes in any aspect of popular culture in any subsequent age, leading to its entrenched place in the pop culture of today – not only in fiction and art, but in any form of entertainment or representation. Finally, the value of both medieval literature and culture, as well as popular culture, and the interdependence of both, is to be explored.
PRESENTATION:
La culture populaire d’aujourd’hui est riche en allusions au Moyen Age, non seulement dans la littérature et les arts visuels – comme elle l’a toujours été dans les siècles passés (par exemple, les préraphaélites ou Connecticut Yankee dans la cour du roi Arthur de Twain, Idylles du roi de Tennyson, ou le Hobbit et le Seigneur des Anneaux de Tolkien, etc.) – mais aussi dans les romans graphiques et dans les bandes dessinées, sur le petit comme sur le grand écran, ainsi que sur les écrans d’ordinateur des amateurs de jeux vidéos, les parcs d’attractions, les festivals et les foires.
Mais combien de ces références dont le contexte est médiéval – présentées comme de nouvelles versions de vieux récits ou tout simplement utilisant de manière plus libre un cadre ou un thème médiéval – reflètent fidèlement le Moyen Age ? Et de quelle manière et dans quelle mesure ces références médiévales modifient-elle ou déforment-elle la réalité de cette époque ? A quel point cette époque est-elle romancée comme, par exemple, dans un Camelot idéalisé où «la pluie ne peut tomber qu’après le coucher du soleil »? Dans quelle mesure est-elle, comme l’atteste l’expression « Jouer à la flamme bien moyenâgeuse » qui implique la menace d’une vengeance féroce, diabolisée, vilipendée? Dans quelle mesure et à quel point ces constructions, ces références, influencent-elles sur notre compréhension du Moyen Age? Est-il donc important d’être exact ? Enfin, dans quelle mesure ces modifications mettent-elles à jour les textes et les récits en leur permettant de rester en vie et en constante évolution ? Et pourquoi le Moyen Age est-il l’éternel sujet favori, exploité année après année, décennie après décennie, siècle après siècle?
Cette journée d’étude va tenter de répondre à ces questions en ouvrant le dialogue par le biais de différentes disciplines : histoire, littérature, linguistique diachronique, arts visuels, cinéma, théâtre, télévision, mais aussi via les jeux vidéos et les parcs d’attraction, etc. Il s’agira d’étudier la popularité durable des thèmes médiévaux et la manière dont les récits et les textes médiévaux sont transmis, conservés, déformés, renouvelés et utilisés pour construire la nouvelle culture populaire résolument moderne, de l’Europe, de l’Amérique du Nord et du monde du 21ème siècle.
Il est important de considérer l’importance de la précision dans les représentations prétendument basées sur des textes réels, comme par exemple la série Vikings, ou les divers remakes de Beowulf. Et, dans quelle mesure ce libre traitement est-il acceptable, ou même à encourager? Dans quelle mesure les idées reçues, souvent douteuses, sont-elles employées dans des œuvres originales au contexte médiéval, mais pas forcément dans un cadre véritablement médiéval comme Game of Thrones ou Harry Potter?
Outre les ouvrages mentionnés ci-dessus, la conférence est ouverte à toute proposition portant sur l’utilisation des œuvres ou des thèmes médiévaux dans tous les aspects de la culture populaire actuelle ou antérieure, les conduisant à une place ancrée dans la culture populaire moderne – non seulement dans la fiction et l’art, mais dans toute forme de divertissement ou de représentation. Enfin, la valeur de la littérature et de la culture médiévales, de la culture populaire, ainsi que leur interdépendance, sera étudiée.
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