Studies of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Medievalisms by Pugh and Weisl

2012-01-23T23:48:00.001-05:00

Coming later this year:

Medievalisms
By Tison Pugh, Angela Weisl

To Be Published August 15th 2012 by Routledge – 208 pages
Purchasing Options:
Paperback: 978-0-415-61727-7: $31.95

Hardback: 978-0-415-61726-0: $120.00

DESCRIPTION:

From King Arthur and Robin Hood, through to video games and jousting-themed restaurants, medieval culture continues to surround us and has retained a strong influence on literature and culture throughout the ages.

This fascinating and illuminating guide is written by two of the leading contemporary scholars of medieval literature, and explores:

The influence of medieval cultural concepts on literature and film, including key authors such as Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Mark Twain
The continued appeal of medieval cultural figures such as Dante, King Arthur, and Robin Hood
The influence of the medieval on such varied disciplines such as politics, music, children’s literature, and art.
Contemporary efforts to relive the Middle Ages.

Medievalisms: Making the Past in the Present surveys the critical field and sets the boundaries for future study, providing an essential background for literary study from the medieval period through to the twenty-first century.

CONTENTS:

1. Medievalisms: The Magic of the Middle Ages

2. A Case Study of Dante: Naked Icons of Medievalism

3. Literary Medievalisms: Inventing Inspirations

4. "Medieval" Literature for Children and Young Adults: Fantasies of Innocence

5. King Arthur’s and Robin Hood’s Adventures in Medievalism: Mythic Masculinities (and Magical Femininities)

6. Movie Medievalisms: Five (or Six) Ways of Looking at an Anachronism

7. Medievalisms in Music and the Arts: Longing for Transcendence

8. Experiential Medievalisms: Reliving the Always Modern Middle Ages

9. Political Medievalisms: The Darkness of the Dark Ages

AUTHOR BIOS:

Tison Pugh is Professor of English at the University of Central Florida, USA.

Angela Jane Weisl is Professor of English at Seton Hall University, USA.

SMART 2011 Issues

2012-01-22T00:16:00.000-05:00

Here are the details on the 2011 issues of Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching:

Fall 2011 (Volume 18, Issue 2)

TEACHING ITALY
(guest edited by Barbara Stevenson)

BARBARA STEVENSON Introduction to Teaching Italy

MARY BETH LONG Gum-Poppers Deserve their Own Level of Hell: Teaching the Inferno to Baptists

BARBARA STEVENSON Representations of Saladin in the (New) Middle Ages

KURT M. BOUGHAN Teaching Goro Dati’s Libro segreto

KATHRYN A. HALL Teaching Christine de Pizan and the Text via Late Medieval Book Production in Bologna and Paris

CARL GRINDLEY The Whisper Game: Teaching Stemmatics

DARCI N. HILL Altered Arguments: A Textual Analysis of George Herbert’s “Man”

JAY RUUD “A Great Flash of Understanding”: Teaching Dante and Mysticism

ALEXANDRA COOK “Why Study the Middle Ages?” On Re-Imagining the Medieval Literature Survey

JOHN M. GANIM Book Review: Illustrating Camelot, by Barbara Tepa Lupack with
Alan Lupack

ANTHONY J. CÁRDINAS-ROTTUNNO Book Review: The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture, by Jerrilyn D. Dodds, María Rosa Menocal, and Abigail Krasner Balbale

LESLEY A. COOTE Book Review: Shakespeare Films in the Making: Vision, Production and Reception, by Russell Jackson

GWENDOLYN MORGAN Book Review: Key Concepts in Medieval Literature, by Elizabeth Solopova and Stuart D. Lee

EDWARD CHRISTIE Book Review: Imaginary Worlds in Medieval Books: Exploring the Manuscript Matrix, by Martha Dana Rust

ROBERT GRAYBILL Book Review: The Medieval British Literature Handbook, edited by Daniel T. Kline

Spring 2011 (Volume 18, Issue 1)

TEACHING POSTCOLONIA HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
(guest edited by Michael Matto)

MICHAEL MATTO Foreword: Teaching Postcolonial History of the English Language

ANDREW TROUP Postcolonial HEL: Where Do I Find Room on My Syllabus?

ELISE E. MORSE-GAGNÉ From Sutton Hoo to Tougaloo: Teaching HEL at an HBCU

ROBERT STANTON Teaching Varieties of English in the HEL Classroom

K. AARON SMITH Standardization after 1600 and Its Effects on Two Domains of English Linguistic Structure

JOSHUA PARENS Showing Students the Importance of Political Philosophy in Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy

JANE BLANCHARD Staying on Course with Spenser

GAVIN T. RICHARDSON Practical Paleography in the Chaucer Classroom

JENNY ADAMS Breaking the Waves: Margery Kempe Goes South

ROBERT BRAID Book Review: Deviance and Power in Late Medieval London, by Frank Rexroth, translated by Pamela E. Selwyn

NIALL SHANKS Book Review: The Black Death 1346–1353: The Complete History, by Ole J. Benedictow

MEL STORM Book Review: Chaucerian Spaces: Spatial Poetics in Chaucer’s Opening Tales, by William F. Woods

AMY MORRIS Book Review: Mary Queen of Scots: An Illustrated Life, by Susan Doran

REBECCA BRUNSON Book Review: The Yale Companion to Chaucer, edited by Seth Lerer

DAVID J. DUNCAN Book Review: The Seventh Crusade, 1244–1254: Sources and Documents, edited by Peter Jackson

CATHERINE R. ESKIN Book Review: Romance for Sale in Early Modern England: The Rise of Prose Fiction, by Steve Mentz

GWENDOLYN MORGAN Book Review: Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious Writing, by Lara Farina

Tolkien and His Sources

2011-11-27T23:26:00.001-05:00

Tolkien and the Study of His Sources: Critical Essays
Edited by Jason Fisher

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6482-1
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8728-8
notes, bibliography, index
240pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $40.00

About the Book
Source criticism--analysis of a writer’s source material--has emerged as one of the most popular approaches in exploring the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien drew from many disparate sources, an understanding of these sources, as well as how and why he incorporated them, can enhance readers’ appreciation. This set of new essays by leading Tolkien scholars describes the theory and methodology for proper source criticism and provides practical demonstrations of the approach.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Preface
Jason Fisher 1

Introduction: Why Source Criticism?
Tom Shippey 7
Source Criticism: Background and Applications
E. L. Risden 17
Tolkien and Source Criticism: Remarking and Remaking
Jason Fisher 29
The Stones and the Book: Tolkien, Mesopotamia, and Biblical Mythopoeia
Nicholas Birns 45
Sea Birds and Morning Stars: Ceyx, Alcyone, and the Many Metamorphoses of Eärendil and Elwing
Kristine Larsen 69
“Byzantium, New Rome!” Goths, Langobards, and Byzantium in The Lord of the Rings
Miryam Librán-Moreno 84
The Rohirrim: “Anglo-Saxons on Horseback”? An Inquiry into Tolkien’s Use of Sources
Thomas Honegger 116
William Caxton’s The Golden Legend as a Source for Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
Judy Ann Ford 133
She and Tolkien, Revisited
John D. Rateliff 145
Reading John Buchan in Search of Tolkien
Mark T. Hooker 162
Biography as Source: Niggles and Notions
Diana Pavlac Glyer and Josh B. Long 193

About the Contributors 215
Index 219

About the Author
Jason Fisher is an independent scholar specializing in J.R.R. Tolkien, the Inklings, and Medieval Germanic philology. He is also the editor of Mythprint, the monthly publication of The Mythopoeic Society, and has written for Tolkien Studies, Mythlore, Beyond Bree, North Wind, Renaissance, and other publications.

Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture

2011-11-27T23:19:00.001-05:00

Welsh Mythology and Folklore in Popular Culture: Essays on Adaptations in Literature, Film, Television and Digital Media

Edited by Audrey L. Becker and Kristin Noone

Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6170-7
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8725-7
notes, bibliographies, index
234pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $35.00

About the Book
Examining how we interpret Welshness today, this volume brings together fourteen essays covering a full range of representations of Welsh mythology, folklore, and ritual in popular culture. Topics covered include the twentieth-century fantasy fiction of Evangeline Walton, the Welsh presence in the films of Walt Disney, Welshness in folk music, video games, and postmodern literature. Together, these interdisciplinary essays explore the ways that Welsh motifs have proliferated in this age of cultural cross-pollination, spreading worldwide the myths of one small British nation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Re-Imagining Wales
AUDREY L. BECKER and KRISTIN NOONE 1
Celtic Studies and Modern Fantasy Literature
C.W. SULLIVAN III 9
“The Rough, Savage Strength of Earth”: Evangeline Walton’s Human Heroes and Mythic Spaces
KRISTIN NOONE 18
Branwen’s Shame: Voicing the Silent Feminine in Evangeline Walton’s The Children of Llyr
NICOLE A. THOMAS 30
Disavowing Maternity in Evangeline Walton’s The Virgin and the Swine: Fantasy Meets the Social Protest Fiction of the 1930s
DEBORAH HOOKER 42
“An Age-Old Memory”: Arthur Machen’s Celtic Redaction of the Welsh Revival in The Great Return
GEOFFREY REITER 61
Magical Goods, “Orphaned” Exchanges, Punishment and Power in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi
SUSANA BROWER 81
The Hand at the Window: Twm Siôn Cati, the Welsh Colonial Trickster
JONATHAN EVANS and STEPHEN KNIGHT 91
An Irregular Union: Exploring the Welsh Connection to a Popular African-American Wedding Ritual
TYLER D. PARRY 108
Constructing Myth in Music: Heather Dale, King Arthur and “Culhwch and Olwen”
MEGAN MACALYSTRE 130
Torchwood’s “Spooky-Do’s”: A Popular Culture Perspective on Celtic Mythology
LYNNETTE R. PORTER 140
Everyday Magic: Howl’s Moving Castle and Fantasy as Sociopolitical Commentary
CAROLYNN E. WILCOX 160
Loosely Based: The Problems of Adaptation in Disney’s The Black Cauldron
JEFF HICKS 171
We’re Not in Cymru Anymore: What’s Really Happening in the Online Mabinogi
CLAY KINCHEN SMITH 182
Temporality, Teleology and the Mabinogi in the Twenty-First Century
AUDREY L. BECKER 195

Further Reading 213
About the Contributors 219
Index 221

About the Author
Audrey L. Becker is an assistant professor of English literature at Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan. She writes on the intersection between Renaissance literature and cultural studies.

Kristin Noone is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Riverside; her dissertation links medieval romance, fantasy fiction, and popular culture studies. She publishes academic articles on fantasy and medievalism as well as short fantasy fiction.

Donald E. Palumbo is a professor of English at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He lives in Greenville.

C.W. Sullivan III is Distinguished Professor of arts and sciences at East Carolina University and a full member of the Welsh Academy. He is the author of numerous books and the on-line journal Celtic Cultural Studies

Corporate Medievalism

2011-11-27T22:57:00.001-05:00

Corporate Medievalism
Studies in Medievalism XXI

Edited by Karl Fugelso

Details

First Published: 19 Jul 2012
$90.00

13 Digit ISBN: 9781843843221
Pages: 208
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Studies in Medievalism
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
Details updated on 27 Nov 2011

Academia has never been immune to corporate culture, and despite the persistent association of medievalism with escapism, perhaps never has that been more obvious than at the present moment. The six essays that open the volume explore precisely how financial institutions have promoted, distorted, appropriated, resisted, and repudiated post-medieval interpretations of the middle ages. In the second part of the book, contributors explore medievalism in a variety of areas, juxtaposing specific case studies with broader investigations of the disciplines' motives and methods; they include Charles Kingsley's racial Anglo-Saxonism, Jessie L. Weston's Sir Gawain and the treatment of women in medievalist film. The book also includes a spirited response to previous Studies in Medievalism volumes on the topic neomedievalism.

Contributors: Harry Brown, Henrik Aubert, Helen Brookman, Pamela Clements, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, Jil Hanifan, Michael R. Kightley, Felice Lifshitz, Lauren S. Mayer, Brent Moberley, Kevin Moberley, E. L. Risden, Carol L. Robinson, M. J. Toswell, J. Rubén Valdés Miyares

Contents
1 Editorial Notes
2 Lives of Total Dedication? Medieval and Modern Corporate Identity
3 Reincorporating the Medieval: Morality, Chivalry, and Honor in Post-Financial-Meltdown Corporate Revisionism
4 Medievalism and Representations of Corporate Identity
5 Knights of the Ownership Society: Economic Inequality and Medievalist Film
6 A Corporate neo-Beowulf: Ready or Not, Here We Come
7 Unsettled Accounts: Corporate Culture and George R.R. Martin's Fetish Medievalism
8 Historicizing Neumatic Notation: Medieval Neumes as Cultural Artefacts of Early Modern Times
9 Hereward the Dane and the English, but Not the Saxon: Kingsley's Racial Anglo-Saxonism
10 From Romance to Ritual: Jessie L. Weston's Gawain
11 The Cinematic Sign of the Grail
12 Destructive Dominae: Women and Vengeance in Medievalist Film (Felice Lifshitz) (abstract)
13 Neomedievalism Unplugged
14 Notes on Contributors

CFP Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends at PCA 2012

2011-11-05T01:39:00.001-04:00

Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends (download PDF)

at the 42nd Annual Popular and American Culture Associations Conference

April 11-14th, 2012, Boston, Massachusetts

Call for papers and panel proposals on all popular treatments of the Middle Ages or
Arthurian Legend from any period and in any medium. We will consider all proposals for
papers, but we especially encourage abstracts on the following for this year’s conference:

Arthurian themes in Dragon Age I and II
Harry Potter and medievalism
The Lost finale and the Holy Grail
Medievalism in Martin’s Game of Thrones
The Mists of Avalon after 30 years
New Camelots: Camelot on Starz and the BBC’s Merlin
Paranormal romance and medievalism
Robin Hood

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and papers must keep to a reading time of 15
minutes (approximately 7-8 double spaced pages). Be sure to include your full name,
affiliation, mailing address, phone number and email address on your abstract, not just in
the email. Email submissions are preferred.

Deadline: December 15, 2011
Send submissions to Amy Kaufman at: kaufmana@mtsu.edu
or mail to:
Amy S. Kaufman
Department of English, Middle Tennessee State University
MTSU Box 0070, 1301 East Main Street
Murfreesboro, TN 37132-0001

Please note: Membership in the PCA is required for participation. Membership forms and more
information about the conference are available online at www.pcaaca.org.

CFP ICoM 2012

2011-11-04T23:55:00.000-04:00

Call for Papers (download the CFP)

27th International Conference on Medievalism

Hosted by Kent State University Regional Campuses

(October 18-20, 2012)

THEME: Medievalism(s) & Diversity

Deadline: June 1, 2012

Conference Theme: Is there diversity in medievalism? How has medievalism represented diversity of religion, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, gender,...? How have medievalist works supported issues concerning equity and inclusion? How have medievalist works oppressed and suppressed? Are there elements of bigotry and discrimination? What about human rights as a medieval concept, as a contemporary concept? Media to consider might include (but are not limited to) any of the following: novels, plays, films, art works, the Internet, television, historical works, political works, comics, video games. Angles to consider might include (but are not limited to) any of the following: race, gender, sexuality, disability/ability, religion, corporation and/or class, nationality, human rights, political correctness, marginalization, anti-marginalization tactics, rewritten codes, rewritten ideologies, re-affirmed codes, re-affirmed ideologies.

Conference Location: Nestled on 200 beautiful acres, yet only minutes from the hustle and bustle of The Strip and Westfield Belden Village Mall, Kent State University at Stark provides a quiet, serene and picturesque setting for students and the community to enjoy. With rolling hills, a pond, walking trail, and a Campus Center and Food Emporium, it is located in Jackson Township, just five minutes from the Akron-Canton Airport and easily accessible from Interstate-77.

Publication Opportunities:
Selected papers related to the conference theme will be published in The Year’s Work in Medievalism.

Deadline: June 1, 2012
Please send paper and/or session proposals to either
Carol Robinson (Conference Chair) or to Elizabeth Williamsen (Conference Assistant Chair).

Carol L. Robinson, Conference Chair
International Conference on Medievalism
Kent State University Trumbull
4314 Mahoning Avenue, NW
Warren, Ohio 44483
EMAIL: clrobins@kent.edu
FAX: 330-437-0490

Elizabeth Williamsen, Conference Assist. Chair
International Conference on Medievalism
Kent State University Stark
6000 Frank Avenue, NW
North Canton, Ohio 44720
EMAIL: ewilli46@kent.edu
FAX: 330-437-0490

ICoM 2011

2011-11-04T23:50:00.003-04:00

With apologies for cross-posting:

The International Society for the Study of Medievalism recently convened its 26th International Conference on Medievalism at the University of New Mexico under the general theme of Medievalism, Arthuriana, and Landscapes of Enchantment from 21-22 October 2011. The complete program can be accessed at http://ims.unm.edu/sim/.

Kalamazoo 2012 Sessions

2011-09-26T13:48:00.001-04:00

As promised, here are the complete details for our sessions for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies:

The Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo: New Perspectives for Incorporating Comics into Medieval Studies Teaching and Research (Roundtable)
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Presider: Mikee Delony, Abilene Christian University

1. “Grotesque in Comics”

Fabio Mourilhe, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

2. “Caliber (2008), or Arthur’s Mystical Six-Shooter and the Gunslingers of the O.K. Corral”

Karen (Casey) Casebier, St. Mary’s College of Maryland

3. “Arthurian Themes in DC Comic’s Demon Knights (2011-)”

Jason Tondro, University of California, Riverside

Are You From Camelot? Recent Arthurian Film and Television as Innovators of the Arthurian Tradition and Their Impact (Roundtable) (co-sponsored with The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain)

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Presider: Charlotte A. T. Wulf, Stevenson University

1. “Merlin: Magician, Man, and Manipulator in Starz’s Camelot (2011)”

Caroline Womack, University of Leeds

2. “Morgan, Uther’s Other Child, in BBC1’s Merlin (2008-) and Starz’s Camelot (2011)”

Cindy Mediavilla, UCLA Department of Information Studies

3. “Galahad and Indiana Jones: The Commodification of the Holy Grail in Modern Grail Quests”

Schuyler Eastin, San Diego Christian College

4. Arthurising the Wife of Bath: The Wife of Bath’s Tale in S4C’s The Canterbury Tales (1999) and BBC’s Canterbury Tales (2003)

Paul Hardwick, Leeds Trinity University College

5. Respondent

Karolyn Kinane, Plymouth State University

Our Kalamazoo Sessions 2012

2011-09-25T19:13:00.000-04:00

We are in the process of finalizing our sessions for the 2012 International Congress on Medieval Studies. Details will be posted first to the respective blogs (film and comics) and then re-posted here.

Medievalism at NEPCA

2011-09-25T02:05:00.001-04:00

A number of papers with medieval subjects will be presented in November at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury Connecticut, from 11-12 November. The complete program is now available online.

FRIDAY, 11 NOV., 4-5:30 PM
8) Science and Technology I/Symposium: Geeks, Gadgets and Games: The Influence of Technology on Media Entertainment in Contemporary Culture (ROOM: WHITE 024)

PAPER 1 OF 3: “From Mighty Thor to Thor: Problematizing the Inherent Societal Values and Individual Identities of “Geek” Culture Artifacts Appropriated by Mainstream America” – Jessica Eckstein and David Kazibut, Western Connecticut State University

SATURDAY, 12 NOV., 8:30-10 AM

6) Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend II: Legends Old and New (ROOM: WARNER 320)

PAPER 1 OF 4: “The Werewolf: Out of Bounds”—Barry Hall, University of Nizwa

PAPER 2 OF 4: “Robin Hood in Ballad and Film”—Kerry R. Kaleba, George Mason University

PAPER 3 OF 4: “What Do Vampires Have to Do with the Holy Grail? The Transformation of the Grail Legend in Undead Arthuriana”—Michael A. Torregrossa, The Virtual Society for the Study Of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

SATURDAY, 12 NOV., 10:30 AM - 12 PM

8) Science Fiction, Fantasy and Legend III: Fantasy (ROOM: WHITE 023)

1. “ ‘Epic’ in Epic-Fantasy Literature”—Robert Luce, Independent Scholar

2. “ Who Is Afraid of Merlin? The Darkening of Merlin in Modern Arthurian Fiction” -- Anne Berthelot, University of Connecticut

3. “ ‘Close This Book Right Now’: The Writer-Character in Children’s Fantasy”-- Amie A. Doughty, SUNY Oneonta

4. “Fandom 2.0: Fantasy, Social Media, and Fan Creativity” -- James Kennedy, Columbia College

SATURDAY, 12 NOV., 1:30-3 PM

2) Comics and Graphic Novels II: Damsels Causing Distress (ROOM: WARNER 226)

PAPER 2 OF 4: “Vampiric Viragoes: Villainizing and Sexualizing Arthurian Women in King Arthur v. Dracula (2005) and Madame Xanadu (2008)”—Kate Allocco, Western Connecticut State University

Beowulf by James Rumford

2011-09-19T15:06:00.000-04:00

I recently picked up James Rumford's Beowulf: A Hero's Tale Retold (2007) and found it an interesting read. The book--both written and illustrated by Rumford--offers young readers a simplified and non-gory version of Beowulf that makes several attempts for a more "authentic" version of the story. The costumes, arms and armor, architecture and decoration are suitably early medieval in appearance, and the text itself both uses keenings and employs a lexicon of words primarily derived from Old English. Rumford details his approach to the book in an author's note that concludes the work and on his website. This is definitely something to consider for the young medievalists on your holiday shopping lists.

Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends (12/15/11; PCA Boston 4/11-14/12)

2011-09-06T22:10:00.000-04:00

Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends, April 11-14th, 2012, Boston, Massachusetts
42nd Annual Popular and American Culture Associations Conference
contact email: kaufmana@mtsu.edu

Medieval Popular Culture and Arthurian Legends at the 42nd Annual Popular and American Culture Associations Conference

April 11-14th, 2012, Boston, Massachusetts

Call for papers and panel proposals on all popular treatments of the Middle Ages or Arthurian Legend from any period and in any medium. We will consider all proposals for papers, but we especially encourage abstracts on the following for this year’s conference:

Arthurian themes in _Dragon Age_ I and II
Harry Potter and medievalism
The _Lost_ finale and the Holy Grail
Medievalism in Martin’s _Game of Thrones_
_The Mists of Avalon_ after 30 years
New Camelots: _Camelot_ on Starz and the BBC’s _Merlin_
Paranormal romance and medievalism
Robin Hood

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and papers must keep to a reading time of 15 minutes (approximately 7-8 double spaced pages). Be sure to include your full name, affiliation, mailing address, phone number and email address on your abstract, not just in the email. Email submissions are preferred.

Deadline: December 15, 2011

Send submissions to Amy Kaufman at: kaufmana@mtsu.edu

or mail to:
Amy S. Kaufman
Department of English, Middle Tennessee State University
MTSU Box 0070, 1301 East Main Street Murfreesboro
TN 37132-0001

Please note: Membership in the PCA is required for participation. Membership forms and more information about the conference are available online at www.pcaaca.org.

CFP Global Shakespeare, Spec. Issue of Shakespeare: Journal of British Shakespeare Association (9/30/11)

2011-07-18T21:17:00.000-04:00

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/41938

CFP: Global Shakespeare
full name / name of organization: Shakespeare: Journal of British Shakespeare Association
contact email: acyhuang@gwu.edu

CALL FOR PAPERS

Shakespeare: Journal of British Shakespeare Association special issue

"Global Shakespeare"

Deadline: September 30, 2011

The special issue welcomes papers on Shakespeare in performance in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that participate in or initiate debates—theory, praxis, reception—worldwide. During his lifetime, Shakespeare’s plays were performed in Europe and subsequently taken to remote corners of the globe, including Sierra Leone, Socotra, and colonial Indonesia. Performances in England also had a global flair. European visitors such as Thomas Platter witnessed the plays on stage at the Globe (1599) and left behind diary records. Four centuries on, there has been a sea change. In theatre, Shakespeare has been recruited, exemplified, resisted, and debated in post/colonial encounters, in the international avant-garde led by Ariane Mnouchkine, Ninagawa Yukio, Peter Brook, Tadashi Suzuki, and others, and in the circuits of global politics and tourism in late capitalist societies.

As artists reconstruct various traditions, critics are also troubling narrowly defined concept of cultural authenticity. What are the new paradigms that can help us avoid replicating the old author-centered textuality in performance criticism? What critical resources might we bring to the task of interpreting the behaviors and signs in performance? What is the role of local and global spectators? More importantly, what is the task of criticism as it deals with the transformations of Shakespeare and various performance idioms?

Research articles in this issue will take stock of the worldwide histories of performance and criticism to uncover any blind spots in current methodologies to study the theoretical and artistic implications of Shakespeare and the cultures of diaspora, the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Commonwealth countries, Europe, Russia, Africa, the Arab world, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere.

In addition, this issue will also feature a section devoted to recent adaptations in English and other languages.

We invite two types of submissions --

• Research article: criticism (5,000-8,000 words)
• Short performance reviews (1,000-2,000 words)

Please follow the Journal's Instructions for Authors:

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1745-0918&linktype=44

Submissions--WORD (.doc) file, double-spaced, 12-point font; no .docx files please--or queries to be emailed to Alex Huang at the following address:

acyhuang@gwu.edu

CFP "Does Beowulf Allow (for) Illustration?" (due 9/5/2011)

2011-07-18T20:28:00.000-04:00

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/42051

New College Conference, March 8-10, 2012, Sarasota, FL: Call for papers: "Does Beowulf Allow (for) Illustration?" (due 9/5/2011)
full name / name of organization:
Matthew J. Snyder / University of Florida
contact email:
msnyder@ufl.edu

This session will seek to explore the question: Can Beowulf be illustrated, or does the poem exhibit and/or foster an inherent antagonism between sign and icon? Recent efforts to provide illustration that augments (or perhaps subsumes or subordinates) the poem's 3182 lines of text, including Seamus Heaney and John D. Niles' Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition (Norton, 2007), the graphic novel Beowulf: Monster Slayer (Graphic Universe, 2008), and Robert Zemeckis' 2007 motion-capture animated film, all would seem to push back against what might be termed the text's opacity of the visual imaginary. Do these works and others, including various Beowulf adaptations to film and new media, succeed in their self-appointed task of turning the poem into a (moving-)picture book? Can they? Why might – or might not – these approaches represent successful or failed (re)interpretations or adaptations of the epic, and is there some other logic or desire behind the apparent drive to illustrate Beowulf that we ought to try to get at?

Please submit 250-word abstracts of proposed twenty-minute papers in the body of an email with a current CV attached. The deadline for the submission of abstracts for this session is 5 September 2011. For more on the New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, visit http://faculty.ncf.edu/medievalstudies/index.html.

Matthew J. Snyder
Department of English
University of Florida

CFP The Once and Future Classroom Journal seeks submissions (by 12/15/2011)

2011-07-18T20:23:00.003-04:00

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/42033

The Once and Future Classroom Journal seeks submissions (by 12/15/2011)
full name / name of organization:
TEAMS: The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages
contact email:
cneufeld@emich.edu

The Once and Future Classroom is an electronic journal published by TEAMS (The Consortium for Teaching the Middle Ages). This peer-reviewed journal seeks to encourage medieval studies in the K-12 and community college contexts by providing teachers with inspiring topics, new strategies and academically-sound resources. The OFC is dedicated to representing the diversity of medieval studies and the most current pedagogical modes. The journal welcomes a variety of formats: annotated bibliographies, lesson plans, reviews of teaching materials, books, or films, as well as more traditional scholarship on teaching medieval topics. The journal’s electronic format allows for flexibility in content length, as well as exciting presentation options—such as the inclusion of images, video clips, as well as live links to other web resources.
For more information see: http://www.teamsmedieval.org/ofc/index.html
Or contact the Managing Editor, Dr. Christine Neufeld, at cneufeld@emich.edu.

CFP Shakespearean Echoes (7/20/11)

2011-07-18T20:08:00.002-04:00

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/41425

Shakespearean Echoes
full name / name of organization:
Paul Gleed, Dickinson College
contact email:
gleedp@dickinson.edu

I am seeking chapter abstracts for a proposed volume on Shakespeare in popular culture. The tentative title for this project is Shakespearean Echoes: Shakespeare in Contemporary Culture.
Why another volume on Shakespeare and popular culture? Understandably, the vast majority of work on Shakespeare’s contemporary life has focused on direct adaptations of the playwright’s work. What I propose with this volume, however, is to exclusively study “echoes” of Shakespeare rather than adaptations, the less tangible and precise ways in which Shakespeare has appeared within contemporary culture. Authors might address echoes of Shakespeare in contemporary music, film, literature, television, advertising, new media or any other worthwhile venue.
I am particularly interested in essays exploring relatively untouched interconnections between Shakespeare and contemporary culture. I’m eager, also, to have a global perspective, and hope to present a selection of chapters reflecting Shakespeare’s current international afterlife. Work on British and American subjects is welcome (and needed), of course, but projects reflecting a multicultural perspective will be particularly appreciated. Essays should address texts no older than 1980.
What I hope to show is the pervasiveness and variety of Shakespeare’s current afterlife. With this in mind, I’m trying to get the right blend of breadth and depth. I’m hoping to accomplish this through a mix of short and long essays (a first section featuring ten to fifteen short essays and a second section of fewer, longer essays). Short essays will be around 2,000 words while fuller essays will come in at about 5,000 words. Please indicate which type of essay you would like to write.
Finally, all essays, short and long, should present an interpretive position and develop an argument. This work is not intended to simply catalogue Shakespearean “echoes.” Many existing publications on Shakespeare and popular culture tend to take the survey or introductory approach, while this volume hopes to offer readers a different format. Importantly, authors should say something rewarding about both Shakespeare and the contemporary text/context being studied.
After the deadline for submissions, I will contact authors to let them know if their work has been selected. The next step will be to approach publishers with a full, detailed proposal. I anticipate, of course, that this will be a lengthy process, but will keep authors informed and updated as the project moves forward.

The Deadline for abstracts is July 20th, 2011. Please send abstract and C.V. to: gleedp@dickinson.edu
Paul Gleed
Assistant Professor of English and Film
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013

CFP Locating Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century (6/30/11)

2011-07-18T03:33:00.003-04:00

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=185512

Locating Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century
Call for Papers Date: 2011-06-30
Date Submitted: 2011-05-26
Announcement ID: 185512

William Shakespeare has long been a global cultural commodity, but in the twenty-first century "Shakespeare" is oft positioned as a social concept with the man almost forgotten amidst the terminology that surrounds the criticism, tourism, adaptation, and utilization of the plays. For instance, the plays themselves are as often re-worked and adapted as performed wholly in their own right on stage. Moreover, there are currently well-established alternative strands, identities, and locations of "Shakespeare" (e.g., metanarratives, gender-reworking, inter-cultural adapting, online streaming), and the growth is as widespread and fast as technology, performance, social networking, and cinema will allow. It is this new and exciting approach to "Shakespeare," which clearly suits both the adaptation process and the technology and mindset of the twenty-first century, that our volume will consider.
Potential topics for the anthology include the following:

• Shakespeare depicted on film and TV "outside" the mainstream: reality TV documentary from prison, schools, etc.
• Adaptation online: podcasts, webcasts, webisodes (e.g., Second City's Sassy Gay Friend series), YouTube Shakespeare, Shakespeare on Twitter (e.g., Such Tweet Sorrow)
• Streaming live theatre: the National Theatre Live and not-so-live Hamlet and Lear experiments
• Meta-narratives of Shakespeare, positioning the works through embedded and presumed knowledge in adaptations
• Global Shakespeares located within and for national identities
• Shakespeare as illustrated text: graphic novels, animation, special effects
• And of course, any other ways of "locating Shakespeare in the twenty-first century"

Please send a 500-word abstract/synopsis of the project to Kelli Marshall (kellirmarshall_at_gmail.com) by June 30, 2011. Complete essays of approximately 6,000 words would be expected around September 1, 2011.

Kelli Marshall
kellirmarshall@gmail.com
Email: kellirmarshall@gmail.com

Kalamazoo 2012 CFPs

2011-07-14T16:30:00.000-04:00

The calls for papers for our 2012 sessions for the International Congress on Medieval Studies have been posted and can be accessed by clicking the links below:

Are You From Camelot?: Recent Arthurian Film, Television, and Electronic Games as Innovators of the Arthurian Tradition and Their Impact (Roundtable) (9/1/11; Kalamazoo 5/10-13/12)

The Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo: New Perspectives for Incorporating Comics into Medieval Studies Teaching and Research (9/1/11; Kalamazoo 5/10-13/12)

Submissions are due by September 1st.

Michael

Mythcon 42

2011-07-14T01:52:00.000-04:00

The schedule for this week's Mythcon has been posted at http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/42/. The theme is Monsters, Marvels, and Minstrels: The Rise of Modern Medievalism, and the conference convenes at the MCM Eleganté Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico from 15-18 July.

Kalamazoo 2012 Update

2011-07-14T01:47:00.000-04:00

The call for papers for next year's Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo is now available at http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/sessions.html. Our sessions (roundtables on Arthurian film/TV and medieval comics) have been accepted for inclusion, and proposals can be sent to me at Popular.Culture.and.the.Middle.Ages@gmail.com. An official call for papers will be posted ASAP.

Michael

Shakespearean Gothic

2011-07-08T23:01:00.000-04:00

Out now from the University of Chicago Press:

Shakespearean Gothic
Distributed for University of Wales Press
EDITED BY CHRISTY DESMET AND ANNE WILLIAMS

192 pages | 10 | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 | © 2009
University of Wales Press - Gothic Literary Studies

As evidenced by the vampires, werewolves, and other frights overrunning the best-seller lists, the Gothic remains immensely popular. This collection of essays traces the roots of the Gothic to an unexpected source: eighteenth-century interpretations of Shakespeare. Through close attention to literary, cultural, and historical detail, the contributors demonstrate that even as Shakespeare was being established as the supreme British writer, he was also being cited as justification for early Gothic writers’ abandonment of literary decorum and their interest in the supernatural.

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

List of Contributors

Introduction

PART I: GOTHIC APPROPRIATIONS OF ‘SHAKESPEARE’

1 Reading Walpole Reading Shakespeare

Anne Williams

2 Ann Radcliffe, ‘The Shakespeare of Romance Writers’

Rictor Norton

3 The Curse of Shakespeare

Jeffrey Kahan

PART II: REWRITING SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS AND CHARACTERS
4 Shakespearean Shadows’ Parodic Haunting of Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey

Marjean D. Purinton and Marliss C. Desens

5 Fatherly and Daughterly Pursuits: Mary Shelley’s Matilda and Shakespeare’s King Lear

Carolyn A. Weber

6 Into the Madman’s Dream: the Gothic Abduction of Romeo and Juliet

Yael Shapira

7 Gothic Cordelias: the Afterlife of King Lear and the Construction of Femininity

Diane Long Hoeveler

PART III: SHAKESPEARE AS A GOTHIC WRITER
8 ‘We are not safe’: History, Fear and the Gothic in Richard III

Jessica Walker

9 Remembering Ophelia: Ellen Terry and the Shakespearizing of Dracula

Christy Desmet

10 ‘Rites of Memory’: the Heart of Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet

Susan Allen Ford

Afterword: Shakespearean Gothic

Frederick Burwick

Bibliography

Index

Medievalism at Leeds

2011-05-14T14:46:00.002-04:00

The program for this year's International Medieval Congress at Leeds has been posted, and there are 4 sessions of interest under the "Medivalism and Reception of the Middle Ages" strand. There seems to be a significant decline in medievalism sessions sine the 1990s (when there were over 20 sessions under "Medievalism and Antiquarianism" strand) and a marked decline since 2010, where there were 8. However, medievalism-themed sessions have been on the rise at the International Congress on Medieval Studies held annually at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

The call for papers for the 2012 congress (due 8/1/11) has also been posted, and I attach the definition of the "Medivalism and Reception of the Middle Ages" strand in the hopes that we can revive interest in the area:

Strand Definitions: Medievalism and Reception of the Middle Ages

The study of what could be called the Afterlife of the Middle Ages has been increasingly productive in the past two decades, whether under the title of 'medievalism,' 'reception of the Middle Ages,' or Mittelalterrezeption. Scholars increasingly recognise that alongside research into medieval texts and artefacts themselves, the study of the ways in which the Middle Ages have been constructed and reinvented in the post-medieval centuries is crucial to an understanding of the medieval period. All eras are subject to reinvention - there are neo-Victorianisms as well as neo-classicisms and neo-medievalisms. But it can be argued that the reinvention of the Middle Ages has been culturally more significant in the past two centuries (at least) than that of any other period. The positioning of the Middle Ages as the despised 'other' in the sixteenth century, followed by the period's refashioning as a time of pastoral innocence in the era of industrialism, has meant that we inherit today a complex but conflicted and contradictory notion of the medieval.

This strand is open to papers on all aspects of this process. These can focus on popular-cultural manifestations (film, television, novel, music, art, architecture, social practice) or on the history and development of disciplines within medieval studies. Methodologically, discussions in this strand are interested in the problem raised by disciplinary history: why do we accept some scholarship from the past as part of the discipline's necessary pre-history, and reject the rest as the epiphenomenon, "medievalism"? What is at stake when such exclusions are made? How does disciplinary history matter to us today?

Here are the session links for 2011:

Exploring the Public Understanding of the Middle Ages: The Reception of Medievalisms in Contemporary Pop Culture [Session No: 704]
Medieval Saints and Post-Reformation Identities [Session No: 830]
Medievalism: Rulers and Outcasts of the Middle Ages in Modern Culture, 1500-2011 [Session No: 1020]
Re-Creating the Middle Ages in Modern Times [Session No: 804]

The following seemed of especial interest:

Session 704
Title Exploring the Public Understanding of the Middle Ages: The Reception of Medievalisms in Contemporary Pop Culture
Date/Time Tuesday 12 July 2011: 14.15-15.45

Sponsor Society for the Public Understanding of the Middle Ages

Organiser Paul Sturtevant, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds

Moderator/Chair Zsuzsanna Reed Papp, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds

Paper 704-a 'You're marrying me because of that! But that's… that's archaic… medieval…': Negotiating Female Agency of Text and Reader in the Use of the Medieval in Contemporary Sheikh Mills & Boon Romance
(Language: English)
Amy Burge, Centre for Women's Studies, University of York
Paper 704-b 'What's Wrong With You Christians?': Representations of Christianity in Contemporary Cinematic Depictions of Late Antiquity
(Language: English)
Adam Gutteridge, Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past, University of York
Paper 704-c 'You don't think of them as civilised': Contemporary British Perceptions of the Muslim 'Other' before and after Watching Kingdom of Heaven
(Language: English)
Paul Sturtevant, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds

Abstract The public encounters medieval narratives in the media every day. Though the media is not normally a sanctioned educator, educational and communications research has proven that the media can hold significant pedagogical power, not only to influence what people think, but how. This panel offers three perspectives on the interpretation of the medieval world in contemporary popular culture, with a particular focus on how these pieces of popular medievalism interact with, and potentially influence, how the public understands the medieval world.

Session 804
Title Re-Creating the Middle Ages in Modern Times
Date/Time Tuesday 12 July 2011: 16.30-18.00

Organiser IMC Programming Committee

Moderator/Chair Siegrid Schmidt, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Mittelalterstudien, Universität Salzburg

Paper 804-a Homelessness and Vagrancy in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: Conceptualising the 'Other'?
(Language: English)
Julie Pridmore, Unisa Medieval Association, University of South Africa, Pretoria
Paper 804-b Pucelle, Puzzel, or Puzzle?: Shakespeare's Elizabethan Joan of Arc
(Language: English)
Dianne E. Berg, Tufts University, Massachusetts
Paper 804-c Re-Creating the Middle Ages: Writing Techniques in Modern Fiction
(Language: English)
Gillian Polack, English & Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia

Abstract Paper -a:
This paper will examine the attitudes towards stability and wandering expressed by JRR Tolkien in his epic text The Lord of the Rings. I will investigate how the concepts are applied to the chief protagonists of the narrative as they move through various stages of the quest cycle. A key theme will be Tolkien's use of language to illustrate the ideas of homelessness and vagrancy as this applies to both 'heroes' and 'others'. The paper will include an examination of the way in which 'other' races are portrayed in both stable and wandering environments in relation to the travelling protagonists of the main narrative. I will also investigate the idea put forward by some scholars that homelessness is necessary for the completion of the quest.

Paper -b:
This paper examines Shakespeare's portrayal of the cross-dressing Joan of Arc as a lens through which Elizabethan anxieties about England's 'mannish' queen were refracted. Through his characterization of la Pucelle - another putative virgin wielding power in a man's world—Shakespeare could 'hold the mirror up to [the] nature' of his nation's central, defining paradox within the context of the playhouse. By interrogating the influence of Elizabeth's ambiguous persona on Shakespeare's portrait of another powerful, transgressive female, I explore how this Early Modern appropriation of a medieval French peasant addressed contemporary English concerns about gender roles, political power, and cultural identity.

Paper -c:
This paper examines specific techniques used by modern fantasy and historical fiction writers (Willis, Uttley, Chadwick, Pulman) to situate their work in the Middle Ages and examines how particular techniques create an effective sense of the past, including use of concrete examples and evocation of nostalgia. It will also discuss how each technique assists the reader to draw on their own understanding of the period and how, in the end, these techniques present an interpretation of the Middle Ages for the reader and provide them with a framework for historical understanding that can, at times, conflict with the frameworks used by specialist historians.

Session 1020
Title Medievalism: Rulers and Outcasts of the Middle Ages in Modern Culture, 1500-2011
Date/Time Wednesday 13 July 2011: 09.00-10.30

Sponsor Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Mittelalterstudien, Universität Salzburg

Organiser Siegrid Schmidt, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Mittelalterstudien, Universität Salzburg

Moderator/Chair Ursula Bieber, Institut für Slawistik, Universität Salzburg

Paper 1020-a Die Herzesser: A Special Form of a Witch
(Language: English)
Christa Agnes Tuczay, Institut für Germanistik, Universität Wien / Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaft, Wien
Paper 1020-b The Many Faces of Margarete 'Maultasch', Countess of Tyrol, 1318-1369
(Language: English)
Manuel Schwembacher, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Mittelalterstudien, Universität Salzburg
Paper 1020-c Medieval Rulers in Japanese Medieval Studies
(Language: English)
So Shitanda, Faculty of Philology, Ivan Franko National University of L'viv, L'viv
Paper 1020-d Medieval Ruler of the Middle Ages in Fine Art, 15th-21st Centuries
(Language: English)
Irma Trattner, Kunstuniversität Linz / Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Mittelalterstudien, Universität Salzburg

Abstract There are a lot of very different figures of Medieval Literatures who are fascinating still nowadays. On the one hand the bright, rich, and wellminded rulers appear in literature, painting and other areas of cultures as ideal rulers. On the other hand bad human figures as 'Black Knights' and witches or biests play an important role in various genres of novels, children's literature and also in fine art. The paper of this session will demonstrate that those phenomena can be found in various countries and cultures.

CFP: The Return of King Arthur in the Post-Medieval World (12/1/11; Plymouth, NH 4/20-21/12)

2011-05-14T14:40:00.000-04:00

The Society is pleased to announce its sponsorship of "Once and Future Kings? The Return of King Arthur in the Post-medieval World," which 33rd Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum to convene at Plymouth State University (Plymouth, NH) from 20-21 April 2011. The full CFP can be accessed at King Arthur Forever.

Our Kalamazoo Sessions Updated

2011-05-12T13:32:00.000-04:00

Here, again, are the details on our sponsored sessions for this year's Medieval Congress. There have been some changes as noted below in bold.

Saturday, 14 May

12:00 PM
Business Meeting and Reception (Valley II, Garneau Lounge)
All are invited to attend.

3:30 PM
Twenty-First Century Medievalism: Re-envisioning the Medieval in the Contemporary World (A Roundtable), Session 478 (Fetzer 2040)
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages
Presider: Mikee Delony, Abilene Christian Univ.

Paper 1: Peter H. Johnsson (San Francisco State Univ.), Siegfried the Volk-Song: Examining the Interpretations of Siegfried the Dragon-Slayer and the Making of a National History

Paper 2: Laurie Rizzo (Univ. of Delaware), Analysis of Arthurian Film Reviews

Paper 3: Suanna H. Davis (Houston Community College: Central), Beowulf in the Twenty-First Century

Paper 4 has been withdrawn

I also append below the information that was to be reproduced on a flier for both sessions:

Advance Notice:

The Society has proposed the following sessions (pending approval by the Congress organizing committee) for the 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies:

Are You From Camelot? Recent Arthurian Film, Television, and Electronic Games as Innovators of the Arthurian Tradition and Their Impact (Roundtable)

The Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo: New Perspectives for Incorporating Comics into Medieval Studies Teaching and Research (Roundtable)

Please contact us at Popular.Culture.and.the.Middle.Ages@gmail.com if you are interested in participating

We are also organizing sessions on the following topics for other conference in 2011 and 2012:

Monstrous Medievalisms 2011 (Proposals by 6/1/11; Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association, 11/11-12/11 Danbury, CT)

The Comics Get Medieval 2012: A Celebration of Medieval-Themed Comics in Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of Prince Valiant (Proposals by 12/1/11; Popular Culture Association 4/4-7/11 Boston, MA)

Once and Future Kings? The Return of King Arthur in the Post-medieval World (Proposals by 12/1/11; Plymouth State Medieval and Renaissance Forum 4/20-21/11 Plymouth, NH)

Also pending approval of the respective organizing committees:

The Reel World of King Arthur: Arthurian Myth and Legend in Film, Television, and Electronic Games (TBA; 2012 Film and History Conference 9/26-30/12 Milwaukee, WI)

Full details on all of these can be found at PopularCultureandtheMiddleAges.org

Saturday and Sunday Sessions at Kalamazoo 2011

2011-05-11T23:46:00.000-04:00

Reminder: The complete program can be accessed at: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/sessions.html. Sessions sponsored by the Society are in red.

SATURDAY, MAY 14

10:00 AM

Session 348 (Valley II, 207)
Makers of the Middle Ages: Papers in Honor of William Calin
Sponsor: Studies in Medievalism and medievally speaking
Organizer: Richard Utz, Western Michigan Univ.
Presider: Clare A. Simmons, Ohio State Univ.
Christine de Pizan as Maker of the Middle Ages
Barbara K. Altmann, Univ. of Oregon
That Grand Period: The Middle Ages of Charles Eliot Norton
Kathleen Verduin, Hope College
B. S. Ingemann and the Danish Middle Ages
Nils Holger Petersen, Københavns Univ.
Calin, the Maker
F. Regina Psaki, Univ. of Oregon

Session 351 (Valley I, 100)
Tolkien and the Medieval Mediterranean
Sponsor: Dept. of Comparative Literature, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
Organizer: Christopher Livanos, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
Presider: Scott A. Mellor, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
Gondor’s Debt to Byzantium
Christopher Livanos
Crossing the Borders: Unconscious in Dante’s Inferno, Tolkien’s The Hobbit,
and Wood and Burchielli’s DMZ
Faith Portier, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
The Presence of the Middle East in The Lord of the Rings
Marryam Abdl-Haleem, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison

Session 359 (Fetzer 1005)
Flaming Bodies in Ken Russell’s The Devils
Sponsor: Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship (SMFS)
Organizer: Lynn Arner, Brock Univ.
Presider: Lynn Arner
Inquisitive Politics, Deviant Bodies: The Trope of Mary Magdalene in Ken
Russell’s The Devils
Nhora Lucía Serrano, California State Univ.–Long Beach
Queering the Medieval Witch: Asmodiai, Grandier, and Ken Russell’s The
Devils
Susannah Mary Chewning, Union County College

Session 363 (Fetzer 1060)
Manuscripts and Editions in the Twenty-First Century
Sponsor: Center for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities
Organizer: Diane Warne Anderson, Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul/Univ. of
Minnesota–Twin Cities
Presider: Diane Warne Anderson
Renovating the Classics: Ninth-Century Corbie and the Modern Classical Text
Bart Huelsenbeck, Cornell Univ.
The Electronic Book of the Head: Creating a Digital Edition of Osler Library
MS 7586
Anna Dysert, McGill Univ.
The Battle of Brunanburh between History and Literature
Keri Wolf, Univ. of California–Davis

Session 364 (Fetzer 2016)
Translating the Medieval
Sponsor: History of Books and Texts Special Interest Group, The English
Association
Organizer: Elaine M. Treharne, Florida State Univ.
Presider: Catherine E. Karkov, Univ. of Leeds
Imaging and Imagining Magna Carta
Andrew Prescott, Univ. of Glasgow
Translating Color: The Middle Ages in Black and White
Siân Echard, Univ. of British Columbia
William Morris, Translation and Illumination
Paul Acker, St. Louis Univ.

Session 370 (Schneider 1135)
Primary Sources at Your Fingertips: Exploring Medieval Austria, Germany, and
Switzerland through Online Digital Resources
Sponsor: Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) and the Society for
Medieval Germanic Studies (SMGS)
Organizer: Matthew Z. Heintzelman, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library
Presider: Glenn Ehrstine, Univ. of Iowa
Medieval Daily Life and Digital Resource Networks
Ingrid Matschinegg, Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen
Neuzeit, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
New Ways to Research and Teaching: Using MHDBDB (The Middle High
German Conceptual Database) as a Tool
Horst P. Pütz, Christian-Albrechts-Univ. zu Kiel, and Klaus M. Schmidt, Univ.
Salzburg
The Digitization and Cataloging of Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts in
German at the Beinecke Library, Yale University
Kristina Stöbener, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
The Magnum legendarium Austriacum: A Digital Edition on the Web
Martin Haltrich, Kommission für Schrift- und Buchwesen des Mittelalters
Zentrum Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Session 376 (Schneider 1225)
Teaching Medieval Narrative and Performance
Sponsor: TEAMS (The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages)
Organizer: Anita Obermeier, Univ. of New Mexico
Presider: Laura Wangerin, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
Representing the Middle Ages in the Today’s Classroom: Teaching History,
Literature, and Analysis through Performance
Jennifer Lynn Jordan, Stony Brook Univ.
“Performing Medieval Narrative Today” Website: Updates and Future
Marilyn Lawrence, New York Univ.
Tiny but Filling Slices: Fitting Medieval Texts into an Overstuffed Literary
Survey
Paul Creamer, East Stroudsburg Univ.
Performing Female Authority in the Digby Mary Magdalene
Kristi J. Castleberry, Univ. of Rochester
Respondent: Evelyn Birge Vitz, New York Univ.

Session 380 (Schneider 1265)
Medievalist Fantasies of Christendom: The Use of the Medieval as Christian
Apologetic in the Literature of the Inklings and Their Contemporaries
Organizer: Cory Lowell Grewell, Thiel College
Presider: Cory Lowell Grewell
The Battle for Middle Earth: Medieval Fantasy of Christendom by a Modern
Apologetic
Morgan Mayreis-Voorhis, Independent Scholar
Double Affirmation: Medieval Chronology, Geography, and Devotion in the
Arthuriad of Charles Williams
Sorina Higgins, Lehigh Carbon Community College
The Polemical Other: Narnian Values and the Complicated Case of Calormen
Emanuelle Burton, Univ. of Chicago
Overcoming the Seven Deadly Sins: Active Spiritual Warriors in The Voyage of
the Dawn Treader
Emily E. Redman, Purdue Univ.

Session 381 (Schneider 1280)
Traveling In and Out of the World of Arthur
Sponsor: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Organizer: Melissa Ridley-Elmes, Carlbrook School
Presider: Melissa Ridley-Elmes
To the Antipodes and Beyond: Marvelous Voyages in Recent French Arthurian
Fiction
Anne N. Bornschein, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Journeying through the Celtic Otherworld to Haudesert and the Green Chapel:
Gawain’s Voyage of Transformation
Orly Mor, Independent Scholar
Translators and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Tour Guides or Traitors?
Andrew Eichel, Univ. of Tennessee–Knoxville
Out from Behind the Round Table: The Sociopolitical Implications of Arthur’s
Travels in The Faerie Queene
Russell L. Keck, Purdue Univ.

Session 383 (Schneider 1325)
Luther in Medieval Context
Organizer: K. Christian McGuire, Augsburg College
Presider: K. Christian McGuire
Singing the Gospel: Vernacular Hymns and Luther’s Doctrine of the Priesthood
of All Believers
Jan Volek, Western Michigan Univ.
How “neues” was the “Lied wir heben an”? Retention, Revision, and Expansion
of Medieval German Spiritual Song in the Early Reformation
Patrice C. Ross, Columbus State Community College
A Musical Response to Luther’s Liturgical Directives by the Court of Ulrich VI
of Wurttemberg
Kathy English, Independent Scholar

Session 393 (Bernhard 157)
Glossing the Past in the Present (A Roundtable)
Organizer: Teresa P. Reed, Jacksonville State Univ.
Presider: Dana M. Oswald, Univ. of Wisconsin–Parkside
A roundtable discussion with Kimberly Bell, Sam Houston State Univ.; Justin Brent,
Presbyterian College; Betsy McCormick, Mount San Antonio College; Christine M.
Neufeld, Eastern Michigan Univ.; and Teresa P. Reed.

Session 396 (Bernhard 208)
Can These Bones Come to Life? Insights from Re-construction, Re-enactment, and
Re-creation
Sponsor: Higgins Armory Museum
Organizer: Kenneth C. Mondschein, Higgins Armory Museum/American
International College
Presider: Kenneth C. Mondschein
Blood on the Boards: Gladiatorial Fighting as Theater on the London Stage
Michael A. Cramer, Baruch College and Graduate Center, CUNY
A Few Leaves Short of a Quire: Is MS I.33 Incomplete?
James F. Hester, Royal Armouries Museum
Insights into Medieval Equitation and Combat Technique from Practical
Experimentation
Theresa Wendland, International Mounted Combat Alliance/Chicago Swordplay
Guild
Insights into Medieval Music from Instrument Reconstruction
Josephine Yannacopoulou, Edinburgh Napier Univ.

12:00 PM

Valley II, Garneau Lounge

Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Business Meeting and Reception

Bernhard 209
Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Business Meeting

1:30 PM

Session 437 (Schneider 1280)
Nineteenth-Century Medievalisms
Sponsor: Studies in Medievalism and medievally speaking
Organizer: Richard Utz, Western Michigan Univ.
Presider: Kathleen Verduin, Hope College
A Tale of Two Medievalisms: Muscular Christianity and the Tour de France
Christine M. Havens, Hawkeye Community College
Recovering a Not so Imaginary Past: Medievalism in Scott’s Harold the
Dauntless
Renée Ward, Wilfred Laurier Univ.
Ancient Mysteries: A Regency Printer Uncovers the Medieval
Clare A. Simmons, Ohio State Univ.
Transatlantic Medievalisms: Julian of Norwich’s XVI Revelations in the East
End and Harvard in the “Hungry ‘40s”
Vickie Larsen, Univ. of Michigan–Flint

Session 442 (Schneider 1340)
How Green Is My Apple? Online Sources, E-Readers, and the Medieval Studies
Classroom (A Workshop)
Sponsor: CARA (Committee on Centers and Regional Associations, Medieval
Academy of America)
Organizer: Thomas Goodmann, Univ. of Miami
Presider: Thomas Goodmann
Pouring Old Wine into New Wineskins: A Practicum on Teaching Medieval
Studies Courses Online
Karen Bollermann, Arizona State Univ.
Going Medieval in the Digital Age
Robin Wharton, Georgia Institute of Technology

Session 443 (Schneider 1345)
Other Knights at King Arthur’s Court
Sponsor: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Organizer: Susann T. Samples, Mount St. Mary’s Univ.
Presider: Susann T. Samples
PAPER 2 OF 4: Repeated Yankees at King Arthur’s Court
Janine P. Traxler, Manchester College

Session 450 (Bernhard 157)
Postmedieval Children’s Chaucer: Adaptations of the Canterbury Tales for Young
Audiences, Text and Image
Organizer: S. Elizabeth Passmore, Univ. of Southern Indiana
Presider: S. Elizabeth Passmore
Adapting the Nun’s Priest’s Tale for Children: Going, Going, Gone?
Susan Yager, Iowa State Univ.
Not Just Kids’ Stuff: Children’s Books and Chaucer’s Accessibility
Natasha Luepke, Univ. of Phoenix/Kaplan Univ.
Chaucer the Cat? Animals Teaching Children in Patricia Borlenghi’s
Adaptation of the Canterbury Tales
Karla Knutson, Concordia College

Session 451 (Bernhard 159)
Teaching about Medieval Disabilities: Texts and Pedagogy (A Roundtable
Discussion)
Sponsor: Society for the Study of Disability in the Middle Ages
Organizer: Joshua R. Eyler, Columbus State Univ.
Presider: Wendy J. Turner, Augusta State Univ.
The Problem of Definition: Strategies for Teaching Medieval Disability Studies
Tory Vandeventer Pearman, Miami Univ. of Ohio
Teaching about Disability in Medieval Survey Courses
Joshua R. Eyler
“. . . hung all over with crutches”: Teaching the Disabled Figure in Anglo-Saxon
Hagiography
John P. Sexton, Bridgewater State Univ.
Your, My, or Our History? Teaching Medieval Disability History to Students
with Disabilities
Alison Purnell, Univ. of York, and Gregory Carrier, Independent Scholar

Session 455 (Bernhard 211)
Early Medieval Europe I
Sponsor: Early Medieval Europe
Organizer: Paul Edward Dutton, Simon Fraser Univ.
Presider: Allen J. Frantzen, Loyola Univ. Chicago
PAPER 1 OF 3: An Introduction to Christianity for Today’s Novices in Medieval History: An
Experiment
Walter Goffart, Yale Univ.

3:30 PM

Session 462 (Valley II, 205)
The Abbey of Saint-Victor II: Richard of Saint-Victor on the Trinity and on Love
Organizer: Grover A. Zinn, Oberlin College
Presider: Franklin T. Harkins, Fordham Univ.
PAPER 2 OF 2: Medieval Love in a Modern World: Richard of Saint-Victor and Ezra Pound
LeeAnn Derdeyn, Univ. of Texas–Dallas

Session 478 (Fetzer 2040)

Twenty-First Century Medievalism: Re-envisioning the Medieval in the

Contemporary World (A Roundtable)

Sponsor: Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture

and the Middle Ages

Presider: Carl James Grindley, Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College

Siegfried the Volk-Song: Examining the Interpretations of Siegfried the Dragon-

Slayer and the Making of a National History

Peter H. Johnsson, San Francisco State Univ.

Analysis of Arthurian Film Reviews

Laurie Rizzo, Univ. of Delaware

Beowulf in the Twenty-First Century

Suanna H. Davis, Houston Community College: Central

I Want to Believe: Finding the Medieval in The X-Files

Rebecca Johnson, Princeton Univ.

Session 481 (Schneider 1135)
Science, Law, and History: Medieval German Didactic Literature
Sponsor: Society for Medieval Germanic Studies (SMGS)
Organizer: Evelyn Meyer, St. Louis Univ., and Alexander Sager, Univ. of Georgia
Presider: Alexander Sager
PAPER 3 OF 3: Medievalism and Reformation: Matthias Flacius Illyricus as Medievalist
Alana King, Princeton Univ.

Session 483 (Schneider 1145)
Romanian Medievalia: Historic Recuperations
Sponsor: Romanian Institute of Orthodox Theology and Spirituality of New York
Organizer: Theodor Damian, Metropolitan College of New York
Presider: Nicholas T. Groves, New Gracanica Monastery
The Poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus: Self Assessment and Moral Formation
Theodor Damian
Medieval Poetry in Romania
Valentia Ciaprazi, La Guardia Community College of New York
Dacian History as Reflected in the European and Romanian Medieval Heritage
Napoleon Savescu, Dacia Revival International Society

Session 493 (Schneider 1280)
Teaching Medievalisms (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Studies in Medievalism and medievally speaking
Organizer: Richard Utz, Western Michigan Univ.
Presider: Richard Utz
A roundtable discussion with Albert Alhadeff, Univ. of Colorado–Boulder; Benjamin
S. W. Barootes, McGill Univ.; Lesley A. Coote, Univ. of Hull; Ilan Mitchell-Smith,
California State Univ.–Long Beach; Megan Morris, Univ. of Rochester; E. Kay
Harris, Univ. of Southern Mississippi; and Lewis Pyenson, Western Michigan Univ.

Session 496 (Schneider 1330)
The Making of History in Medieval Europe and China: Who Lived It, Who Wrote
It, and Who Read It
Organizer: Sherry J. Mou, DePauw Univ.
Presider: Curtis Dean Smith, Grand Valley State Univ.
PAPER 3 OF 3: Nuns and History: The Abbesses of Notre-Dame in Soissons in the Seventeenth
Century
Edward A. Boyden, Nassau Community College

Session 499 (Schneider 1345)
Letters and Legacies: Correspondence in the World of Arthur
Sponsor: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Organizer: Jennifer Boulanger, Southern Methodist Univ.
Presider: Jennifer Boulanger
“To Be of Goode Comforte”: Feminine Fellowship and Communication in
Malory’s Morte Darthur
Michelle Kustarz, Wayne State Univ.
Bad Tidings: Messages and Media in Malory’s Morte Darthur
Elizabeth S. Sklar, Wayne State Univ.
Malory’s Hollywood/Broadway Legacy: Joshua Logan’s Film of Camelot
Martin B. Shichtman, Eastern Michigan Univ.
Tristan’s Victorian Legacies: Tennyson and Swinburne
Thomas J. Hoberg, Northeastern Illinois Univ.

Session 504 (Schneider 2345)
More Than a Medievalist: Teaching the General While Writing the Specific (A
Roundtable)
Organizer: Julie A. Hofmann, Shenandoah Univ.
Presider: Kate McGrath, Central Connecticut State Univ.
A roundtable discussion with Robert Babcock, Hastings College; Evan A. Gatti, Elon
Univ.; Paul Hardwick, Trinity Univ. College, Univ. of Leeds; and Julie A. Hofmann.

Session 506 (Bernhard 157)
Partnering the Middle Ages: Interdisciplinary Contributions to the Teaching of the
Middle Ages (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM)
Organizer: Mickey Sweeney, Dominican Univ.
Presider: Louise Hampson, Univ. of York
A roundtable discussion with David M. Perry, Dominican Univ.; Mickey Sweeney;
Samantha Rayner, Anglia Ruskin Univ.; Andrea R. Harbin, SUNY–Cortland; Aubri
McVey Leung, Indiana Univ.–Bloomington; Toni J. Morris, Univ. of Indianapolis;
and Samantha Meigs, Univ. of Indianapolis.

Session 510 (Bernhard 210)
In Honor of Joan Ferrante II (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Medieval Foremothers Society
Organizer: Helene Scheck, Univ. at Albany, and Elizabeth Robertson, Univ. of
Glasgow
Presider: Helene Scheck
To the Glory of Her Absent Sex: Women and the Issue of the Anonymous Text
Liz Herbert McAvoy, Swansea Univ.
Violence and the Glory of Sex: Rethinking Joan Ferrante and Marie de
France’s Lais
Wendy Marie Hoofnagle, Univ. of Northern Iowa
Teaching Women Writing and Written in Medieval Literature
Celia M. Lewis, Louisiana Tech Univ.
Joan Ferrante and the Online Epistolae Collection
Elizabeth A. Hubble, Univ. of Montana
“Women’s” Letters: The Feminine Voice of Ovid’s Heroides
Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Univ. of Toronto

SUNDAY, MAY 15

8:30 AM

Session 517 (Valley II, 205)
C. S. Lewis: Rediscovering the Discarded Image I
Sponsor: C. S. Lewis Society, Purdue Univ.
Organizer: Crystal Kirgiss, Purdue Univ.
Presider: Erin Kissick, Purdue Univ.
Refurbishing a Discarded Image: C. S. Lewis’s Use of Spenser’s Faerie Queene
in That Hideous Strength
Paul R. Rovang, Edinboro Univ. of Pennsylvania
C. S. Lewis and the Narnian Cosmos: Re-envisioning the Discarded Image
Heather Herrick Jennings, Univ. of California–Davis
“The Discarded Image?” C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield on the Medieval Model
Edwin Woodruff Tait, Huntington Univ.

Session 521 (Valley I, 109)
Skepticism in Early English Drama
Organizer: Joe Ricke, Taylor Univ.
Presider: David Bevington, Univ. of Chicago
PAPER 3 OF 3: “Portrait of the Atheist as a Smart Man”: Shakespeare’s Richard of Gloucester
Joe Ricke

Session 522 (Valley I, Shilling Lounge)
Reading Old and Middle French Aloud (A Workshop)
Organizer: Nathaniel E. Dubin, St. John’s Univ.
Presider: Ellen Lorraine Friedrich, Valdosta State Univ.
A workshop with Nathaniel E. Dubin; William W. Kibler, Univ. of Texas–Austin; and
Daniel E. O’Sullivan, Univ. of Mississippi.

Session 526 (Fetzer 1060)
National Borders and Medieval Spaces
Sponsor: Oregon Medieval English Literature Society (OMELS)
Organizer: Danna Voth, Univ. of Oregon, and Stephen Patrick McCormick, Univ. of
Oregon
Presider: Erik Wade, Univ. of Oregon
PAPER 1 OF 3: Chaucer in Early America: Politics, the Medieval Past, and Crafting an
American Nation
Nancy Bradley Warren, Florida State Univ.

Session 528 (Fetzer 2020)
The Central Issue: What Does the Public Actually Think about the Middle Ages?
Sponsor: Public Understanding of the Middle Ages Society
Organizer: Paul B. Sturtevant, Univ. of Leeds
Presider: Paul B. Sturtevant
The Perceptions of Medieval Heritage among Modern Master Falconers
Leslie Jacoby, San Jose State Univ.
“Viking” North America: The North American Public’s Understanding of Its
Norse Heritage
Megan Arnott, Univ. of Western Ontario
The Quest of Veritas: Liberating History from Popular Myth
Eric Slyter, Knights of Veritas

Session 535 (Schneider 1340)
Resources for Machaut Research and Study (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: International Machaut Society
Organizer: Jennifer Bain, Dalhousie Univ.
Presider: Jared C. Hartt, Oberlin Conservatory of Music
The Works of Guillaume de Machaut: A New Complete Edition
Yolanda Plumley, Univ. of Exeter; R. Barton Palmer, Clemson Univ.; and Anne
Stone, Queens College and Graduate Center, CUNY
Digital Environments for Machaut Studies
Benjamin Albritton, Stanford Univ.
Machaut’s Material Legacy in the Digital World
Deborah McGrady, Univ. of Virginia

Session 537 (Schneider 1350)
Medieval Quest Narratives
Organizer: Robert Stretter, Providence College
Presider: Robert J. Meyer-Lee, Indiana Univ.–South Bend
The Green Mask of God: Joseph Campbell’s Quest Archetype and Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight
Robert Stretter
Anyone’s Romance Quest: The Appeal of Medieval Romance
Paul D. Gaffney, Hiram College
Incarceration, Errantry, and the Quest in Malory’s Morte Darthur
Holly Moyer, Univ. of California–Los Angeles
“Whom does it serve?”: The Grail Quest in Boorman’s Excalibur and Movie
Medievalism
Christian Sheridan, Bridgewater College

Session 539 (Bernhard 105)
Mythical Creatures of the Middle Ages in Modern (European) Culture
Sponsor: Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Mittelalter-Studien (IZMS), Univ. Salzburg
Organizer: Ursula Bieber, Univ. Salzburg
Presider: Ursula Bieber
Medieval Mythmakers: The Representation of the Gigantic on Modern Fiction
and Film
Tina Boyer, Wake Forest Univ.
“Losen er began”: An Examination of the Water Nixie in Nibelungenlied and
Thüring von Ringoltingen’s Melusine as Enduring in the Popular Imaginary
Deva Kemmis Hicks, Georgetown Univ.
Knights and Beasts in Adolf Muschg’s Der Rote Ritter
Günther Rohr, Univ. Koblenz-Landau/Ewha Womans Univ.

10:30 AM

Session 548 (Valley II, 205)
C. S. Lewis: Rediscovering the Discarded Image II
Sponsor: C. S. Lewis Society, Purdue Univ.
Organizer: Crystal Kirgiss, Purdue Univ.
Presider: Jason Lotz, Purdue Univ.
“Use Your Specimens While You Can”: Lewis the Medievalist, Lewis the
Medieval
Jennifer Woodruff Tait, Huntington Univ.
The Intuitive Medievalism of C. S. Lewis
Chris R. Armstrong, Bethel Univ.
Lewis’s Translation of Augustine on the Trinity
Charles Ross, Purdue Univ.

Session 551 (Valley I, Shilling Lounge)
Reading the French of England Aloud: The Prologues Project (A Workshop)
Organizer: Thelma Fenster, Fordham Univ.
Presider: Laurie Postlewate, Barnard College
The Nun of Barking’s Prologue to La Vie d’Edouard le Confesseur
Alice M. Colby-Hall, Cornell Univ.
The Prologue to Saluz et solaz
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Fordham Univ.
The Prologue to Gaimer’s Estoire des Englois
Paul R. Hyams, Cornell Univ.
The Prologue to Robert Grosseteste’s Chasteau d’amour
Maureen Boulton, Univ. of Notre Dame
Two Prologues by “Chardri”: Les sept dormans and La Vie de Josaphaz
Thelma Fenster

Session 553 (Fetzer 1010)
Six Hundred Years of Hoccleve’s Regiment of Princes, or, Does It Just Seem That
Long? II
Organizer: Elon Lang, Washington Univ. in St. Louis, and David Watt, Univ. of
Manitoba
Presider: David Watt
PAPER 1 OF 3: Victim of Circumstance: The Problem with Regiment of Princes Editions and
What We Can Do About It
Elon Lang

Session 563 (Schneider 1280)
Teaching off the Grid: The Promise and Perils of Using Non-canonical Texts in the
Classroom (A Roundtable Discussion)
Organizer: Gina Brandolino, Univ. of Michigan–Ann Arbor, and Nathanial B. Smith,
Central Michigan Univ.
Presider: Nathanial B. Smith
Stimulus Package: Why The Prick of Conscience Belongs in Medieval Survey Courses
Moira Fitzgibbons, Marist College
Foreign Territory: Teaching the Middle Ages through Travel Narratives
Elizabeth A. Williamsen, Kent State Univ.–Stark
Jacking into the Middle Ages: Unfiltered and Uncut
Myra J. Seaman, College of Charleston
Teaching Innocent’s Legacy: Middle English Texts for Commoners
Gina Brandolino
The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry in the Early English Survey: Canonical
Texts as Non-canonical Texts
Adam H. Kitzes, Univ. of North Dakota

Medievalism at NeMLA 2011

2011-05-11T21:56:00.000-04:00

The NeMLA 2011 Convention was held last month at the Hyatt New Brunswick in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from April 7-10, 2011, and included a number of sessions and panels of interest. The complete program (divided by days) can be accessed at: http://www.nemla.org/convention/2011/index.html.

FRIDAY, APRIL 8

4.03 Salon D
Representations of Dante’s Inferno in the Visual Arts and in Literature
Chair: Giovanni Spani, College of the Holy Cross
“Raccontare l’indicibile: echi della Commedia nelle architetture commemorative della Shoah”
Alessandro Ravera, Università di Genova
“Il Danteum di Terragni”
Gianluca Porcile, Università di Genova
“Temporal Conflation & Artistic Representations of Reading and Death in the 19th Century Imaginary”
Alani Hicks-Bartlett, Berkeley University

6.14 Room 248
New Approaches to Early Modern Historical Drama II: Religion & The History Play
Chair: Maura Brady, Le Moyne College
“You Can’t Burn the Koran Onstage: Marlowe’s Tamburlaine Meets the 21st Century”
Emma Perry, Boston College
“The Jewes Tragedy and the Reception of Jewish History in Restoration England”
Vanita Neelakanta, Rider University
“The Weird Sisters’ Nature, from Holinshed’s History to Macbeth’s Mystery”
James Macdonald, Yale University

7.18 Brunswick D
Representations of Disability in Literature and Culture
Chair: Sara Hosey, SUNY Nassau Community College
PAPER 4 OF 4: “Kinship: House M.D. as a Descendant of Richard III?”
Gina M. Altavilla, California State University-San Marcos

8.02 Salon A
Arthurian Avatars: The King Arthur Myth from Medieval to Modern Times
Chair: Joshua Cohen, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
“The Doomed Idealism of Arthurian Legend”
Katherine Foret, Stony Brook University
“The Arthurian Myth as Equalizing Strategy in Postumo Envirginiado”
Nahir Otano, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
“Merlin’s Prophecies Realized: King James I as Avatar of King Arthur”
Margaret Downs-Gamble, United States Military Academy
“‘Out of Measure’: A Study of the Tradition and Evolution of Guinevere”
Evelyn Brown, Miami University

9.11 Conference JK
Renaissance Trauma
Chair: Paul Rosa, SUNY Nassau Community College
PAPER 2 OF 3: "The Critical Mourning of Prince Hamlet and John Donne”
Katherine Hallemeier, Queen’s University

SATURDAY, APRIL 9

11.15 Brunswick A
Neomedievalism
Chair: Daniel Lukes, New York University
“Vilem Flusser: Neo-Medievalism and the Techno-Image”
Christopher Vitale, Pratt Institute
“The Real & Ideal: 19th-Century Neo-Medievalism & Victorian Steampunk”
Tina Kelleher, Towson University
“Wandering Histories: Mrs. Dalloway and Romance”
Hannah Sikorski, Brown University
“The Meaning of Martyrdom in T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral”
Krystyna Michael, City University of New York

13.16 Brunswick B
The Art of Villainy: Machiavelli and the Creation of the Fictional Villain
Chair: John Cameron, Dalhousie University
“Macbeth as Dramatization of an Anti-Machiavellian Polity and Sensibility”
Robert Carballo, Millersville University
“Iago and Anton Chigurh as Machiavellian Villains”
Jim Cody, Brookdale Community College-CUNY
“On the road to villainy or The Villainous Journey”
Zac Brown, East Carolina University
“Machiavel or Machiavelli? Niccolo Machiavelli on the Early Modern Stage”
John Cameron, Dalhousie University

14.10 Salon C
Shakespearean Adaptations and Appropriations (Roundtable)
Chair: Pamela Monaco, Brandman University
“Using the Graphic Novel Version of Hamlet in the English Composition Classroom”
Sharon Brubaker, Drexel University
“Bieber and the Bard: Representations of Shakespeare in Tween Culture”
Louise Geddes, Dominican College
“The Shakespeare Industry in Slings and Arrows”
Beth Seltzer, Temple University
“Playing at Hamlet: The Presniakov Brothers’ Izobrazhaia Zhertvu”
Shari Perkins, City University of New York
“William Shakspeare: Proud American”
Emily Gruber, Boston University
“Technology and Textuality in Contemporary Representations of Hamlet”
Richard Schumaker, University of Maryland-University College

15.04 Conference C
(Re)Teaching the Spanish Classics: Integrating Technology, the Web, and Film (Roundtable)
Chair: Mirta Barrea-Marlys, Monmouth University
PAPER 3 OF 3: “Don Quixote: The Book, The Myth, and The Image in the 21st Century Classroom”
Ryan Prendergast, University of Rochester

Medievalism at ALA 2011

2011-05-11T21:18:00.000-04:00

The 22nd Annual Conference of the American Literature Association will be held later this month at The Westin Copley Place, Boston, Massachusetts, from 26-29 May 2011, and there is one paper of interest. The full program and registration information can be accessed at: http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/ala2/american_literature_assoc_2011.html.

SATURDAY,
Session 18-D Longfellow and Modernity (Essex North East)
Organized by the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Society
Chair: Christoph Irmscher, Indiana University Bloomington
PAPER 3 OF 3. ―Dante‘s Inferno in Dante’s Inferno, or Longfellow Enters the World of Video Games,‖ Joshua S. Matthews, University of Iowa

Medieval Academy CFP 2012 (8/1/11)

2011-05-11T20:54:00.000-04:00

The Medieval Academy has recently issued its CFP for its 2012 meeting be held from 22–24 March 2012, at Saint Louis University (Saint Louis, Missouri). Proposals are due 8/1/11. Panels include the following of interest:

12. The Children’s Crusade: Eight Hundred Year Anniversary
Organizer: Thomas Madden (Saint Louis Univ.)

15. Affect: Medievalisms (The Enduring Role of Affect in Recovery/Reconstruction of the Middle Ages)
Organizer: Frank Grady (Univ. of Missouri, Saint Louis)

23. Medieval Studies in Catholic Universities
Organizer: Paul Acker (Saint Louis Univ.)

The complete CFP can be accessed at: http://www.medievalacademy.org/pdf/Call%20for%20Papers%202012.pdf.

Medievalism in Scottsdale

2011-05-11T20:43:00.000-04:00

The Medieval Academy of America and the Medieval Association of the Pacific held their Joint Annual Meeting 2011 last month at the Chaparral Suites Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona, from 14 – 16 April 2011. Papers of interest included the following session:

43. Medievalism and Periodization
Mohave III
Chair: John Howe, Texas Tech University
Charles Connell, Northern Arizona University
Medievalism as Metahistory: Henry Adams in Mont St. Michel and Chartres
Kevin Poole, Yale University
Academics at the Service of the Regime: Medieval Studies in Franco’s Spain
Shirley Ann Brown, York University
Nazi Neo-Medievalism and the Bayeux Tapestry
D’Arcy J. D. Boulton, University of Notre Dame
Redefining the “Middle Ages” to Include “Early Modernity”:
A Proposal for a More Scientific Approach to Periodization

Friday Sessions for Kalamazoo 2011

2011-05-11T20:30:00.000-04:00

FRIDAY, 13 MAY

10:00 AM

Session 172 (Valley II, 201)
Denis Sauvage and Sixteenth-Century Medievalisms
Organizer: Cristian Bratu, Baylor Univ.
Presider: Rosalie Barrera, Baylor Univ.
Where the Author Is Obviously Depraved: Attitudes to the Author Revealed in
Sauvage’s Annotations
Catherine Emerson, National Univ. of Ireland–Galway
Denis Sauvage’s Dilemma: Textual Purity or “Critical Edition”?
Cristian Bratu
What’s in a Name: Commynes Enters the Canon
Irit Ruth Kleiman, Boston Univ.

Session 176 (Valley II, 207)
Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Sponsor: Institute for Medieval Studies, Univ. of New Mexico
Organizer: Timothy C. Graham, Univ. of New Mexico
Presider: Rolf H. Bremmer, Jr., Univ. Leiden
“That Ancient and Once Familiar Language”: Matthew Parker’s Recollections
of Alfredian English
Emily Butler, John Carroll Univ.
Anglo-Saxon Studies in the English Civil War: Abraham Wheelock’s 1644
Edition of Bede’s Historia and Lambarde’s Archaionomia
Rebecca J. Brackmann, Lincoln Memorial Univ.
Thomas Marshall’s Observationes in versionem Anglo-Saxonicam (1665) and the
Beginnings of Textual Criticism in Early Anglo-Saxon Studies
Kees Dekker, Rijksuniv. Groningen

Session 180 (Valley I, 101)
Medieval Sources for the Modern Popes
Sponsor: St. Mary’s School of Theology, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Organizer: Paul E. Lockey, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Presider: Paul E. Lockey
Saint Anselm of Canterbury in Redemptor hominis
Benjamin J. Brown, Lourdes College
Suffering and the Divine Paideia in the Christian Anthropologies of Saint
Augustine and Pope John Paul II
Matthew W. Halbach, Catholic Univ. of America
Benedict XVI’s Retrieval of the Concept of Revelatio as Found in Saint
Bonaventure’s Collationes in Hexaemeron
James B. Anderson, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston

Session 183 (Valley I, 106)
Hôher êren pflegen: A Session in Honor of Ed Haymes
Sponsor: Society for Medieval Germanic Studies (SMGS)
Organizer: Evelyn Meyer, St. Louis Univ., and Alexander Sager, Univ. of Georgia
Presider: Ray M. Wakefield, Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities
PAPER 3 OF 3: Richard Wagner’s Wieland der Schmied
Danielle Buschinger, Univ. de Picardie-Jules Verne, and Galina Baeva, Sankt
Petersburger Staatliche Univ.

Session 188 (Fetzer 1005)
The Arthur(s) of the Americas
Sponsor: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Organizer: Kevin J. Harty, La Salle Univ.
Presider: Kevin J. Harty
Famous in Song and Story: Arthurian Legends in Canadian Music
Ann F. Howey, Brock Univ.
The Transgressive Tristan: John Updike’s Brazil
Roberta Davidson, Whitman College
Childslayers and Once and Future Kings: Guy Gavriel Kay’s Inversion of
Malory’s Morte Darthur
Kathy Cawsey, Dalhousie Univ.
“National Treasure”: America’s Lost Native Arthurian Past
Susan Aronstein, Univ. of Wyoming

Session 194 (Fetzer 2020)
Lighting the Flame: Teaching Early Drama in the Undergraduate Classroom (A
Roundtable)
Sponsor: Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society (MRDS)
Organizer: Gloria J. Betcher, Iowa State Univ.
Presider: Gloria J. Betcher
“The Burgundians knew how to party!”: Student Engagement with a Primary-
Source-Based Unit on Medieval French, Flemish, and English Performance
Lofton Durham, Western Michigan Univ.
“Can we do this all the time?”: Forming a Medieval Drama Troupe
Elizabeth Ellzey, Shepherd Univ.
What Is Medieval Spanish Drama Anyway?
Lori A. Bernard, SUNY–Geneseo
(Extra)Ordinary Women: Teaching Female Agency in Margery Kempe and the
York Plays
Sheila Christie, Cape Breton Univ.
The Text-Appeal of Medieval Drama for a Texting Generation
Alan Baragona, Virginia Military Institute

Session 207 (Schneider 1255)
Clash of Cultures: Confronting the Other in the Middle Ages
Sponsor: Taiwan Association of Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies
(TACMRS)
Organizer: Denise Ming-yueh Wang, National Chung Cheng Univ.
Presider: Robert E. Bjork, Arizona State Univ.
PAPER 3 OF 3: Why Does Milton Turn His Back on King Arthur?
Hong Shen, Zhejiang Univ.

Session 210 (Schneider 1280)
Scholar as Minstrel: Music and Tolkien
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Keith W. Jensen, William Rainey Harper College
The Harmony of the Worlds and the Horn of Heimdal: Cosmological Music in
Creation and Subcreation
Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ.
The Three Greatest Minstrels in Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Early Thoughts on
Music and Power
Brad Eden, Univ. of California–Santa Barbara
Swann’s Songs: Tolkien’s Clues To Tempo, Tone, and Tune in Middle-earth
Music
John R. Holmes, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville
CSI: Who Killed Cock Robin?
Jennifer Culver, Univ. of Texas–Dallas, and Lynn Payette, Arkansas School for
Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts

Session 213 (Schneider 1330)
The Medieval in Children’s and Young Adult Literature: Classic and Current
Organizer: Meredith Jones Gray, Andrew Univ.
Presider: Meredith Jones Gray
Sacrificing History for Story in Historical Fiction for Young Readers
Rebecca Barnhouse, Youngstown State Univ.
The Enduring Future of the Medieval Quest Narrative: Reading Neal
Stephenson’s The Diamond Age with Nell
Kate Lechler, Florida State Univ.
“Thou art no Christian”: Medievalism and the Suppression of the Jewishness in
Children’s Versions of Ivanhoe
Wendy Love Anderson, Washington Univ. in St. Louis

Session 216 (Schneider 1345)
The Reformation and Medieval Contexts I
Sponsor: Society for Reformation Research
Organizer: Maureen Thum, Univ. of Michigan–Flint
Presider: Brad Gregory, Univ. of Notre Dame
The Investitures Quarrel and the Conversion of Henry IV of France Under the
Pen of Simon Goulart (1543–1628)
Irena Backus, Univ. de Genève
Nicholas Des Gallars, Sieur de Saules, and the Ancient and Medieval Worlds
Jeannine Olson, Rhode Island College
Evangelical Histories of the Roman Church: Novelty, Schism, and Tyranny
Randall Zachman, Univ. of Notre Dame

Session 217 (Schneider 1360)
The Transcultural Middle Ages
Sponsor: postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies
Organizer: Eileen A. Joy, Southern Illinois Univ.–Edwardsville
Presider: Laurie A. Finke, Kenyon College, and Martin B. Shichtman, Eastern
Michigan Univ.
Chaucer, Graunson, and Juan Ruiz’s Libro de buen amor
Lydia Fletcher, Univ. of Oxford
Caxton’s Betweenness: Polyglot Printing and Translingual Mediation
Jonathan Hsy, George Washington Univ.
The Traffic in Monsters: The Scottish Buik of King Alexander and the Malay
Hikayat Iskander Zulkarnain
Su Fang Ng, Univ. of Oklahoma
Neurobiological Alphabets: Foreign Language Systems in Rabanus Maurus,
Boccaccio, and Mandeville
Matthew Boyd Goldie, Rider Univ.
It’s a Poem: A Present Day Use of the Andalusian Muwassaha
Heather Bamford, Univ. of California–Berkeley/College of William and Mary

Session 219 (Schneider 2345)
Low German Medieval Literature: Legends, Drama, Epics, Translations
Organizer: Sibylle Jefferis, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Presider: Sibylle Jefferis
The 1518 Low German Edition of Hieronymus Brunschwig’s Buch der Cirurgia
and Its Terminology
Chiara Benati, Univ. degli Studi di Genova
The Redeemed Wizard: The Figure of Merlin in Der Rheinische Merlin
Francesco Sangriso, Univ. degli Studi di Siena
Auf den Spuren Wielands in der Basilica von San Zeno in Verona
Anna Dalle Mule, Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ. München

Session 229 (Bernhard, Brown & Gold Room)
Medieval Books and Their Early Modern Readers
Sponsor: Early Book Society
Organizer: Martha W. Driver, Pace Univ.
Presider: Derek A. Pearsall, Harvard Univ.
Coming Up Roses: The Religio-political Afterlives of Margery Kempe and
Julian of Norwich in Early Modern England
Amy Scott-Douglass, Marymount Univ.
How Francis Thynne Read His Chaucer
Megan Cook, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Making Chaucer Safe for Early Modern Readers
Stephen D. Powell, Univ. of Guelph
Textual Afterlives: The Transmission of Older Scots Writers to the
Enlightenment
Jeremy J. Smith, Univ. of Glasgow

1:30 PM

Session 232 (Valley II, Garneau Lounge)
Philosophy of Aquinas II: Aquinas and Contemporary Philosophy
Sponsor: Center for Thomistic Studies, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston
Organizer: R. Edward Houser, Center for Thomistic Studies, Univ. of St. Thomas,
Houston
Presider: Mary C. Sommers, Center for Thomistic Studies, Univ. of St. Thomas,
Houston
PAPER 2 OF 3:Love for Animals: Singer and Aquinas
Steve Jensen, Center for Thomistic Studies
PAPER 3 OF 3: Modernity, Tradition, and Society: Thomism and the Early Twentieth Century
in the United States
Markus Faltermeier, Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ. München

Session 234 (Valley I, 100)
Medieval Sermon Studies II
Sponsor: International Medieval Sermon Studies Society
Organizer: Ronald J. Stansbury, Roberts Wesleyan College
Presider: George Ferzoco, Univ. of Bristol
PAPER 3 OF 4: Deserentes Omnia: The Sermons of Bertrand de la Tour and the Franciscan
Ideal of Poverty after John XXII
John Zaleski, Harvard Univ.

Session 237 (Valley I, 105)
Medievalisms in Contemporary Poetry (A Reading and Roundtable)
Organizer: Paul Hardwick, Trinity Univ. College, Univ. of Leeds
Presider: Paul Hardwick
A panel discussion with Jane Beal, Independent Scholar, and Adrienne J. Odasso,
Univ. of York.

Session 242 (Fetzer 1005)
Approaching Six Hundred Years of Joan of Arc, Looking Back (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: International Joan of Arc Society/Société Internationale de l’étude de
Jeanne d’Arc
Organizer: Jane Marie Pinzino, Florida State Univ.
Presider: Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist Univ.
The Legacy of Joan to the English, 1431–1831
Gail Orgelfinger, Univ. of Maryland–Baltimore
Six Hundred Years of British Reactions to Joan
Jeremy duQuesnay Adams, Southern Methodist Univ.
La Pucelle, the “Puzzel,” and La Poncella: Joan of Arc in Early Modern
England and Spain
Nancy Bradley Warren, Florida State Univ.
Joan of Arc in the Field
Kelly DeVries, Loyola Univ. Maryland
Joan of Arc in Life and Death
Larissa Juliet Taylor, Colby College

Session 247 (Fetzer 2016)
Anglo-Saxon Exeter and Its Afterlife: Papers in Honor of Patrick W. Conner
Sponsor: Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript
Research
Organizer: Timothy C. Graham, Univ. of New Mexico
Presider: Paul E. Szarmach, Medieval Academy of America
PAPER 3 0F 3: The Early Modern Afterlife of Exeter’s Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts
Timothy C. Graham

Session 262 (Schneider 1265)
Twenty-First-Century Medievalisms
Presider: Julie Nelson Couch, Texas Tech Univ.
“The Darkness of the Womb”: Allegory and Early Medieval Historiography in
S. M. Stirling’s Emberverse
Alicia McKenzie, Wilfrid Laurier Univ.
Rexiles: A Re-envisionist History of the Kings of Britain
Aaron Long, American Univ.
What is the Impact of Popular “Medieval Films” on the Public’s Understanding
of the Middle Ages? A Sociological Approach
Paul B. Sturtevant, Univ. of Leeds
Concerning the Newfound Popularity of Lionheart’s Acre Massacre in Video
Game Narratives
Carl S. Pyrdum, III, Yale Univ.

Session 263 (Schneider 1275)
Of Weasels, Werewolves, and Women
Sponsor: International Marie de France Society
Organizer: Elizabeth W. Poe, Tulane Univ.
Presider: K. Sarah-Jane Murray, Baylor Univ.
PAPER 3 OF 3: Of Werewolves and Noseless Ladies: Teaching Bisclavret in Translation
Jessica Hooten, Univ. of Mary Hardin-Baylor

Session 264 (Schneider 1280)
Geography, Lands, Environments in Tolkien’s Legendarium
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Brad Eden, Univ. of California–Santa Barbara
“We Have Not Here a Lasting City”: The Undying Lands and the Other
Disappearing Landscapes of Arda
Jeffrey Pinyan, Independent Scholar
The Clay of Cataclysm: Graeco-Roman and Medieval Notions of Adaptation
Present in the Building, Destruction, and Rebuilding of Middle-earth
James R. Vitullo, William Rainey Harper College
Geography’s Grammar: A Stylistic Analysis of Middle-earth
Robin Anne Reid
Concerning Horses: Tolkien and Horses in the Legendarium
Janice M. Bogstad, Univ. of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Session 267 (Schneider 1335)
The Reformation and Medieval Contexts II
Sponsor: Society for Reformation Research
Organizer: Maureen Thum, Univ. of Michigan–Flint
Presider: Carrie Euler, Central Michigan Univ.
Suffering and Penance in Late Medieval and Reformation Pastoral Care
Literature
Ronald Rittgers, Valparaiso Univ.
Tudor-Stuart Deployments of Medieval Notions of the Sacrilege Curse
Michael Kelly, Univ. of Notre Dame
The Place of the Vulgate in Reformation Biblical Scholarship
Bruce Gordon, Yale Univ. Divinity School

Session 269 (Schneider 1345)
Dante II: Dante and Politics: Then and Now
Sponsor: Dante Society of America
Organizer: Christopher Kleinhenz, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
Presider: Melissa Conway, Univ. of California–Riverside
PAPER 3 OF 3: “Lunga promessa con l’attender corto”: Dante in Today’s Italian Politics
Luigi G. Ferri, John Carroll Univ.

Session 274 (Bernhard 105)
Static and Shifting Landscapes in Medieval Literature, Art, and Thought
Sponsor: Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM)
Organizer: Cynthia Z. Valk, Vincennes Univ., and Robert A. Benson, Ball State Univ.
Presider: Susann T. Samples, Mount St. Mary’s College
PAPER 3 OF 3: Jane Austin and the Undead: From the Picturesque to the Moonlit Landscape
Robert A. Benson and Cynthia Z. Valk

Session 276 (Bernhard 159)
Madness, Methodology, Medievalisms (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: BABEL Working Group
Organizer: Eileen A. Joy, Southern Illinois Univ.–Edwardsville
Presider: Eileen A. Joy
What Looks Like Crazy: Margery Kempe and the Meanings of Diagnosis
Mo Pareles, New York Univ.
Transversing Our Soundscapes of Lunacy: Agoraphobia and (Un)Masking
Madness
Elliot A. Jarbe, Univ. of Western Ontario
Madness, Masculinity, and the Feminine Audience in Hoccleve’s Series
Jennifer Little, Graduate Center, CUNY
Ni Wood for Sorow: On (the Necessity of) Being at One’s Wit’s End in The Cloud
of Unknowing
Nicola Masciandaro, Brooklyn College, CUNY
Respondent: Michael G. Sargent, Queen’s College, CUNY

Session 284 (Waldo Library, Meader Room)
NEH Seminar “The Reformation of the Book” (2009) I: Evaluating the Impact on
Teaching and Research (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Special Collections and Rare Book Dept., Waldo Library, Western
Michigan Univ., and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML)
Organizer: Susan M. B. Steuer, Western Michigan Univ., and Matthew Z.
Heintzelman, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library
Presider: James K. Bracken, Kent State Univ.
A roundtable discussion with Matthew Z. Heintzelman; Emily C. Francomano,
Georgetown Univ.; Rabia Gregory, Univ. of Missouri–Columbia; Laura Williamson
Ambrose, St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame; and John Pendergast, Southern Illinois
Univ.–Edwardsville.

3:30 PM

Session 289 (Valley II, 205)
Rhetoric, Authority, and Aesthetics in Medieval Literature
Sponsor: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, St. Louis Univ.
Organizer: Michael Elam, St. Louis Univ.
Presider: Michael Elam
PAPER 2 OF 4: Kant and the Middle Ages
Peggy A. Knapp, Carnegie Mellon Univ.

Session 297 (Valley I, 109)
Recent Historiography on the Franciscan Movement
Sponsor: Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure Univ.
Organizer: Paul Lachance, OFM, Catholic Theological Union
Presider: Paul Lachance, OFM
Poor Francis: The Adventure (and Misadventure) of the Franciscan Movement,
according to Grado Giovanni Merlo
Michael F. Cusato, OFM, Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure Univ.
A Conventional or Unconventional Conventual: Michael Robson’s The
Franciscans in the Middle Ages
Steven J. McMichael, OFM Conv., Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul
Gender and the Narrative(s) of Franciscan History: Reflections on The
Franciscan Story of Maurice Carmody, and Others
Lezlie Knox, Marquette Univ.

Session 299 (Valley I, Shilling Lounge)
Bridges to Infinity
Sponsor: International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies
Organizer: Pozzi Escot, New England Conservatory
Presider: K. Christian McGuire, Augsburg College
PAPER 3 OF 3: Estampie, Virelai, and Rondelet: Medieval Forms in Contemporary Music
Carson Cooman, Harvard Univ.

Session 300 (Fetzer 1005)
Approaching Six Hundred Years of Joan of Arc, Looking Forward (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: International Joan of Arc Society/Société Internationale de l’étude de
Jeanne d’Arc
Organizer: Jane Marie Pinzino, Florida State Univ.
Presider: Nancy Bradley Warren, Florida State Univ.
Extending Our Knowledge of Joan of Arc Sources
Deborah Fraioli, Simmons College
he Maid Marches On: Joan in Modern France and the USA
Nadia Margolis, Mount Holyoke College
The Communion of Saints in a Modern Age and Heroic Virtue in a Time of War
Nora M. Heimann, Catholic Univ. of America
Joan of Arc, the Eucharist, and Martyrdom
Ann W. Astell, Univ. of Notre Dame
The International Joan of Arc Society in 2012
Jane Marie Pinzino
Looking Back and Looking Forward
Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist Univ.

Session 301 (Fetzer 1010)
Dress and Textiles II: Implications and Interpretations
Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics,
and Fashion)
Organizer: Robin Netherton, DISTAFF
Presider: Robin Netherton
PAPER 4 OF 4: To Be or Not to Be Medieval: Costuming Maid Marian for Film and Television
Sherron Lux, Library, San Jacinto College–North Campus

Session 314 (Schneider 1160)
Modern Reception of Medieval Music
Sponsor: Musicology at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Cathy Ann Elias, DePaul Univ.; Linda Page Cummins, Univ. of Alabama;
and Mary E. Wolinski, Western Kentucky Univ.
Presider: Aleksandra Vojcic, Univ. of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Who Knew Hildegard in the 1870s?
Jennifer Bain, Dalhousie Univ.
Concerning Pitch Context and Tonal Order in Ars Nova Polyphony
Kevin N. Moll, East Carolina Univ.
Morales, Josquin, and the L’homme armé Tradition
Joseph Sargent, Univ. of San Francisco

Session 316 (Schneider 1225)
Imagining Pasts and Futures in Medieval Romance II
Sponsor: Medieval Romance Society
Organizer: Rebecca A. Wilcox, West Texas A&M Univ., Wanchen Tai, Centre for
Medieval Studies, Univ. of York, and Nicola McDonald, Centre for
Medieval Studies, Univ. of York
Presider: Nicola McDonald
PAPER 2 OF 3: Did They Anticipate Our Desire for Them?
Brianna Jewell, Univ. of Texas–Austin
PAPER 3 OF 3: Targeting the Medieval in Halo 2
R. Scott Garbacz, Univ. of Texas–Austin

Session 322 (Schneider 1280)
Returning Heroes: Medieval and Modern in Tolkien’s Legendarium
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College
Gandalf’s Sojourn through Purgatory: Medieval and Modern Adventure?
Nicole Andel, Pennsylvania State Univ.
“Well, I’m Back”: Tolkien’s Return Song in Two Part Harmony
Vickie Holtz-Wodzak, Viterbo Univ.
Point of No Return: The Scarred Homecoming in the Writing of J. R. R. Tolkien
Perry Harrison, Abilene Christian Univ.
Making Heroes: The Reception of Returning Soldiers in the Novels of J. R. R.
Tolkien and Virginia Woolf
Margaret Sinex, Western Illinois Univ.

Session 330 (Schneider 2335)
Arthurian Adaptations: Transformation and Interpretation from Text to Film
Sponsor: Arthurian Literature
Organizer: David F. Johnson, Florida State Univ.
Presider: David F. Johnson
Flawless Failure: Guinevere as Warrior-Woman in Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur
Kimberly T. Anderson, DePaul Univ.
Pendragons at the Chopping Block: Elements of Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight in the BBC’s Merlin
Erin Chandler, Univ. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
“Kaamelott”: Revisiting the French Arthurian Tradition
Tara Foster, Northern Michigan Univ.
Post-literary Adaption and Arthurian Film
Kelly E. Hall, Florida State Univ.

Session 332 (Bernhard 105)
Queering the Muse: Medieval Poetry and Contemporary Poetics (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: BABEL Working Group
Organizer: Eileen A. Joy, Southern Illinois Univ.–Edwardsville
Presider: Anna M. Klosowska, Miami Univ. of Ohio
Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan: The Serial, the Field, and the Medieval
Daniel C. Remein, New York Univ.
“Beowulf is a hoax”: Jack Spicer’s Medievalism and Queer Translation
David Hadbawnik, Univ. at Buffalo
Jack Spicer’s Interlinear Death in the Translation of Beowulf
Sean Reynolds, Univ. at Buffalo
Anticipatory Plagiarism and the Ex Post Facto Garde in the Middle Ages
Chris Piuma, Univ. of Toronto
A Basket of Fire: Anne Sexton’s Radical Mysticism
Christopher Roman, Kent State Univ.–Tuscarawas
“Timor mortis conturbat me”: Death, Representational Making, and the Poetics
of the Possible
Katharine W. Jager, Univ. of Houston–Downtown

Session 333 (Bernhard 157)
The Dawn of the Modern Era: Humanism and Early Renaissance in Northern Europe
Sponsor: Fifteenth-Century Studies
Organizer: Mathilde van Dijk, Rijksuniv. Groningen
Presider: Mathilde van Dijk
PAPER 1 OF 3: “King’s Games”: Rhetorical Ethics and Roman Oratory in More’s Richard the Third
Benjamin V. Beier, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison

Session 335 (Bernhard 204)
Teaching Medieval Drama
Sponsor: TEAMS (The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages)
Organizer: Anita Obermeier, Univ. of New Mexico, and Laura Weigert, Rutgers
Univ.
Presider: Laura Weigert
Mankind: The Omnibus Text
Kathleen Ashley, Univ. of Southern Maine
Medieval Drama and Contemporary Dramaturgy: Experiential Learning in the
Twenty-First Century
Edmund B. Lingan, Univ. of Toledo
How to Trust a Medieval Dramatist: The Example of the French Farce
Mario Longtin, Univ. of Western Ontario
Is There a Play in This Book? Editing Lydgate’s Mummings and Entertainments
Claire Sponsler, Univ. of Iowa

Session 336 (Bernhard 208)
Sword in Hand II: Body Mechanics, Weapons Presence, and Purposeful Design in
the Use of the Medieval Longsword (A Demonstration)
Sponsor: Oakeshott Institute
Organizer: Annamaria Kovacs, Independent Scholar
Presider: Annamaria Kovacs
A demonstration with Keith F. Alderson, Oakeshott Institute, and Craig Johnson,
Oakeshott Institute, looking at the role of body mechanics, the weight and balance
of the longsword, and the manifestation of these in production by demonstrating
and discussing the manner in which these weapons were intended to be used. Grips,
stances, blocking, and attacking using the longsword will be shown.

Session 340 (Bernhard, Brown & Gold Room)
In Memory of Charles Muscatine III: Teaching Medieval Literature
Sponsor: Chaucer Review
Organizer: David Raybin, Eastern Illinois Univ., and Susanna Fein, Kent State Univ.
Presider: David Raybin
Bridging the Gap: Chaucer, Medieval Literature, and the Undergraduate
Curriculum
John M. Fyler, Tufts Univ.
The First Published Chaucerian (1665): Richard Brathwait as Frustrated
Pedagogue
Betsy Bowden, Rutgers Univ.–Camden
The Holes in the Miller’s Tale: Who Does What to Which?
Peter G. Beidler, Lehigh Univ., and Grace Hall, Abilene Christian Univ.
Teaching Chaucer at a Minority-Serving Institution
Robert Jacob McDonie, Univ. of Texas, Pan American

Session 341 (Waldo Library, Meader Room)
NEH Seminar “The Reformation of the Book” (2009) II: Research Results
Sponsor: Special Collections and Rare Book Dept., Waldo Library, Western
Michigan Univ., and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML)
Organizer: Susan M. B. Steuer, Western Michigan Univ., and Matthew Z.
Heintzelman, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library
Presider: Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Sisters, Printers, and Pious Little Books
Rabia Gregory, Univ. of Missouri–Columbia
Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great and the Spectacle of Print
John Pendergast, Southern Illinois Univ.–Edwardsville
Keeping up the Scribal Standard in the St. John’s College, Oxford, Copy of
Caxton’s Second Edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Alexander Vaughn Ames, Univ. of South Carolina–Columbia
Travel in Time: The Form of Local Travel and Early English Almanacs
Laura Williamson Ambrose, St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame

5:15 PM

Valley III. Eldridge Lounges
Chaucer Aloud in Honor of Alan Gaylord (A Workshop)
Sponsor: Chaucer Studio
Organizer: Alan Baragona, Virginia Military Institute;
Thomas J. Farrell, Stetson Univ.; Susan
Yager, Iowa State Univ.
Presider: Alan Baragona
Conducted in honor of Alan T. Gaylord, the long-time
organizer of these workshops, the aim of this workshop is
to practice reading Chaucer out loud, with attention given to
matters of pronunciation, scansion, and oral interpretation—
not to mention the pure fun of the poetry! The workshop,
which will run several concurrent small sections, is for
all interested parties (including graduate students) but is
particularly aimed at teachers desiring to brush up on their
classroom delivery. Those interested should pre-register with
Alan Bargona at .

5:45 PM

Fetzer 1055
Medieval Dress/Textile Arts Display and Demonstration
Sponsor: DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and
Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion)
Organizer: Robin Netherton, DISTAFF
Presider: Robin Netherton
A display of reproduction textile and dress items,
handmade using medieval methods and materials. Items
will include textiles, decorative treatments, garments, and
dress accessories. Exhibitors will demonstrate techniques
and be available to discuss the use of historical evidence
in reproducing artifacts of material culture.

7:30 PM

Valley III, Stinson Lounge
Performing Malory’s Morte Darthur: Tales of Sir Gawain (A Readers’ Theater Performance)
Organizer: Leila K. Norako, Univ. of Rochester, and
Michael W. Twomey, Ithaca College
Presider: Leila K. Norako and Michael W. Twomey
A readers’ theater performance with Stephen Atkinson, Park
Univ.: Alison A. Baker, California State Polytechnic Univ.–
Pomona; Kristi J. Castleberry, Univ. of Rochester; Kimberly
Jack, Independent Scholar; Timothy R. Jordan, Kent State
Univ.; John Leland, Salem International Univ.; Maud Burnett
McInerney, Haverford College; Kara L. McShane, Univ. of
Rochester; Meredith Reynolds, Francis Marion Univ.; Rebecca L.
Reynolds, Univ. of Cincinnati; Paul R. Thomas, Brigham Young
Univ.; Katie Lyn Peebles, Marymount Univ.

Fetzer 1005
Film Screening: The Devils (1971)

Fetzer 1010
Tolkien Unbound
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Robin Anne Reid
Maidens of Middle-earth
Eileen Marie Moore, Independent Scholar
The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun
John D. Rateliff, Independent Scholar; Verlyn Flieger, Univ.
of Maryland; and Deidre Dawson, Michigan State Univ.
Music Inspired by the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
Brad Eden, Univ. of California–Santa Barbara
“Where Did Our Ring Go?”: The Motown Tolkien
Mike Foster, Independent Scholar; Merlin DeTardo,
Independent Scholar; Jo Foster, Independent Scholar; and
Amy Amendt-Raduege, Whatcom Community College
a cash bar will be available

Kalamazoo 2011 Thursday Sessions

2011-05-11T00:39:00.000-04:00

The following represents the first set of medievalism-themed and pedagogical-themed sessions for this week's International Congress on Medieval Studies being held from Wednesday through Sunday at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. The complete schedule for the week can be accessed at http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/sessions.html.

THURS., 12 MAY

10:00 AM

Session 7 (Valley II, 204)
In Honor of Jane Chance (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Gergely Nagy, Szegedi Tudományegyetem
A roundtable discussion with Deanne Delmar Evans, Bemidji State Univ.; Edward L.
Risden, St. Norbert College (“Medieval Women, Its Impact on Medieval Studies and
Medievalism”); Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ. (“Mythography and
Middle-earth”); Christopher Vaccaro, Univ. of Vermont (“A Hobbit Hole of One’s
Own: Identity, Gender, and Difference in Middle-earth Studies”); Verlyn Flieger,
Univ. of Maryland; and Joe Ricke, Taylor Univ.

Session 17 (Valley I, 107)
Staging History: The Shakespeare Experience
Sponsor: Shakespeare at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Kirilka Stavreva, Cornell College
Presider: Joseph F. Stephenson, Abilene Christian Univ.
The Welsh Paradox in Shakespeare’s Tudor Adaptation in 1 Henry IV
Jason R. Gildow, Independent Scholar
Shakespeare’s Elizabeth in 3 Henry VI and Richard III: Doting Mother?
Temptress? Witch? “Poor Painted Queen”? Dynasty Maker?
Nancy Hayes, St. Ambrose Univ.
Staging Shakespeare Staging the Middle Ages: Richard III, Richard III, and
Performance
Richard J. Ellman, Univ. of Notre Dame

Session 26 (Fetzer 2016)
The Medievalism of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Novels
Organizer: Carol R. Dover, Georgetown Univ.
Presider: Carol R. Dover
Harry Potter and The Pardoner’s Tale: Medieval Narrative Structure as a Tool
for Teaching Character Lessons to Adolescents
Stephanie M. Anderson, Univ. of Houston
The Deathly Hallows and the Dagda’s Staff
Phillip A. Bernhardt-House, Independent Scholar
Growing Up in the Mead Hall: Literary Roots of Hogwarts’ Great Hall
Hannah Oliver, American Univ.
Genre and the Heroes in Harry Potter
Ushna Vishnuvajjala, American Univ.

Session 30 (Schneider 1220)
Merlin: (Forms of) Discourse
Sponsor: Société Internationale des Amis de Merlin
Organizer: Anne Berthelot, Univ. of Connecticut
Presider: Florence Marsal, Univ. of Connecticut
PAPER 4 OF 4:Closeting Magic: A Look at BBC’s Merlin
Christina Francis, Bloomsburg Univ. of Pennsylvania

Session 36 (Schneider 2345)
Teaching Medieval Studies in the Increasingly Secular Classroom (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: TEAMS (The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages)
Organizer: Benjamin Ambler, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan Univ., and Anita
Obermeier, Univ. of New Mexico
Presider: Timothy C. Graham, Univ. of New Mexico
A roundtable discussion with John R. Black, Moravian College; Thomas N. Hall,
Univ. of Notre Dame; Anne F. Harris, DePauw Univ.; Henry Ansgar Kelly, Univ. of
California–Los Angeles; and Jan Volek, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan Univ.

1:30 PM

Session 51 (Valley II, 201)
Medieval Studies in the Middle and Secondary School Curriculum (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: NEH Summer Seminar on the Isle of Man: Crossroads of Medieval
Cultures and Languages
Organizer: Clinton Atchley, Henderson State Univ.
Presider: Clinton Atchley
A roundtable discussion with Sheryl Craig, National Endowment for the Humanities
Seminar Participant; Alan Hickerson, Athens Academy; Kathryn E. Pokalo,
Conestoga High School; Laurel Wing Schooler, Madison Central High School;
Elizabeth Humphrey, Staples High School; and Earl D. Brogan, Finlandia Univ.

Session 64 (Valley I, 107)
Shakespeare’s Middle Ages
Sponsor: Shakespeare at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Kirilka Stavreva, Cornell College
Presider: Carole Levin, Univ. of Nebraska–Lincoln
Historical Retelling and the Rhetoric of Sovereignty in 2 and 3 Henry VI
Kavita Mudan, Univ. of Oxford
“Jesu, The Days That We Have Seen”: Justice Shallow as Historian in 2 Henry IV
Nora L. Corrigan, Mississippi Univ. for Women
“A woman clad in armor chaseth them”: Gloriana, La Pucelle, and the Myth of
the Monstrous Woman
Dianne Berg, Clark Univ.
Echoing Boethius in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Linda Shenk, Iowa State Univ.

Session 69 (Fetzer 1010)
Seducing the Students through Neo-medievalism (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Medieval Electronic Multimedia Organization (MEMO)
Organizer: Lauryn S. Mayer, Washington and Jefferson College
Presider: Lauryn S. Mayer
A roundtable discussion with Pamela Clements, Siena College; Keith Russo, Western
Michigan Univ.; Robin Michelle Blanchard, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan
Univ.; Jason P. Pitruzzello, Univ. of Houston; and Carol L. Robinson, Kent State
Univ.–Trumbull.

Session 73 (Fetzer 2016)
Languages in Tolkien’s Legendarium
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Benjamin S. W. Barootes, McGill Univ.
The Pleasure and the Poetics of Translating Old Norse
Mary Faraci, Florida Atlantic Univ.
The Origins of the Name “Thrihyrne” in The Lord of the Rings in Relation to
the Icelandic Sagas
Tsukusu Jinn Itó, Shinshu Daigaku
Dunlendish and Sindarin: Tolkien’s Diptych of British-Welsh
Yoko Hemmi, Keio Univ.

Session 81 (Schneider 1325)
Brainstorming Early Drama: Cognitive Approaches
Sponsor: Comparative Drama
Organizer: Eve Salisbury, Western Michigan Univ.
Presider: Anthony Ellis, Western Michigan Univ.
PAPER 1 OF 3: Cognitive Theory, Medievalism, and Evangelical Dramaturgy
Jill Stevenson, Marymount Manhattan College

Session 87 (Bernhard 204)
Music Education and Pedagogy
Sponsor: Musicology at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Cathy Ann Elias, DePaul Univ.; Linda Page Cummins, Univ. of Alabama;
and Mary E. Wolinski, Western Kentucky Univ.
Presider: Linda Page Cummins
The Monochord in the Medieval Classroom
Kate McWilliams, Independent Scholar
The Monochord in the Modern Classroom
Russell E. Murray, Jr., Univ. of Delaware
Conceptualizing Medieval Repertoire in a Twenty-First-Century Classroom
Aleksandra Vojcic, Univ. of Michigan–Ann Arbor

3:30 PM

Session 98 (Valley II, 201)
Teaching Medieval Studies at a Regional Campus (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Medieval Studies, Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ.–Fort Wayne
Organizer: Damian Fleming, Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ.–Fort Wayne
Presider: Damian Fleming
Sex and Cake (and Other Ways to Engage Students with Medieval Literature)
Annalisa Castaldo, Widener Univ.
“Fro Wo to Wele, and After Out of Ioye”: Engaging Multi-Level Students in the
Middle Ages
Diana Vecchio, Widener Univ.
From Border to Center: Taking Medieval Studies at a Regional Campus to the
National Stage
Matthew V. Desing, Univ. of Texas–El Paso
Teaching Medieval Literature
Mikee Delony, Abilene Christian Univ.
Teaching Medieval History at a Regional Institution
Suzanne LaVere, Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ.–Fort Wayne
Teaching Medieval Latin at the Regional University
Rebecca Stephenson, Univ. of Louisiana–Monroe

Session 100 (Valley II, 203)
Teaching Medieval Exegesis (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Society for the Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (SSBMA)
Organizer: Paul Hilliard, Univ. of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary
Presider: Devorah Schoenfeld, Loyola Univ. Chicago
A roundtable discussion with Karen M. Kletter, Methodist Univ.; Jane Beal,
Independent Scholar; and Frans van Liere, Calvin College.

Session 111 (Valley I, 107)
Hamlet: Pre-texts, Texts, and After-Texts
Sponsor: Shakespeare at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Kirilka Stavreva, Cornell College
Presider: Kirilka Stavreva
Q1 and the Icelandic Trickster
Ian Felce, Univ. of Cambridge
Leaving Denmark for Rome: Hamlet’s Early International Lives
Russ Leo, Princeton Univ.
“What warlike noise is this?” The Significance of Rumors of War in
Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Richard II
Jonathan Snyder, Abilene Christian Univ.
Reviving Ophelia: Margaret Clarke’s and Jean Bett’s Feminist Inflections
Anna Riehl Bertolet, Auburn Univ.

Session 116 (Fetzer 1010)
Fantastic Histories
Sponsor: Medieval Electronic Multimedia Organization (MEMO)
Organizer: Lauryn S. Mayer, Washington and Jefferson College
Presider: Lauryn S. Mayer
The Science of Digital Magic: Curing the Plague in Baldur’s Gate and
Neverwinter Nights
Matthew M. Feehley, Youngstown State Univ.
The Mechano-Medieval versus Industrial Apocalypse in World of Warcraft
N. M. Heckel, American Military Univ.
Templars and Transnational Corporations: Dreaming the Third Crusade in
Assassin’s Creed
Harry J. Brown, Depauw Univ.
Revisiting th Great World of Warcraft Kerfuffle of 2006: Space Goats,
Outlandish History, and Narrative Authority in Contemporary Neomedievalist
Productions
Kevin A. Moberly, Old Dominion Univ., and Brent A. Moberly, Indiana Univ.–
Bloomington
Gentlemen of the Road: Fantastic History in Progress
Pamela Clements, Siena College

Session 120 (Fetzer 2016)
Romantic Nationalism in Tolkien’s Legendarium
Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
Presider: Douglas Anderson, Independent Scholar
Herder, Hiawatha, Húrin, and Hobbits: Teaching Tolkien as a Romantic
Nationalist
John William Houghton, Hill School
Kipling, Tolkien, and Romantic Anglo-Saxonism
Dimitra Fimi, Univ. of Wales Institute, Cardiff
Macpherson and Tolkien: A Tale of Two Legendariums
John D. Rateliff, Independent Scholar
Rhetoric of the Rings: J.R R. Tolkien’s Allegories of Reading
Craig Franson, La Salle Univ.

Session 127 (Schneider 1280)
Modern Translations and Re-translations of Medieval Literature
Sponsor: International Courtly Literature Society, North American Branch
Organizer: Maureen Boulton, Univ. of Notre Dame
Presider: Maureen Boulton
“Gay Knights” and Cross-Dressers: The Untranslated Episodes in Ulrich von
Liechtenstein’s Frauendienst
James L. Frankki, Sam Houston State Univ.
Meditative Reframing: Chardri’s Vie des Sept Dormanz and Twain’s Innocents
Abroad
Abbey C. von Gohren, Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities/Univ. de Paris IV–
Sorbonne
Translating the Duel: Honor to the Victor!
Raymond J. Cormier, Longwood Univ.

Session 136 (Bernhard 210)
The Crusades in Film
Sponsor: Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM)
Organizer: Nickolas Haydock, Univ. de Puerto Rico–Mayagüez
Presider: Nickolas Haydock
He Wears the Mask that Grins and Lies: Baldwin IV in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom
of Heaven
Angel Matos Caro, Univ. de Puerto Rico–Mayagüez
Changing Rooms: The Glam, Sack Cloth, and Iron Clothing of Fashionable
Film Medievalism
Yalitza Y. Santos, Univ. de Puerto Rico–Mayagüez
Soldier of God: The Crisis of Faith
Stephania Uwakweh, Univ. de Puerto Rico–Mayagüez
Christianity, Templars, and the Crusades in Assassin’s Creed and Kingdom of
Heaven
Wilmarie Cruz Franceschi, Univ. de Puerto Rico–Mayagüez

Session 139 (Bernhard 213)
The Re-invention of Medieval Texts
Sponsor: Italians and Italianists at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Jelena Todorovic, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison
Presider: Jelena Todorovic
Restorations and Distinctiones in Monte Andrea’s Rime
Beatrice Arduini, Tulane Univ.
Bidart Reads Dante: Contemporary Reception of the Vita nuova
Lisa Ampleman, Univ. of Cincinnati
Re-inventing and Re-mediating Dante: From the Commedia to Video Games
and Back
Marina Della Putta Johnston, Univ. of Pennsylvania

7:30 PM

Film Screening (Fetzer 1005): The Mighty (1998)

Session 142 (Valley II, 200)
A Tale of Two Edwards: A Roundtable Commemorating the Publication of the Yale
Biographies of Edward II and Edward III
Sponsor: Society of the White Hart
Organizer: Mark Arvanigian, California State Univ.–Fresno
Presider: Mark Arvanigian
A roundtable discussion with Jeffrey Hamilton, Baylor Univ.; Seymour Phillips,
Univ. College Dublin; Michael Bennett, Univ. of Tasmania; Joel T. Rosenthal, Stony
Brook Univ.; and Ralph Griffiths, Swansea Univ.

Session 143 (Valley II, 207)
Women in the Academy: The Past, Present, and Future of Female Scholars in
Medieval Studies (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Medieval Academy Graduate Student Committee
Organizer: Karrie Fuller, Univ. of Notre Dame
Presider: Karrie Fuller
A roundtable discussion with Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist Univ.; Dyan
Elliott, Northwestern Univ.; Danielle Joyner, Univ. of Notre Dame; Barbara
Newman, Northwestern Univ.; and Ruth Mazo Karras, Univ. of Minnesota–Twin
Cities.

Session 144 (Valley I, 105)
Readers’ Theater Performance of the Digby Conversion of Saint Paul (followed by a
Roundtable Discussion)
Sponsor: Chaucer Studio
Organizer: Warren Edminster, Murray State Univ.
Presider: Warren Edminster
A readers’ theater performance with Thomas J. Farrell, Stetson Univ.; Alan
Baragona, Virginia Military Institute; Gloria J. Betcher, Iowa State Univ.; D. Thomas
Hanks, Jr., Baylor Univ.; Susan Yager, Iowa State Univ.; Joe Ricke, Taylor Univ.;
Justin Brent, Presbyterian College; Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby, Shenandoah Univ.;
and Patricia H. Ward, College of Charleston.

Session 145 (Valley I, 107)
Reader’s Theater Performance of Paul Menzer’s Shakespeare on Ice
Sponsor: Shakespeare at Kalamazoo
Organizer: Kirilka Stavreva, Cornell College
Presider: Kirilka Stavreva
A reader’s theater performance of Shakespeare on Ice by Paul Menzer, Mary
Baldwin College.

Session 148 (Fetzer 1055)
Festive Video Game Workshop
Sponsor: Medieval Electronic Multimedia Organization (MEMO)
Organizer: Lauryn S. Mayer, Washington and Jefferson College
Presider: Lauryn S. Mayer
Neomedieval Linux: Open Source/Free Software Medievalist Video Games
Carol L. Robinson, Kent State Univ.–Trumbull
A Narrative of One’s Own: Finding a Spot for Player Heroes in Tolkien’s Lord
of the Rings
N. M. Heckel, American Military Univ.
What if the Middle Ages Never Ended? Or Ended Early? The Middle Ages
as a Springboard for Renaissance Imperialism and Religious War in Europa
Universalis III
Jason P. Pitruzzello, Univ. of Houston
Digital Magic
Matthew M. Feehley, Youngstown State Univ.
So That We May Experience Them: The Cultural and Educational Value of
Medieval Video Games
Robin Michelle Blanchard, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan Univ.
Assessing Student-Created Games
Lesley A. Coote, Univ. of Hull
Playing Around with the Neomedieval
Pamela Clements, Siena College

Session 150 (Fetzer 2020)
The Pearl-Poems: Manuscripts, Editions, Translations
Sponsor: Pearl-Poet Society
Organizer: Travis W. Johnson, Univ. of Iowa
Presider: Katherine Gubbels, Univ. of Iowa
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Lost and Found in Translation
Florence Newman, Towson Univ.
Editing the Pearl-Poems With High Quality Digital Manuscript Images
Murray McGillivray, Univ. of Calgary, and Kenna L. Olsen, Mount Royal Univ.
The Significance of “Oyster”: Transcription Anomaly, Critical Nexus, and the
Use of Digital Facsimile in the Study of Cotton Nero A.x.
Lisa Horton, Western Michigan Univ.

Session 158 (Schneider 1325)
The Rhetoric of Knighthood
Organizer: Stephanie Ebersohl, Univ. of Illinois–Springfield, and Elizabeth Thai,
Univ. of Illinois–Springfield
Presider: Julie Perino, Univ. of Illinois–Springfield
PAPER 3 OF 3: Knighthood Continued: The Endurance of the Chivalric in Early Stuart England
Geoffrey B. Elliot, Technical Career Institutes, New York City

Session 161 (Bernhard 105)
The Cid: National Hero of Spain
Sponsor: Texas Medieval Association (TEMA)
Organizer: Paul E. Larson, Baylor Univ.
Presider: Carlos Hawley Colon, North Dakota State Univ.
Chaucer and El Cid: The Petrus Alfonsi Connection
White d’Andra, Texas A&M Univ.–Commerce
The Cid, Franco, and Charleton Heston: Using a Medieval Hero to Fight the
Cold War
Paul E. Larson
La religiosidad: Tinte propagandista en el Poema de mio Cid
Jaime Leanos, Univ. of Nevada–Reno

Medievalism at PCA/ACA

2011-05-10T18:51:00.003-04:00

There were a number of medievalism-themed sessions at last month's Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture & American Culture Association and the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture & American Culture Association held in San Antonio, Texas, from 4/20-23/11. Unfortunately, I cannot copy and paste from the PDF version of the program to list these sessions. The complete program can be accessed at http://pcaaca.org/conference/conf_program.php. Many of the sessions are listed under the Medieval Popular Culture Area.

CFP Treatment of Medieval Poetry in the Modern World (5/31/11; SAMLA Nov. 4-6, 2011)

2011-05-09T21:43:00.000-04:00

Treatment of Medieval Poetry in the Modern World (SAMLA Nov. 4-6, 2011)
full name / name of organization:
Carola Mattord / Kennesaw State University
contact email:
cmattord@kennesaw.edu

In the wake of Peter Ackroyd’s prose translation of The Canterbury Tales, Dante’s Inferno video game, and Baba Brinkman’s The Rap Canterbury Tales, this session will explore the various treatments of medieval poetry in the modern world and/or the value (or cause for concern) that these treatments, whether visual, textual, audio, etc., bring to producing access for a wider modern audience. Perspectives or reflections on various treatments of medieval poetry in the university classroom setting are also welcome. Please send 250-word proposal by May 30, 2011.

CFP All Your History Are Belong to Us: The Middle Ages, Medievalism, and Digital Gaming (Collection)

2011-05-09T21:19:00.000-04:00

All Your History Are Belong to Us: The Middle Ages, Medievalism, and Digital Gaming

CFP: All Your History Are Belong to Us: The Middle Ages, Medievalism, and Digital Gaming

The Middle Ages remains a vibrant presence in contemporary culture, and while cinematic medievalism has been intensively investigated in the last decade, digital gaming has received relatively little attention despite its widespread cultural impact. For example, the video game market now grosses more domestically than Hollywood, and World of Warcraft boasts more than 12 million monthly paying subscribers (25 million total units). Gaming theory too has seen its share of innovation, and digital technologies are now a regular feature of higher education and cultural studies. Medievalism, in its various guises, has also been the subject of intense scrutiny in anthologies by Anke Bernau and Bettina Bildhauer, Medieval Film (2009); Karl Fugelso, Memory and Medievalism (2007); and David Marshall, Mass Market Medieval Essays on the Middle Ages in Popular Culture (2007). Further, the turn toward speculative medievalisms, object-oriented philosophy, and Actor-Network Theory has initiated new methodologies, raised new questions, and offered new possibilities for understanding actor-actant networks and overcoming the subject-object distinction, all of which enrich our understanding of digital and historical realities and problematize traditional understandings of subjectivity, temporality, and textuality.

A few of the more popular medievally-inflected gaming titles (and series) include:

• Age of Empires: Age of Kings
• Diablo
• MediEvil
• Arthur: Quest for Excalibur
• Dragon Age
• Medieval Total War
• Assassin's Creed
• Dungeon Siege
• Morrowind
• Baldur's Gate
• Dynasty Warriors
• Oblivion
• Beowulf
• Elder Scrolls
• Sims Medieval
• Civilization
• Fable
• Shogun Total War
• Dante's Inferno
• Jeanne d'Arc
• Stronghold
• Dark Age of Camelot
• Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader
• Warcraft & World of Warcraft

I am soliciting 500 word proposals for a volume dealing with the Middle Ages, medievalism, and contemporary digital gaming, broadly defined. Some possibilities include:

• Gaming and medieval texts; medieval texts and digital textualities
• Gaming genres (Sword and sorcery/fantasy games, etc.), game types (MMORPG, FPS, RPG, RTS, stealth, survival/horror, etc.), single-player/cooperative/multiplayer games
• Gaming, speculative medievalisms, and counterfactual history
• Gaming, secret societies, arcane religions, and the 'templarization' of history (Dead Space, Mass Effect, and others)
• Gaming, digital sociologies, and electronic epistemologies
• Gaming, object-oriented philosophy, complexity, and Actor-Network Theory
• Gaming, digital communities, and electronic subjectivities
• Gaming, gender, sexuality, class, age; trans-developmental and trans-temporal subjectivities
• Gaming and race and nation; digital orientalism and postcolonialism; space-based societies
• Gaming and cross-platform media (games and/as film tie-ins)
• Gaming and pedagogy
• Gaming, discursive/symbolic violence, and ethics
• Gaming, social simulations, LARPing and LARPers (Live-Action Role Playing & Players)
• Gaming and cheats, glitches, hacks, mods
• Gaming, the academy, medievalism, and generational divides.

Please send your proposals (and any questions) to Dan Kline, University of Alaska, Department of English, 3211 Providence Drive, ADM 101-H, Anchorage, AK 99508 at afdtk@uaa.alaska.edu by May 1, 2011.

Please cross-post freely

CFP Battle of Agincourt Collection (no date)

2011-05-09T21:16:00.002-04:00

Battle of Agincourt
full name / name of organization:
Tad Tuleja/Independent
contact email:
tftuleja@yahoo.com

For a book marking the 600th anniversary of the battle of Agincourt (1415), I am seeking essays providing novel, interdisciplinary perspectives on this pivotal event in European history. I welcome chapter ideas from scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and cultural studies. Please send queries or brief abstracts to tftuleja@yahoo.com.

CFP: Recasting the Past: Early Modern to Postmodern Medievalisms Conference (Proposals by 5/13/11)

2011-05-09T20:41:00.001-04:00

http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/41032

[UPDATE] Recasting the Past: Early Modern to Postmodern Medievalisms 7-8 September 2011

Recasting the Past: Early Modern to Postmodern Medievalisms

A Conference supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) at the University of Exeter

7-8 September 2011

In 1649, the radical Digger movement called on the people of England to ‘throw down that Norman yoke’; in 1849, at the launch of the periodical the Anglo-Saxon, its British readers were addressed as ‘Anglo-Saxons all’; and in 2009, a cover story for Harpers magazine accused American soldiers in Afghanistan of acting ‘exactly like the crusaders of 1096’.
This AHRC-supported conference will draw together research examining how, from the Renaissance to the present, historical narratives about Britain’s ‘medieval’ past have been drawn on to foster communal identities; to fuel, legitimate or oppose social and political change; and to resist or moderate the forces of modernity. Confirmed speakers include Rosemary Hill, author of God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (2007) and Bruce Holsinger, author of The Premodern Condition: Medievalism and the Making of Theory (2005).
Proposals for individual papers of 20 minutes or 3-paper panels are invited. Possible topics might include:

• The formation of regional and national identities
• The politics of Pre-Raphaelitism
• Gothic architecture
• The reception of historical medieval figures – King Alfred, Richard III, the Black Prince, etc
• The social/political agendas of translation and editing projects
• The uses of chivalry, monasticism, feudalism, etc in post-medieval thought and praxis
• The establishment of medieval-inspired institutions and associations
• The social uses of King Arthur, Robin Hood and other medieval myths/legends/folklore

Please send proposals of 200-300 words to Dr Joanne Parker, Dr Philip Schwyzer, and Dr Corinna Wagner at medievalisms@exeter.ac.uk by Friday, 13 May 2011. We will notify delegates of their acceptance by 29 May.

Each year the AHRC provides funding from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. Only applications of the highest quality are funded and the range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. For further information on the
AHRC, please go to: www.ahrc.ac.uk.

Medievalism in the Latest Number of Mythlore

2011-05-08T23:50:00.000-04:00

The latest issue of Mythlore 29.3-4 (Spring/Summer 2011) was mailed to subscribers this week and includes a number of essays exploring the influence of medieval literature on the writings of both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Full details at the Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Legend Area Blog.

Comics Get Medieval 2012 Call for Papers

2011-05-08T02:06:00.000-04:00

The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages is pleased to announce our sponsorship of sessions under the theme of "The Comics Get Medieval 2012: A Celebration of Medieval-Themed Comics in Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of Prince Valiant" for the 2012 Joint Meeting of the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association to be held in Boston, Massachusetts, from 4-7 April 2012.

Complete details can be accessed at The Medieval Comics Project Blog at http://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/2011/05/comics-get-medieval-2012-call-for.html.

Studies in Medievalism Vol. 20

2011-04-27T22:25:00.000-04:00

Coming soon from D. S. Brewer:

Studies in Medievalism XX
Defining Neomedievalism(s) II
Edited by Karl Fugelso

First Published: 16 Jun 2011
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843842675
Pages: 212
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Studies in Medievalism
Subject: Modern Literature
$90.00

Following on from previous issues, this volume continues to explore definitions of neomedievalism and its relationship to traditional medievalism. In four essays that open the volume, Harry Brown, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, David W. Marshall, and Nils Holger Petersen underscore the elusive nature of distinctions between the two fields, particularly when assessing contemporary film, music, and electronic media. Seven articles then test the need for these distinctions, on subject matter ranging from Sir Walter Scott as a historian; M. E. Braddon's gendered medievalism; friendship models in Mary Elizabeth Haweis's Chaucer for Children; Jorge Luis Borges's Northern interests; medieval practices in Ellis Peters's Cadfael novels; innovative exhibits at the Museum of Wolframs-Eschenbach; and Celtic patterns in modern tattoos. Theory and practice are thus juxtaposed once again in a volume that is certain to fuel a central debate in not one but two of the fastest growing areas of academia.

Contributors: Harry Brown, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, David W. Marshall, Nils Holger Petersen, Mark B. Spencer, Megan L. Morris, Karla Knutson, Vladimir Brljak, Alan T. Gaylord, Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand, Maggie M. Williams

Contents

1 Editorial Note
2 Baphomet Incorporated, A Case Study in Neomedievalism
3 [Re]producing [Neo]medievalism
4 Neomedievalism, Identification, and the Haze of Medievalisms
5 Medieval Resurfacings, Old and New
6 Quentin Durward and Louis XI: Sir Walter Scott as Historian
7 Chivalric Terrors: The Gendered Perils of Medievalism in M. E. Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret
8 "Lessons Fairer than Flowers": Mary Elizabeth Haweis's Chaucer for Children and Models of Friendship
9 Borges and the North
10 O Rare Ellis Peters: Two Rules for Medieval Murder
11 Performing Medieval Literature and/as History: The Museum of Wolframs-Eschenbach
12 Celtic Tattoos: Ancient, Medieval, and Postmodern
13 Notes on Contributors

A Companion to Medieval Popular Romance--Now in Paperback

2011-04-27T22:18:00.000-04:00

Forthcoming in paperback from D. S. Brewer:

A Companion to Medieval Popular Romance
Edited by Raluca L. Radulescu and Cory James Rushton

First Published: 16 Jun 2011
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843842705
Pages: 224
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Paperback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Studies in Medieval Romance
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
$29.95

First Published: 20 Aug 2009
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843841920
Pages: 224
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Studies in Medieval Romance
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
$90.00

Popular romance was one of the most wide-spread forms of literature in the middle ages, yet despite its cultural centrality, and its fundamental importance for later literary developments, the genre has defied precise definition, its subject matter ranging from tales of chivalric adventure, to saintly women, and monsters who become human. The essays in this collection seek to provide an inclusive and thorough examination of romance. They provide contexts, definitions, and explanations for the genre, particularly in, but not limited to, an English context. Topics covered include genre and literary classification; race and ethnicity; gender; orality and performance; the romance and young readers; metre and form; printing culture; and reception.

CONTRIBUTORS: ROSALIND FIELD, RALUCA L. RADULESCU, MALDWYN MILLS, GILLIAN ROGERS, JENNIFER FELLOWS, THOMAS H. CROFTS, ROBERT ALLEN ROUSE, JOANNE CHARBONNEAU, DESIREE CROMWELL, AD PUTTER, KARL REICHL, PHILLIPA HARDMAN, CORY JAMES RUSHTON

Contents

1 Introduction
2 Popular Romance: The Material and the Problems
3 Genre and Classification
4 The Manuscripts of Popular Romance
5 Printed Romance in the Sixteenth Century
6 Middle English Popular Romance and National Identity
7 Gender and Identity in the Popular Romance
8 The Metres and Stanza Forms of Popular Romance
9 Orality and Performance
10 Popular Romances and Young Readers
11 Modern and Academic Reception of the Popular Romance
12 Bibliography

Margaret Rogerson's The York Mystery Plays: Performance in the City

2011-04-27T22:08:00.000-04:00

New (appropriately) from York Medieval Press:

The York Mystery Plays: Performance in the City
Edited by Margaret Rogerson

First Published: 21 Apr 2011
13 Digit ISBN: 9781903153352
Pages: 266
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: York Medieval Press
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
$90.00

This volume provides a wealth of new insights into the performance of mystery plays in medieval York and their modern revival. It utilises both academic study, and the practical experience of those who now produce the cycle within York itself on wagons in the street, in an approximation of their original performance. A number of topics are covered. The manuscript is linked to Richard III; the Masons are introduced as non-guildsmen in an enterprise assumed to be guild-specific; families, not just male heads of households, are shown to be important to the dramatic narrative; and cognitive theory elucidates performance past and present. Recent productions are discussed in lively detail by those directly responsible for them, leading to analyses of performances in Israel, Spain, and Australia, not all of them of a predictable kind, which offer further angles on the medieval dramatic tradition.

Professor Margaret Rogerson teaches in the Department of English at the University of Sydney.

Contributors: Margaret Rogerson, Keith Jones, Richard Beadle, Sheila K. Christie, Mike Tyler, Jill Stevenson, Elenid Davies, Ben Pugh, Peter Brown, Tony Wright, Steve Bielby, Emma Cunningham, Alan Heaven, Linda Ali, Paul Toy, Gweno Williams, John Merrylees, David Richmond, Alexandra F. Johnston, Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, Pamela M. King

Contents

1 Introduction: Performance in the City
2 Foreword: The Mystery Plays and the Community
3 Nicholas Lancaster, Richard of Gloucester, and the York Corpus Christi Play
4 Bridging the Jurisdictional Divide: The Masons and the York Corpus Christi Play
5 Group Dynamics: The Noah Family in the York Pageant of The Flood
6 Embodied Enchantments: Cognitive Theory and the York Mystery Plays
7 Performing Mystery Plays in twenty-first-century York: Practicalities of Modern Production: Setting the Groundwork
8 Performing Mystery Plays in twenty-first-century York: The Pageant Master's Overview
9 The York Wagons: Construction, Dressing, and Performance: Designing for the Fall of the Angels [Young York Civic Trust]
10 The York Wagons: Construction, Dressing, and Performance: A Custom-built Wagon for the Crucifixion Play [Company of Butchers]
11 The York Wagons: Construction, Dressing, and Performance: Creation of the World to the Fifth Day - the Wagon [York Guild of Building]
12 Interpreting the York Text: Words and Music: The Potters' Pageant of Pentecost [Pocklington School]
13 Interpreting the York Text: Words and Music: The Pageant of The Resurrection - Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene
14 Interpreting the York Text: Words and Music: Music and the York Mystery Plays
15 Producing The Creation and Fall of Man in twenty-first-century York: 'Thys werke is wroght now'
16 The Communities of the York Plays
17 Raising the Cross: Pre-Textual Theatricality and the York Crucifixion Play
18 Confraternities and Civic Ceremonial: The Siena Palio
19 Devotional Acting: Sydney 2008 and Medieval York
20 Glossary
21 Bibliography

Hugh Magennis's Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse

2011-04-27T22:01:00.001-04:00

New from D. S. Brewer:

Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse
Hugh Magennis

First Published: 17 Feb 2011
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843842613
Pages: 254
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
$90.00

Translations of the Old English poem Beowulf proliferate, and their number continues to grow. Focusing on the particularly rich period since 1950, this book presents a critical account of translations in English verse, setting them in the contexts both of the larger story of the recovery and reception of the poem and of perceptions of it over the past two hundred years, and of key issues in translation theory. Attention is also paid to prose translation and to the creative adaptations of the poem that have been produced in a variety of media, not least film.

The author looks in particular at four translations of arguably the most literary and historical importance: those by Edwin Morgan [1952], Burton Raffel [1963], Michael Alexander [1973] and Seamus Heaney [1999]. But, from an earlier period, he also gives a full account of William Morris's strange 1898 version.

Contents

1 Preface
2 Beowulf and Translation
3 Approaching the Poetry of Beowulf
4 Reception, Perceptions, and a Survey of Earlier Verse Translations of Beowulf
5 Edwin Morgan: Speaking to his Own Age
6 Burton Raffel: Mastering the Original to Leave It
7 Michael Alexander: Shadowing the Old English
8 Seamus Heaney: A Living Speech Raised to the Power of Verse
9 Other Post-1950 Verse Translations
10 Epilogue
11 Bibliography

Hugh Magennis is Professor of Old English Literature at Queen's University Belfast.

Medievalism at Plymouth State University

2011-04-22T14:10:00.000-04:00

Last weekend there were several medievalism-themed papers at Plymouth State University's annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum. Relevant papers follow:

FRIDAY, 15 APRIL

11:05-12:25 Session 2
Examining the Self and Re-Imagining the Past Hartman Union Building (HUB) 109
Moderator: Brian Kosanovich, Plymouth State University/Loomis Chaffee
2) “You are my Father and Mother”: Love, Friendship, and the Surrogate Family in Medieval Novels for Young Adults, Angela Jane Weisl, Seton Hall University
3) From ‘Romeo and Juliet’ to ‘Letters to Juliet’: Elizabethan Tragedy Re-envisioned as Romantic Comedy, Charles R. Forker, Indiana University

4:00-5:20 Session 4
Teaching the Middle Ages Rounds 304
Moderator: Meriem Pagès, Keene State College
1) Making Chaucer Relevant to High School Seniors of Various Ability Levels, Patricia Hageman, Hollis-Brookline High School
2) Podcasting and Pedagogy, Andrea R. Harbin, SUNY Cortland

SATURDAY, 16 APRIL

10:35-11:55 Session 6
Reading Chaucer in America Rounds 203
Moderator: Paulette Barton, University of Maine, Orono
1) The Adams Family Chaucers, M. C. E. Shaner, University of Massachusetts—Boston
2) The William Van Wyck Translation of The Canterbury Tales, Illustrated by Rockwell Kent, Geraldine S. Branca, Merrimack College

3:00-4:20 Session 7
Medieval Roots, Modern Dreams Rounds 303
Moderator: Arthur Fried, Plymouth State University
1) Introducing the Medieval Roots of Modern Gender Equality, Robert Myles, McGill University
2) Print Warfare and Foxe’s The Book of Martyrs: Woodcuts as an Early Modern Precursor to 20th-21st Century Comics, Forrest C. Helvie, Norwalk Community College
3) Prince Valiant and Beyond: (Re-)Assessing the Corpus of Medieval-Themed Comics, Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Clare Simmon's Popular Medievalism in Romantic-Era Britain

2011-04-20T01:28:00.000-04:00

New from Palgrave Macmillan:

Popular Medievalism in Romantic-Era Britain: Nineteenth-Century Major Lives and Letters
Clare A. Simmons

Palgrave Macmillan, January 2011
ISBN: 978-0-230-10374-0, ISBN10: 0-230-10374-X,
5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches, 246 pages, Includes: 5 pgs figs,
Book Hardcover $80.00

Popular Medievalism in Romantic-Era Britain examines ways in which British writers and readers used the idea of the Middle Ages to challenge contemporary political structures and to claim historical national rights at a time when fears that Britain would follow the example of the French Revolution caused the British government to undermine individual and collective rights. Through the consideration of canonical authors such as Blake, Scott, and Wordsworth and of lesser-studied works such as radical press writings and popular drama, this study suggests that the imaginative appeal to the social structures and literary forms of the Middle Ages served as a powerful means of raising awareness of Britain’s past and the tradition of freedom.

Contents:
Rites and Rights: The Topography of Ancient British Law * The National Melody * Medievalism Onstage in the French Revolutionary Era * The Radical Bestiary * Buried Alive: Gothic Reading and Medievalist Subjectivity * Scottish Lawyers, Feudal Law

Clare A. Simmons is a Professor of English at The Ohio State University. She is the author of Reversing the Conquest: History and Myth in Nineteenth-Century British Literature; Eyes Across the Channel: French Revolutions, Party History, and British Writing 1830-1882; and numerous essays on nineteenth-century British literature. She is the co-editor of Prose Studies and has edited the essay collection Medievalism and the Quest for the “Real” Middle Ages and Charlotte Mary Yonge’s novel The Clever Woman of the Family.

"By investigating the popular medievalism of the Romantic era, Simmons adds an essential and hitherto neglected facet to the continually evolving picture of the reception of medieval culture in postmedieval times. As an important corrective to the widely investigated medievalist reinventions of Romantic and Victorian elites, her study focuses on expressions of medievalism adopted by or accessible to the less privileged classes of British society. Expertly conversant with the longue durée of English responses to the Middle Ages since the beginnings of early modernity, Simmons demonstrates how the increased literacy and interest in political matters among those in skilled occupations as well as those who performed manual labor led to a popular view of a uniquely English continuity between the nation’s present and its medieval past."--Richard Utz, Professor and Chair, Department of English, Western Michigan University

CFP International Conference on Medievalism (4/18/11; Albuquerque 10/20-22/11)

2011-04-11T23:08:00.001-04:00

Another I just came across:

The 26th International Conference on Medievalism
Institute for Medieval Studies
University of New Mexico
(Albuquerque, NM)
October 20-22, 2011

The conference committee for Studies in Medievalism is pleased to invite paper and session proposals for its 26th Annual International Conference on Medievalism, to be held at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, on October 20–22, 2011.

The theme of this year's conference is “Medievalism, Arthuriana, and Landscapes of Enchantment.” We therefore especially invite proposals addressing any or all of these concepts. We will also welcome proposals on any topic related to the invocation or representation of the Middle Ages in post- medieval periods. As an interdisciplinary organization, we also encourage proposals from all areas of the humanities, social sciences, and beyond, particularly proposals that address interdisciplinary themes or employ interdisciplinary theories and methods. Post-medieval interest in Arthuriana has flourished unabatedly since the 19th-century medieval revival and is, for instance, reflected in the 2010 publication of Joerg O. Fichte’s From Camelot to Obamalot: Essays on Medieval and Modern Arthurian Literature.

Subthemes for the conference might include, but are not limited to:
Re-imaginings of important Arthurian figures (King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Gawain, Morgan le Fay, Perceval, Lady of the Lake, etc.)
Representations of Arthuriana in art
Women and questions of gender in Arthuriana
Arthurian themes in music
Roles of landscapes in modern Arthurian works
Arthuriana and enchantment in modern historical novels (including mysteries)
Connections between magical enchantments and landscapes
Arthuriana and enchantment on the contemporary stage
Arthuriana in Shakespeare
Tolkien, Arthuriana, and enchantment
Enchantment in contemporary Arthurian works
Arthuriana portrayed on film, television, and/or the radio
Arthuriana and enchantment on the Internet
Arthuriana and enchantment in electronic and/or non-electronic games

Publication Opportunities: Selected papers related to the conference theme will be published in The Year’s Work in Medievalism.

Submission Deadline: April 18, 2011
Please send 250-word abstracts for individual papers and session proposals as an email attachment in Word or pdf formats to:
Anita Obermeier, Conference Chair International Conference on Medievalism Institute for Medieval Studies University of New Mexico AObermei@unm.edu
http://ims.unm.edu/sim
The University of New Mexico is located in Albuquerque, in the Land of Enchantment.

The annual International Conference on Medievalism (ICOM; known as the General Conference on Medievalism until 1993) began with two meetings at the University of Notre Dame in 1986 and 1987. Subsequent conferences were organized through the Newberry Library and Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago, Illinois: 1988), the United States Military Academy (1989), Burg Kaprun (jointly with the 5th Symposium on Mittelalter-Rezeption, Austria: 1990), the University of Delaware (1991), the University of South Florida (1992), the University of Leeds (UK: 1993), Montana State University (1994), the Higgins Armory Museum (Worcester, Massachusetts: 1995), Kalamazoo College (1996), Christ Church College (Canterbury, UK: 1997), University of Rochester (1998), Montana State University (1999), Hope College (Michigan: 2000), Buffalo State College (2001), the University of Northern Iowa (2002), St. Louis University (2003), University of New Brunswick (Canada: 2004), Towson University (Baltimore, Maryland: 2005), Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio: 2006), University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario, Canada: 2007), Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia, 2008), Siena College (Loudonville, New York, 2009), and University of Groningen (The Netherlands, 2010).

Year's Work in Medievalism 24 (2009) and 25 (2010)

2011-04-11T23:00:00.000-04:00

Just came across these. Both were published in 2010 by Wipf and Stock Publishers.

The Year's Work in Medievalism, 2009
Edited by Amy S. Kaufman
Retail Price: $12.00
Web Price: $9.60
ISBN 10:
ISBN 13: 978-1-60899-543-1
Pages: 88
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 06/01/2010
Street Date: 05/17/2010
Division: Wipf and Stock
Category: Humanities
-
Book Description
The Year's Work in Medievalism 2009 includes papers delivered at the 23rd Annual Conference on Medievalism, organized by the International Society for Studies in Medievalism, and held at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia in October 2008. The topic of the conference was "Regional Medievalisms," a topic this volume conceives of broadly; the enclosed essays address medievalism in different genres and academic fields as well as geographic regions. The conference was organized by Amy S. Kaufman, who is the editor of this volume; the Director of Conferences and Series Editor of the Year's Work in Medievalism is Gwendolyn Morgan.

Contributors:
Gwendolyn Morgan, Beowulf and the Middle Ages in Film
Cory James Rushton, Canadian Grail
Alexander Moffett, "Certain Fragments of Yellow Parchment": Remembering the Medieval in Virginia Woolf's "The Journal of Mistress Joan Martyn"
Kathleen Coyne Kelly, Russ Meyer, Bricoleur: King Arthur, Wonder Woman, and Nazis in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Karl Fugeslo, Regional Medievalisms in Academia: Pictorial vs. Textual Responses to the Divine Comedy
M.J. Toswell, Earle Birney: Medievalist Bard of British Columbia
Cory Lowell Grewell, Vanquishing the Beast Within: Christianization of the Hero Ethos in Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf

The Year’s Work in Medievalism, 2010
Edited by Gwendolyn Morgan
Retail Price: $18.00
Web Price: $14.40
ISBN 10:
ISBN 13: 978-1-60899-991-0
Pages: 158
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 12/06/2010
Street Date: 12/06/2010
Division: Wipf and Stock
Category: Humanities

-
Book Description
The Year's Work in Medievalism, volume XXV, is based upon but not restricted to the 2010 proceedings of the annual International Conference on Medievalism, organized by the Director of Conferences for the International Society for the Study of Medievalism, Gwendolyn Morgan, and, for 2009, Dr. Pam Clements. The Year's Work in Medievalism also publishes bibliographies, book reviews, and announcements for conferences and other events.

Richard Utz, Pi(o)us Medievalism vs. Catholic Modernism: The Case Of George Tyrell
Martha Oberle, The Legacy of the Medieval Mendicant Orders
Chelsea Gunter, Mysticism and Messianism in the Poetry of Paul Celan
William Calin, Postcolonialism and Medievalism: How French Regional Cultures/Literatures Reshape Their Past and Present
Jana K. Schulman, Retelling Old Tales: Germanic Myth and Language in Christopher Paolini's Eragon
Arthur Russell, From English Stage to American Page: The Transatlantic Dissemination of Leonard MacNally's Robin Hood; or, Sherwood Forest
Gwendolyn Morgan, The Battle of Maldon in Imitative Translation
Edward L. Risden, The Battle of Maldon: A One-act Play for Readers' Theater
T.S. Miller, A Look at Some New Lays of Beowulf: The Misunderstood Monsters of Contemporary Popular Music
Aspen Hougen, Debilitating Dracula: Vampire as Illness Metaphor from the Middle Ages to the Present Day
Peter Johnsson, Purged by Fire: The Influence of Medieval Visionary Literature on Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Gerald Nachtwey, Unburied Corpses: The Violence of the Past in William Morris's Froissartian Poems
Karl Fugelso, Dante as Surfer Medievalism: Sandow Birk's Commedia Illustrations

Medievalism at Plymouth States

2011-04-11T11:07:00.000-04:00

The Plymouth State Medieval and Renaissance Forum will be held this week from Friday, 15 April, to Saturday. 16 April, and includes a number of medievalism-themed papers as follows. The complete schedule (including two sessions on pedagogy) can be accessed at http://www.plymouth.edu/events/medieval-and-renaissance-forum/2011-forum/schedule/.

FRIDAY, 15 APRIL

11:05-12:25 Session 2
Examining the Self and Re-Imagining the Past Hartman Union Building (HUB) 109
PAPER 2: “You are my Father and Mother”: Love, Friendship, and the Surrogate Family in Medieval Novels for Young Adults, Angela Jane Weisl, Seton Hall University

SATURDAY, 16 APRIL

10:35-11:55 Session 6

Reading Chaucer in America Rounds 203
Moderator: Paulette Barton, University of Maine, Orono
PAPER 1: The Adams Family Chaucers, M. C. E. Shaner, University of Massachusetts—Boston
PAPER 2: The William Van Wyck Translation of The Canterbury Tales, Illustrated by Rockwell Kent, Geraldine S. Branca, Merrimack College

3:00-4:20 Session 7

Medieval Roots, Modern Dreams Rounds 303
Moderator: Arthur Fried, Plymouth State University
PAPER 1: Introducing the Medieval Roots of Modern Gender Equality, Robert Myles, McGill University
PAPER 2: Print Warfare and Foxe’s The Book of Martyrs: Woodcuts as an Early Modern Precursor to 20th-21st Century Comics, Forrest C. Helvie, Norwalk Community College
PAPER 3: Prince Valiant and Beyond: (Re-)Assessing the Corpus of Medieval-Themed Comics, Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Monstrous Medievalisms 2011 (Call for Papers)

2011-04-06T23:51:00.000-04:00

CALL FOR PAPERS
MONSTROUS MEDIEVALISMS 2011
SPONSORED BY THE VIRTUAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE AND THE MIDDLE AGES
FOR THE SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND LEGEND AREA
2011 Conference of The Northeast Popular / American Culture Association (NEPCA)
Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut (181 White Street, Danbury, CT 06810)
Friday 11 and Saturday 12 November 2011
Proposals by 1 June 2011

Given the proximity to Halloween, proposals are invited from scholars of all levels for papers devoted to investigations of the medieval in Gothic and Horror narratives for a session entitled “Monstrous Medievalisms 2011" to be sponsored by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages (http://popularcultureandthemiddleages.blogspot.com/) and included under the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area (http://sf-fantasy-legend.blogspot.com/). Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes in length. We are particularly interested in discussions of texts that have been neglected by the academy and/or offer unique representations of medieval motifs.

If you are interested in proposing a paper or panel of papers, please send a paper proposal of approximately 250 words and a one-page CV to both the Program Chair AND to the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area Chair at the following addresses (please note "SF/Fantasy/Legend Proposal" in your subject line and indicate in the body that it is for the "Monstrous Medievalisms" session):

Don Gagnon
Program Chair
gagnond@wcsu.edu

Michael A. Torregrossa
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Legend Area Chair
Popular.Culture.and.the.Middle.Ages@gmail.com

The Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) is a regional affiliate of the American Culture Association and the Popular Culture Association. NEPCA is an association of scholars in New England and New York, organized in 1974 at the University of Rhode Island. We reorganized and incorporated in Boston in 1992. The purpose of this professional association is to encourage and assist research, publication, and teaching on popular culture and culture studies topics by scholars in the northeast region of the United States. By bringing together scholars from various disciplines, both academic and non-academic people, we foster interdisciplinary research and learning.

Membership in NEPCA is required for participation. Annual dues are currently $30. Further details are available at http://users.wpi.edu/~jphanlan/NEPCA.html.

Advance Notice Kalamazoo 2012

2011-04-06T22:46:00.003-04:00

The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages has proposed the following sessions for the 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies to be held from 10-13 May 2012. Further details on each session can be found by clicking the respective links.

Are You From Camelot? Recent Arthurian Film, Television, and Electronic Games as Innovators of the Arthurian Tradition and Their Impact (Roundtable)

The Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo: New Perspectives for Incorporating Comics into Medieval Studies Teaching and Research (Roundtable)

Kalamazoo 2012 Sessions

2011-04-06T20:04:00.000-04:00

We are in the final stages of writing our proposals for next year's (2012) Medieval Congress and will post the details soon. Pending approval by the organizing committee, submissions will be accepted starting this summer.

SyFy and Chiller Listings for March 2011

2011-03-01T22:26:00.000-05:00

A notice to readers that this month's list (and future month's as well) of medieval-themed programming on the SyFy and Chiller networks will be featured on The Medieval Studies at the Movies Blog.

Medieval Studies at the Movies Returns

2011-02-03T01:53:00.002-05:00

The Society is pleased to announce the return of Medieval Studies at the Movies.

Michael Torregrossa
Blog Editor/Listserv Moderator
Co-Founder

SyFy February 2011 Listings

2011-02-02T00:42:00.000-05:00

The following represent this month's medieval-themed listings for SyFy. Of note, SyFy continues, after a one week hiatus, its run of season 3 of BB1's Merlin in February and reintroduces Invasion, which includes an underdeveloped Robin Hood theme. Also, Highlander: The Series airs haphazardly in various late-night slots.

THURS, 3 FEB
01:00 PM
Destination Truth--Issie/Icelandic Elves (details)

FRI, 4 FEB
09:30 AM
Movie--Merlin And The War Of The Dragons

10:00 PM
Merlin, Season 3--Gwaine

SAT, 5 FEB
12:00 AM
Merlin, Season 3--Gwaine

MON, 7 FEB
10:30 AM
Movie--Dragon Sword
12:30 PM
Movie--Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath Of The Dragon God

THURS, 10 FEB
09:00 PM
Movie--Eragon

11:00 PM
Syfy Original Movie--Fire And Ice

FRI, 11 FEB
01:00 AM
Highlander--The Valkyrie
06:00 PM
Movie--Eragon
10:00 PM
Merlin, Season 3--The Crystal Cave

SAT, 12 FEB
12:00 AM
Merlin, Season 3--The Crystal Cave

WEDNES, 16 FEB
03:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie--Book Of Beasts, The

THURS, 17 FEB
03:00 AM
Movie--Bram Stoker's Way Of The Vampire (review)
01:00 PM
Ghost Hunters International--Frankenstein's Castle
02:00 PM
Ghost Hunters International (season 1.5)--Larnach Castle

FRI, 18 FEB
10:00 PM
Merlin, Season 3--The Changeling

SAT, 19 FEB
12:00 AM
Merlin, Season 3--The Changeling

SUN, 20 FEB
10:00 AM
Movie--Highlander: The Source
02:00 PM
Movie--In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (Wikipedia)

TUES, 22 FEB
Feb 22
08:00 AM
Invasion(series)--Origin Of Species
09:00 AM
Invasion(series)--Us Or Them
10:00 AM
Invasion(series)--Power
11:00 AM
Invasion(series)--Redemption
12:00 PM
Invasion(series)--All God's Creatures

FRI, 25 FEB
10:00 PM
Merlin, Season 3--The Castle Of Fyrien

SAT, 26 FEB
12:00 AM
Merlin, Season 3--The Castle Of Fyrien
09:30 AM
Invasion(series)--Pilot

MON, 28 FEB
08:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie--Dark Relic (review)

Chiller Feb. 2011 Listings

2011-02-02T00:07:00.000-05:00

The following represent this month's medieval-themed listings for Chiller. I am not familiar (yet) with Beast Legends, but these three episodes seem to be medieval in theme. My apologies if that is not the case.

The network is also airing the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer this month, but there are no details posted regarding which episodes will air when.

SUN, 6 FEB

10:00 AM
Beast Legends Dragon
01:00 PM
Beast Legends Dragon

SUN, 20 FEB
10:00 AM
Beast Legends Griffin
01:00 PM
Beast Legends Griffin

SUN, 27 FEB
10:00 AM
Beast Legends Wild Man
01:00 PM
Beast Legends Wild Man

Kalamazoo Update

2011-02-01T19:33:00.000-05:00

The program for Kalamazoo is now live. Our session is scheduled for Saturday at 3:30 PM. Details as follows:

Session 478--Fetzer 2040
Twenty-First Century Medievalism: Re-envisioning the Medieval in the Contemporary World (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages
Presider: Carl James Grindley, Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College
Siegfried the Volk-Song: Examining the Interpretations of Siegfried the DragonSlayer and the Making of a National History
Peter H. Johnsson, San Francisco State Univ.
Analysis of Arthurian Film Reviews
Laurie Rizzo, Univ. of Delaware
Beowulf in the Twenty-First Century
Suanna H. Davis, Houston Community College: Central
I Want to Believe: Finding the Medieval in The X-Files
Rebecca Johnson, Princeton Univ.

Listserv Updates

2011-02-01T00:37:00.000-05:00

It is with deep regret that I write to inform readers of the demise of the following listservs sponsored by the Society: The Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages Discussion List, The Medieval Studies at the Movies Discussion List and The Medieval Comics Project Discussion List. The three have been disbanded due to lack of interest by the members. Archives for these lists will remain online for the time being, but further items of interest on these topics can be found instead on the various blogs currently sponsored by the Society, including Studies of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages and The Medieval Comics Project Blog.

Michael A. Torregrossa
Blog and Listserv Editor
Co-Founder

Comics Get Medieval 2011 Update (Cross-Posted)

2011-01-27T20:50:00.003-05:00

A belated update on the status of The Comics Get Medieval 2011 sessions for the upcoming Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association's annual meeting this spring:

The session has been cancelled due to lack of interest.

Please consider submitting a proposal for The Comics Get Medieval 2012 sessions to convene at PCA/ACA in Boston and (pending approval) at Kalamazoo. 2012 is the 75th anniversary of Prince Valiant, and it would be great to make ourselves visible as we commemorate this landmark event.

Michael Torregrossa

Blog and Listserv Editor
Co-Founder

King Arthur Forever Returns

2011-01-27T20:37:00.001-05:00

The Society is pleased to announce the relaunch of KingArthurForever.org as a blog dedicated to study and debate of the representations of the Matter of Britain in post-medieval popular culture produced from the close of the Middle Ages through tomorrow.

New Study on Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles

2011-01-02T16:29:00.000-05:00

One Earth, One People: The Mythopoeic Fantasy Series of Ursula K. Le Guin, Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L’Engle and Orson Scott Card
Marek Oziewicz

Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III
Foreword by Brian Attebery

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-3135-9
Ebook ISBN: (isbn not yet available)
notes, bibliography, index
271pp. softcover 2008

Description
This work presents the genre of mythopoeic fantasy from a holistic perspective, arguing that this central genre of fantasy literature is largely misunderstood as a result of decades of incomplete and reductionist literary studies. The author asserts that mythopoeic fantasy is not only the most complete literary expression of a worldview based on the existence of supernatural or spiritual powers but that the genre is in a unique position to transform social consciousness with a renewed emphasis on anticipating the future. The author lays out theoretical foundations for his argument in the first four chapters and then demonstrates how the works of fantasy authors Ursula K. LeGuin, Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L’Engle, and Orson Scott Card exemplify his argument in the remaining four chapters.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments v
Foreword by Brian Attebery 1
Introduction 3

1. The Confusion over Fantasy and the Confusions of the Theoretical Era 13
2. Reductionist and Holistic Criticisms in a Battle of Worldviews 39
3. Mythopoeic Fantasy as a Modern Genre 65
4. Twentieth-Century Rehabilitation of Myth and the Search for a New Story 91
5. Rediscovering Harmony: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Sequence (1964–2001) 118
6. Bridging the Past with the Future: Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles (1964–1973) 144
7. Integrating Science and Spirituality: Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quartet (1962–1986) 171
8. Reconnecting with Nature: Orson Scott Card’s Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003) 198

Conclusion 225
Chapter Notes 229
Works Cited 245
Index 259

About the Author
Marek Oziewicz is assistant professor of literature and director of the Center for Children’s and Young Adult Fiction at the Institute of English Studies, University of Wroclaw in Poland.
Donald E. Palumbo is a professor of English at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He lives in Greenville. C.W. Sullivan III is in the English department at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

Award Winner
Winner, Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies--The Mythopoeic Society

A Hard Day's Knight by Simon Green

2011-01-02T15:54:00.001-05:00

The latest in Simon Green's Nightside series is Arthurian in content.

Here are the details from publisher Ace Books:

A Hard Day's Knight
Simon R. Green - Author

$25.95
Hardcover | 9.25 x 6.25in | 304 pages | ISBN 9780441019700 | 04 Jan 2011 | Ace | 18 - AND UP

John Taylor is a P.I. with a special talent for finding lost things in the dark and secret center of London known as the Nightside. He's also the reluctant owner of a very special-and dangerous-weapon. Excalibur, the legendary sword. To find out why he was chosen to wield it, John must consult the Last Defenders of Camelot, a group of knights who dwell in a place that some find more frightening than the Nightside.

London Proper. It's been years since John's been back-and there are good reasons for that.

Amazon.com has additional information from Publisher's Weekly. Apparently the series has always had some Arthurian content, but this seems the most Arthurian (I think).

Private investigator John Taylor returns in the 12th novel (after 2010's The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny) of the Nightside, "the dark, secret, brooding heart of London." Having killed the former Walker, the voice of the Authorities, Taylor's now the closet thing the Nightside has to a leader. When the sword Excalibur shows up in the mail, he must return to London Proper to consult with the descendants of the Knights of the Round Table. The blood runs red (and golden) as he teams up with King Arthur and tangles with Merlin, elven royalty, traitor knights, sons of the devil, the Lady of the Lake, and various creatively named denizens of the Nightside. Taylor's irrepressible sarcasm and a twisted take on quotidian scenes compensate for a few too many solemn, self-important pronouncements and evil-overlord lectures. (Jan.)

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card

2011-01-01T00:27:00.001-05:00

Orson Scott Card's latest novel The Lost Gate, book one of the Mither Mages trilogy, features a number of figures from Norse mythology. The publisher's website has sketchy information on the plot (after the jump), but the trailer for the book (below) is told from Loki's perspective.

The Lost Gate
Mither Mages (Volume 1 of 3)
Orson Scott Card

Tor Books, 1/4/2011
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2657-7, ISBN10: 0-7653-2657-4,
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 384 pages

Danny North knew from early childhood that his family was different, and that he was different from them. While his cousins were learning how to create the things that commoners called fairies, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and other such miracles that were the heritage of the North family, Danny worried that he would never show a talent, never form an outself.

He grew up in the rambling old house, filled with dozens of cousins, and aunts and uncles, all ruled by his father. Their home was isolated in the mountains of western Virginia, far from town, far from schools, far from other people.

There are many secrets in the House, and many rules that Danny must follow. There is a secret library with only a few dozen books, and none of them in English — but Danny and his cousins are expected to become fluent in the language of the books. While Danny’s cousins are free to create magic whenever they like, they must never do it where outsiders might see.

Unfortunately, there are some secrets kept from Danny as well. And that will lead to disaster for the North family.

ORSON SCOTT CARD is the author of the international bestsellers Shadow of the Giant, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Hegemon, and Ender's Shadow, and of the beloved classic of science fiction, Ender's Game, as well as the acclaimed fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Chiller January 2011 Listings

2011-01-01T00:07:00.001-05:00

The following represent this month's medieval-themed listings for Chiller. Of note are 3 mini-marathons of Forever Knight and multiple airings of The Forsaken. Both feature vampires from the Middle Ages and their attempts to survive in the twentieth century.

MON., 3 JAN
09:00 AM
Forever Knight The Code
10:00 AM
Forever Knight Curiouser & Curiouser
11:00 AM
Forever Knight Near Death
12:00 PM
Forever Knight Baby Baby
01:00 PM
Forever Knight Close Call
02:00 PM
Forever Knight Crazy Love

FRI., 14 JAN
12:00 PM
Dark Realm Castle Keep

TUES., 18 JAN
08:00 PM
Movie The Forsaken

WEDNES., 19 JAN
12:00 AM
Movie The Forsaken

09:00 AM
Forever Knight Dark Knight
10:00 AM
Forever Knight Dark Knight: The Second Chapter
11:00 AM
Forever Knight For I Have Sinned
12:00 PM
Forever Knight Last Act
01:00 PM
Forever Knight Dance By The Light Of The Moon
02:00 PM
Forever Knight Dying To Know You

SUN., 23 JAN
09:00 AM
Special Cracking The Da Vinci Code
12:00 PM
Special Cracking The Da Vinci Code

THURS., 27 JAN
10:00 PM
Movie The Forsaken

FRI., 28 JAN
02:00 AM
Movie The Forsaken

SAT., 29 JAN
08:00 AM
Forever Knight False Witness
09:00 AM
Forever Knight Cherry Blossoms
10:00 AM
Forever Knight I Will Repay
11:00 AM
Forever Knight Dead Air
12:00 PM
Forever Knight Hunters
01:00 PM
Forever Knight Dead Issue

Also airing this month: Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Poltergeist: The Legacy.

SyFy Listings for January 2011

2010-12-31T23:45:00.001-05:00

Here are the relevant listings for SyFy for January 2011. Note that the third season of BBC1's Merlin premieres this month.

SAT. 1 JAN
11:00 AM
The Twilight Zone -- A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain

WEDNES., 5 JAN
10:00 AM
Ghost Hunters International -- Witches Castle
09:00 PM
Ghost Hunters International, Season 2.9 -- Hamlet's Castle: Denmark
11:00 PM
Ghost Hunters International, Season 2.9 -- Hamlet's Castle: Denmark

THURS., 6 JAN
12:00 AM
Ghost Hunters International -- The Spirit Of Robin Hood

FRI., 7 JAN
08:30 AM
Merlin, Season 2(series) Beauty And The Beast - Part 1
09:30 AM
Merlin, Season 2(series) Beauty And The Beast - Part 2
10:30 AM
Merlin, Season 2(series) The Witchfinder
11:30 AM
Merlin, Season 2(series) The Sins Of The Father
12:30 PM
Merlin, Season 2(series) The Lady Of The Lake
01:30 PM
Merlin, Season 2(series) Sweet Dreams
02:30 PM
Merlin, Season 2(series) The Witch's Quickening
03:30 PM
Merlin, Season 2(series) The Fires Of Idirsholas
04:30 PM
Merlin, Season 2(series) The Last Dragonlord
10:00 PM
Merlin, Season 3 -- The Tears Of Uther Pendragon - Part 1

SAT., 8 JAN
12:00 AM
Merlin, Season 3 -- The Tears Of Uther Pendragon - Part 1
03:00 AM
Movie -- Merlin And The War Of The Dragons

FRI., 14 JAN
10:00 PM
Merlin, Season 3 -- The Tears Of Uther Pendragon - Part 2
11:00 PM
Stargate SG-1 -- Arthur's Mantle

SAT., 15 JAN
12:00 AM
Merlin, Season 3 -- The Tears Of Uther Pendragon - Part 2
01:00 AM
Stargate SG-1 -- Crusade

SUN., 16 JAN
07:00 PM
Movie -- Underworld
09:30 PM
Movie -- Underworld: Evolution

MON., 17 JAN
4:30 PM
Movie -- Underworld
07:00 PM
Movie -- Underworld: Evolution

WEDNES., 19 JAN
03:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie -- Book Of Beasts, The

FRI., 21 JAN
10:00 PM
Merlin, Season 3 -- Goblin's Gold

SAT., 22 JAN
12:00 AM
Merlin, Season 3 -- Goblin's Gold
01:00 AM
Stargate SG-1 -- Camelot

SUN., 23 JAN
11:30 AM
Movie -- In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
02:00 PM
Movie -- Eragon

MON., 24 JAN
12:00 AM
Movie -- Highlander: The Source
10:00 AM
Movie -- Eragon

FRI., 28 JAN
10:00 PM
Merlin, Season 3 -- Gwaine

SAT., 29 JAN
12:00 AM
Merlin, Season 3 -- Gwaine
03:00 AM
Movie -- Rise Of The Gargoyles

Also airing this month: Highlander.

Anglo-Saxon Culture and the Modern Imagination -- New from Boydell & Brewer

2010-12-31T21:36:00.001-05:00

Anglo-Saxon Culture and the Modern Imagination
Edited by David Clark and Nicholas Perkins

Details
First Published: 21 Oct 2010
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843842514
Pages: 302
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Medievalism
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB

Britain's pre-Conquest past and its culture continues to fascinate modern writers and artists. From Henry Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader to Seamus Heaney's Beowulf, and from high modernism to the musclebound heroes of comic book and Hollywood, Anglo-Saxon England has been a powerful and often unexpected source of inspiration, antagonism, and reflection. The essays here engage with the ways in which the Anglo-Saxons and their literature have been received, confronted, and re-envisioned in the modern imagination. They offer fresh insights on established figures, such as W.H. Auden, J.R.R. Tolkien, and David Jones, and on contemporary writers such as Geoffrey Hill, Peter Reading, P.D. James, and Heaney. They explore the interaction between text, image and landscape in medieval and modern books, the recasting of mythic figures such as Wayland Smith, and the metamorphosis of Beowulf into Grendel - as a novel and as grand opera. The early medieval emerges not simply as a site of nostalgia or anxiety in modern revisions, but instead provides a vital arena for creativity, pleasure, and artistic experiment.

Contents (from WorldCAT):

Introduction / Nicholas Perkins and David Clark --
From Heorot to Hollywood : Beowulf in its third millennium / Chris Jones --
Priming the poets : the making of Henry Sweet's Anglo-Saxon reader / Mark Atherton --
Owed to both sides : W.H. Auden's double debt to the literature of the North / Heather O'Donoghue --
Writing for an Anglo-Saxon audience in the twentieth century : J.R.R. Tolkien's Old English chronicles / Maria Artamonova --
Wounded men and wounded trees : David Jones and the Anglo-Saxon culture tangle / Anna Johnson --
Basil Bunting, Briggflatts, Lindisfarne, and Anglo-Saxon interlace / Clare A. Lees --
Boom : seeing Beowulf in pictures and print / Siân Echard --
Window in the wall : looking for grand opera in John Gardner's Grendel / Allen J. Frantzen --
Re-placing masculinity : the DC Comics Beowulf series and its context, 1975-6 / Catherine A.M. Clarke --
P.D. James reads Beowulf / John Halbrooks --
Ban Welondes : Wayland Smith in popular culture / Maria Sachiko Cecire --
Overlord of the M5 : the superlative structure of sovereignty in Geoffrey Hill's Mercian Hymns / Hannah J. Crawforth --
The absent Anglo-Saxon past in Ted Hughes's Elmet / Joshua Davies --
Resurrecting Saxon things : Peter Reading, "species decline", and Old English poetry / Rebecca Anne Barr.

Thor Movie Trailer

2010-12-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

Marvel has recently released the trailer for the upcoming Thor film. It can be viewed at The Medieval Comics Project Blog.

Coming Soon from McFarland: Harty's Vikings on Film

2010-12-27T19:26:00.000-05:00

The Vikings on Film: Essays on Depictions of the Nordic Middle Ages
Edited by Kevin J. Harty
ISBN 978-0-7864-6044-1
illustrations, filmography, bibliography, index
softcover (7 x 10) 2011
Price: $38.00

Not Yet Published, Available Spring/Summer 2011

Description
Factual and fanciful tales of the Nordic warriors known as Vikings have proven irresistible to filmmakers for nearly a century. Diverse, prominent actors from Kirk Douglas, Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier to Tim Robbins and John Cleese, and noted directors, including Richard Fleischer, Clive Donner and Terry Jones, have all lent their talents to Viking-related films. These fourteen essays on films dealing with the Viking era discuss American, British and European productions. Analyzed in detail are such films as The Vikings (1958), The Long Ships (1964), Alfred the Great (1969), Erik the Viking (1989) and Outlander (2008), as well as a pair of comic-strip adaptations, the live-action Prince Valiant (1997) and the animated Asterix and the Vikings (2006). A comprehensive filmography is also included.

About the Author
Kevin J. Harty is professor and chair of English at La Salle University in Philadelphia and associate editor of Arthuriana, the official journal of the North American Branch of the International Arthurian Society, of which he is the vice president. He is the author or editor of eleven books on film and medieval studies.

Getting Medieval with the Doctor

2010-12-27T01:49:00.001-05:00

The following appear in a new book from Kitsune Books:

Burdge, Anthony S. “The Professor’s Lessons for the Doctor: The Doctor’s Sub-Creative Journey Toward Middle-earth.” In The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who. Eds. Anthony S. Burdge, Jessica Burke, and Kristine Larsen. Crawfordville, FL: Kitsune Books, 2010. Pp. 65-84.

Burke, Jessica. “Doctor Who and the Valkyrie Tradition, Part 2: Goddesses, Battle-demons, Witches, & Wives.” In The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who. Eds. Anthony S. Burdge, Jessica Burke, and Kristine Larsen. Crawfordville, FL: Kitsune Books, 2010. Pp. 140-83.

Larsen, Kristine. “Doctor Who and the Valkyrie Tradition Part 1: The Valiant Child and the Bad Wolf.” In The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who. Eds. Anthony S. Burdge, Jessica Burke, and Kristine Larsen. Crawfordville, FL: Kitsune Books, 2010. Pp. 120-39.

Syfy December 2010 Listings

2010-12-07T17:45:00.000-05:00

Here are this month's medieval-themed listings for Syfy:

MON, 6 DEC
09:00 PM
Movie
National Treasure

THURS., 9 DEC
02:00 AM
Stargate SG-1
Avalon - Pt 1

FRI, 10 DEC
02:00 AM
Stargate SG-1
Avalon - Pt 2

09:00 AM
Movie
Merlin - Part One
11:00 AM
Movie
Merlin - Part Two

SUN, 12 DEC
06:00 PM
Movie
Eragon
08:00 PM
Movie
Chronicles Of Narnia, The: Prince Caspian
11:00 PM
Movie
In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

MON, 13 DEC
03:30 AM
Syfy Original Movie
Grendel

08:00 AM
Merlin
The Dragon's Call
09:00 AM
Merlin
Valiant
10:00 AM
Merlin
The Mark Of Nimueh
11:00 AM
Merlin
The Poison Chalice
12:00 PM
Merlin
Lancelot
01:00 PM
Merlin
A Remedy To Cure All Ills
02:00 PM
Merlin
The Gates Of Avalon
03:00 PM
Merlin
The Beginning Of The End

TUES, 14 DEC
08:30 AM
Joan Of Arcadia
Do The Math
09:30 AM
Joan Of Arcadia
Anonymous
10:30 AM
Joan Of Arcadia
Vanity, Thy Name Is Human
11:30 AM
Joan Of Arcadia
The Gift
12:30 PM
Joan Of Arcadia
Silence
01:30 PM
Joan Of Arcadia
Only Connect
02:30 PM
Joan Of Arcadia
Out Of Sight
03:30 PM
Joan Of Arcadia
Back To The Garden

THURS, 16 DEC
11:30 PM
Movie
Highlander: The Source

FRI, 17 DEC
03:00 AM
Syfy Original Movie
Dragon Storm

WEDNES, 22 DEC
11:00 AM
Ghost Hunters International
The Spirit Of Robin Hood

THURS, 23 DEC
08:00 PM
Movie Marathon
Chronicles Of Narnia, The: Prince Caspian

FRI, 24 DEC
01:30 AM
Movie Marathon
Chronicles Of Narnia, The: Prince Caspian

SUN, 26DEC
08:00 PM
Movie
National Treasure

MON, 27 DEC
05:00 PM
Movie
National Treasure

Also airing: Highlander and Warehouse 13.

Chiller December 2010 Listings

2010-12-07T17:42:00.000-05:00

Here are this month's medieval-themed offerings from Chiller:

THURS., 2 DEC
09:00 AM
Forever Knight Beyond The Law
10:00 AM
Forever Knight The Fix
11:00 AM
Forever Knight Be My Valentine
12:00 PM
Forever Knight The Fire Inside
01:00 PM
Forever Knight Blood Money
02:00 PM
Forever Knight Partners Of The Month

TUES, 14 DEC
11:00 AM
Dark Realm Castle Keep
10:00 PM
Movie The Forsaken [A vampire film featuring vampires that originate during the First Crusade. More details at Wikipedia.]

WEDNES, 15 DEC
02:00 AM
Movie The Forsaken

FRI, 17 DEC
06:00 AM
The Twilight Zone The Last Defender Of Camelot [Based on the short story be Roger Zelazny.]
03:00 PM
The Twilight Zone The Last Defender Of Camelot

SUN, 19 DEC
09:00 AM
Special Illuminating Angels And Demons
12:00 PM
Special Illuminating Angels And Demons

MON, 27 DEC
10:00 PM
Movie The Forsaken

TUES, 27 DEC
02:00 AM
Movie The Forsaken

CFP: Medieval Film/TV/Electronic Games (12/31/10; Plymouth State Medieval and Renaissance Forum 4/14-16/11)

2010-12-05T13:01:00.001-05:00

The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages invites paper proposals to round out a panel devoted to the topic of medievalism in film, TV, and/or electronic games for the 2011 Plymouth State Medieval and Renaissance Forum to be held at Plymouth State University, Plymouth, New Hampshire, from 15-16 April 2011. Please submit paper proposals to the Conference Committee at Popular.Culture.and.the.Middle.Ages@gmail.com by 31 December 2010.

Michael A. Torregrossa

Co-Founder

Blog Moderator

Listserv Moderator

The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Remaking the Middle Ages--New from McFarland

2010-11-28T22:19:00.000-05:00

Here's another recent book from McFarland. My apologies for not posting on it sooner. (I'm usually the most current when it comes to movie medievalism, and I'm not sure when it first appeared in their online catalog, as it is not linked to their "Medieval Studies" list.) Its author, Andrew Elliott, was a presenter at our medieval TV panels in 2007 and does interesting work on filmic and televisual medievalisms, and, besides the book, he also has an essay on medieval themes in the Monk television series in the collection Monk and Philosophy (Open Court, 2010) and reviewed Martha Driver and Sid Ray's collection Shakespeare and the Middle Ages: Essays on the Performance and Adaptation of the Plays with Medieval Sources or Settings for the next number of Arthuriana. In addition, Elliott has an essay on Asterix and the Vikings in Kevin J. Harty's forthcoming collection Reel Vikings: Cinematic Depictions of Medieval Scandinavia.

Michael

Remaking the Middle Ages: The Methods of Cinema and History in Portraying the Medieval World
Andrew B.R. Elliott

ISBN 978-0-7864-4624-7
glossary, notes, bibliography, filmography, index
286pp. softcover 2011
Price: $38.00

Description

Proposing a fresh theoretical approach to the study of cinematic portrayals of the Middle Ages, this book uses both semiotics and historiography to demonstrate how contemporary filmmakers have attempted to recreate the past in a way that, while largely imagined, is also logical, meaningful, and as truthful as possible. Carrying out this critical approach, the author analyzes a wide range of films depicting the Middle Ages, arguing that most of these films either reflect the past through a series of visual signs (a concept he has called "iconic recreation") or by comparing the past to a modern equivalent (called "paradigmatic representation").

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1

PART I : PROBLEMS
1. History, Historiography and Film 9
2. “One Big Medieval Mess”: Accessing the Middle Ages 35

PART II : PEOPLE
3. When Knights Were Bold: Those Who Fight 53
4. The Power and the Glory: Those Who Rule 83
5. Clergy and Saints: Those Who Pray 113
6. …Everybody Not Sitting on a Cushion: Those Who Work 146

PART III : WORLDS
7. Constructing Medieval Worlds: Conventions, Inventions and Images 177
8. Guides to the Medieval Worlds 192
9. Authenticity and Accuracy in Medieval Worlds 206

Glossary 223
Notes 229
Bibliography 257
Filmography 269
Index 273

About the Author
Andrew B.R. Elliott is a senior lecturer in media and cultural studies at the University of Lincoln in the UK. He has published articles and essays on a wide range of topics and is a contributor to a television documentary on the "real" King Arthur.

More from McFarland: The Westford Knight and Henry Sinclair

2010-11-28T21:47:00.000-05:00

The Westford Knight and Henry Sinclair: Evidence of a 14th Century Scottish Voyage to North America
David Goudsward
Foreword by Robert E. Stone

ISBN 978-0-7864-4649-0
29 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
260pp. softcover 2010
Price: $35.00

Description
The Westford Knight is a mysterious, controversial stone carving in Massachusetts. Some believe it is an effigy of a 14th century knight, evidence of an early European visit to the New World by Henry Sinclair, the Earl of Orkney and Lord of Roslin. In 1954, an archaeologist encountered the carving, long known to locals and ascribed a variety of origin stories, and proposed it to be a remnant of the Sinclair expedition. The story of the Westford Knight is a mix of history, archaeology, sociology, and Knights Templar lore. This work unravels the threads of the Knight’s history, separating fact from fantasy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vi
Foreword by Robert E. Stone 1
Preface 3

1. The Indian on the Ledge 7
2. The Sword and the Cross 14
3. A Knight Is Found 24
4. A Knight in Armor 33
5. Jarl Henry and the Sinclairs 43
6. A Knight Gunn 52
7. The Zeno Narrative 59
8. A Knight Under Siege 75
9. The Sinclair Expedition 86
10. Glooscap 95
11. The Knight Tower 101
12. The Boat Stone 108
13. The Knights Templar 117
14. Rosslyn Chapel 128
15. A Knight Mythologized 143

Epilogue 157
Appendix 1: Pohl’s Similarities between Glooscap and Henry Sinclair 165
Appendix 2: The Zeno Narrative, R. H. Major Translation (1873) 167
Appendix 3: The Zeno Narrative, Fred W. Lucas Translation (1898) 180
Appendix 4: James P. Whittall’s Twenty Tenets on the Newport Tower 195
Chapter Notes 199
Bibliography 231
Index 249

About the Author
David Goudsward is the author of numerous articles and publications on genealogy and New England megalithic sites. He is a frequent lecturer on genealogical and historical topics. He lives in Lake Worth, Florida.

Elizabeth I in Film and Television--Coming Soon from McFarland

2010-11-28T21:43:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth I in Film and Television: A Study of the Major Portrayals
Bethany Latham

ISBN 978-0-7864-3718-4
photos, notes, filmography, bibliography, index
softcover (7 x 10) 2011
Price: $45.00
Not Yet Published, Available Spring/Summer 2011

Description
This analysis of how filmmakers have portrayed England’s Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), and the audience’s perception of Elizabeth based upon these portrayals, examines key representations of the Tudor monarch in various motion pictures and television miniseries. It appraises of the productions themselves and the actresses who have portrayed Elizabeth, among them Bette Davis, Glenda Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave, Judy Dench, Cate Blanchett and Helen Mirren, as well as Quentin Crisp’s cross-dressing appearance as the Queen in Orlando (1992). The text focuses on the historical context of the period in which each film or miniseries was made; the extent of the portrayals of Elizabeth; and how these representations have influenced the characterization of Elizabeth on film, as well as popular understanding of the historical Queen.

About the Author
Bethany Latham is an associate professor and electronic resources/documents librarian at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. Her articles have appeared in such publications as Reference Reviews and Library Journal. She is managing editor of The Historical Novels Review.

New/Recent from Palgrave Macmillan

2010-11-28T21:21:00.019-05:00

Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media (NOW IN PAPERBACK)
Richard Burt

Palgrave Macmillan, 12/21/2010
ISBN: 978-0-230-10560-7, ISBN10: 0-230-10560-2
6 x 9 1/4 inches, 294 pages,
Trade Paperback $28.00
Hardcover $79.00

Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media contextualizes historical films in an innovative way--not only relating them to the history of cinema, but also to premodern and early modern media. This philological approach to the (pre)history of cinema engages both old media such as scrolls, illuminated manuscripts, the Bayeux Tapestry, and new digital media such as DVDs, HD DVDs, and computers. Burt examines the uncanny repetitions that now fragment films into successively released alternate cuts and extras (footnote tracks, audiocommentaries, and documentaries) that (re)structure and reframe historical films, thereby presenting new challenges to historicist criticism and film theory. With a double focus on recursive narrative frames and the cinematic paratexts of medieval and early modern film, this book calls our attention to strange, sometimes opaque phenomena in film and literary theory that have previously gone unrecognized.

Contents:

Introduction: Film Before and After New Media, Anec-notology, and the Philological Uncanny
The Medieval and Early Modern Cinematographosphere: De-composing Paratexts, Media Analogues, and the Living Dead Hands of Surrealism, Psychoanalysis, and New Historicism
The Passion of El Cid and the Circumfixion of Cinematic History: Stereotypology/Phantomimesis/Cryptomorphoses
Cutting and (Re)Running from the (Medieval) Middle East: The Return of the Film Epic and the Uncanny Mise-hors-scènes of Kingdom of Heaven’s Double DVDs
Le détour de Martin Guerre: “Anec-notes” of Historical Film Advisors, Archival Aberrations, and the Uncanny Subject of the Academic Paratext
Epilegomenon: Anec-Post-It-Note to Self: Freud, Greenblatt, and the New Historicist Uncanny

The Author:

Richard Burt is Professor of English and Film and Media Studies at the University of Florida. He is the author of Unspeakable ShaXXXspeares: Queer Theory and American Kiddie Culture; Licensed by Authority: Ben Jonson and the Discourses of Censorship; and the editor of Shakespeare After Shakespeare; Shakespeare After Mass Media; and The Administration of Aesthetics. Burt also co-edited a special issue of Exemplaria on “Movie Medievalism” and held a Fulbright scholarship in Berlin, Germany from 1995–96.

Women Writers and Nineteenth-Century Medievalism: Nineteenth-Century Major Lives and Letters
Clare Broome Saunders

Palgrave Macmillan, January 2009
ISBN: 978-0-230-60793-4, ISBN10: 0-230-60793-4,
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 244 pages,
Hardcover $85.00

In a thoughtful and detailed study, Women Writers and Nineteenth-Century Medievalism considers the ways in which women poets, biographers, and historians used medieval motifs and settings to enable them to comment on controversial contemporary issues. Broome Saunders’ illuminating discussion focuses on women working during the socio-political and religious upheaval of the nineteenth century and mines the poetry of Felicia Hemans, Letitia Landon, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning; portrayals of Joan of Arc and Guinevere in art and literature; and non-fiction sources such as women’s letters and diaries during the Napoleonic and Crimean Wars.

Contents:

Recasting the Courtly: Translations of Medieval Language and Form in the Nineteenth Century
“Though Females are Forbidden to Interfere in Politics”: War, Medievalism, and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Writer
“It’s Strictly the Woman’s Part and Men Understand it So”: Romance, Gender and the Spectacle of the Crimean
The End of Chivalry?: Joan of Arc and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Writer
Queenship, Chivalry and “Queenly” Women in the Age of Victoria
Guinevere: The Medieval Queen in the Nineteenth Century
Re-reading Guinevere: Women Illustrators, Tennyson and Morris

The Author:

Clare Broome Saunders is Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. She has written on Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Louisa Stuart Costello, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and her work has appeared in Victorian Poetry.

Popular Medievalism in Romantic-Era Britain: Nineteenth-Century Major Lives and Letters
Clare A. Simmons

Palgrave Macmillan, 2/1/2011
ISBN: 978-0-230-10374-0, ISBN10: 0-230-10374-X,
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 256 pages, Includes: 5 pgs figs,
Hardcover $80.00

Popular Medievalism in Romantic-Era Britain examines ways in which British writers and readers used the idea of the Middle Ages to challenge contemporary political structures and to claim historical national rights at a time when fears that Britain would follow the example of the French Revolution caused the British government to undermine individual and collective rights. Through the consideration of canonical authors such as Blake, Scott, and Wordsworth and of lesser-studied works such as radical press writings and popular drama, this study suggests that the imaginative appeal to the social structures and literary forms of the Middle Ages served as a powerful means of raising awareness of Britain’s past and the tradition of freedom.

Contents:

Rites and Rights: The Topography of Ancient British Law
The National Melody
Medievalism Onstage in the French Revolutionary Era
The Radical Bestiary
Buried Alive: Gothic Reading and Medievalist Subjectivity
Scottish Lawyers, Feudal Law

The Author:

Clare A. Simmons is a Professor of English at The Ohio State University. She is the author of Reversing the Conquest: History and Myth in Nineteenth-Century British Literature; Eyes Across the Channel: French Revolutions, Party History, and British Writing 1830-1882; and numerous essays on nineteenth-century British literature. She is the co-editor of Prose Studies and has edited the essay collection Medievalism and the Quest for the “Real” Middle Ages and Charlotte Mary Yonge’s novel The Clever Woman of the Family.

Medievalism, Multilingualism, and Chaucer
The New Middle Ages
Mary Catherine Davidson

Palgrave Macmillan, December 2009
ISBN: 978-0-230-60297-7, ISBN10: 0-230-60297-5,
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 224 pages,
Hardcover $90.00

Medievalism, Multilingualism, and Chaucer examines multilingual identity in the writing of Gower, Langland, and Chaucer. Mary Catherine Davidson traces monolingual habits of inquiry to nineteenth-century attitudes toward French, which had first influenced popular constructions of medieval English in such historical novels as Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. In re-reading medieval traditions in the origins of English from Geoffrey of Monmouth, this book describes how multilingual practices reflected attitudes toward English in the age of Chaucer.

Contents:

Introduction: Monolingualism and Middle English Traditions of Contact and Conflict in the History of English Medievalism and Monolingualism
Hengist’s Tongue: A Medieval History of Middle English
"And in Latyn . . . a wordes fewe”: Contact and Medieval Conformity
Multilingual Writing and William Langland Chaucer’s “Diversite”
Afterword: Postcolonialism and Chaucer’s English

The Author:

Mary Catherine Davidson is Assistant Professor of English at Glendon College, York University.

Finding Saint Francis in Literature and Art
The New Middle Ages
Edited by Cynthia Ho, Beth A. Mulvaney, and John K. Downey

Palgrave Macmillan, July 2009
ISBN: 978-0-230-60286-1, ISBN10: 0-230-60286-X,
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 240 pages,
Hardcover $89.95

Finding Saint Francis in Literature and Art demonstrates that remembering Saint Francis of Assisi should take place on many levels. The authors in this collection of essays use the tools of various intellectual disciplines to examine what we now know about Saint Francis in his own era and how the story of Il Poverello has been appropriated in our own times. This critical re-discovery of the artistic and textual narratives of Francis of Assisi contributes to our cultural memory by reflecting on the continuities and changes in the way Francis is understood.

Contents:

PART I: Francis in Medieval Text and Painting
Franciscan Spirituality and Narrative at Assisi: The Legend of St. Francis in Text and Painting--Beth Mulvaney
The Miraculous Moment: Expressing the Spiritual Experience in Thirteenth-Century Frescos at Assisi--Janet Snyder
Francis Preaching to the Sultan: Art in the Hagiography of a Saint--Mahmood Ibrahim

PART II: Franciscan Devotion
The Wolf in the Forest: St. Francis and the Italian Eremitical Tradition--Rodger Payne
What Has Paris to Do with Assisi? The Theological Creation of a Saint--John V. Apczynski
Franciscans in the World--Felix Heap and Jesus Gonzales
The Visual Piety of the Sacro Monte di Orta--Cynthia Ho

PART III: Francis Remembered in New Contexts
A Christian Modernist and the Awe of Nature as Presented in Olivier Messiaen’s Opera, Saint François d’Assise--John McClain
Constructing Saint Francis for the Twenty-first Century--Janet McCann
Capturing the Gravity and Grace of St. Francis of Assisi on Stage: A Study of Divine Reciprocity--John Bowers
St. Francis in the Twenty-first Century--John Hart
Canticle of Memory: Political Theology and Francis of Assisi--John Downey

The Authors:

Cynthia Ho is Professor of Literature and Language and Director of the Humanities Program at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. Previously, she served as Chair of the Literature and Language Department and as the National Endowment for the Humanities Chair for the Humanities. She recently edited Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on Heian Japanese and Medieval European Women.

Beth A. Mulvaney is Professor of Art at Meredith College where she is Director of the Honors Program. She has written on the frescoes of St. Francis at San Francesco, Assisi and the artists Duccio and Giotto.

John K. Downey is Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University and a former Director of the Coolidge Research Colloquium. He is co-editor of Missing God? Cultural Amnesia and Political Theology.

The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games--New from McFarland

2010-11-28T18:56:00.000-05:00

The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games

Michael J. Tresca

ISBN 978-0-7864-5895-0

10 photos, glossary, bibliography, index

238pp. softcover 2011

Buy Now!

Price: $35.00

Book Launch March 2011

Description

Tracing the evolution of fantasy gaming from its origins in tabletop war and collectible card games to contemporary web-based live action and massive multi-player games, this book examines the archetypes and concepts within the fantasy gaming genre alongside the roles and functions of the game players themselves. Other topics include: how The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings helped shape fantasy gaming through Tolkien’s obsessive attention to detail and virtual world building; the community-based fellowship embraced by players of both play-by-post and persistent browser-based games, despite the fact that these games are fundamentally solo experiences; the origins of gamebooks and interactive fiction; and the evolution of online gaming in terms of technological capabilities, media richness, narrative structure, coding authority, and participant roles.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface 1

Introduction 5

1. The Lord of the Rings 23

2. Collectible Card Games and Miniature Wargames 47

3. Tabletop Role-Playing Games 59

4. Play-By-Post and Browser-Based Games 92

5. Gamebooks and Interactive Fiction 100

6. Multi-User Dungeons 111

7. Computer Role-Playing Games 134

8. Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games 162

9. Live Action Role-Playing Games 181

Conclusion 200

Glossary 203

Sources 207

Index 217

About the Author

Game designer, author, and artist Michael J. Tresca has authored numerous supplements and adventures for publishers of fantasy role-playing games. An administrator at RetroMUD, he lives in Connecticut.

Help identifying a still

2010-11-22T00:42:00.001-05:00

I am trying to identify another still and welcome your help. I know the image is from a version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame but not WHICH one. Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

Michael Torregrossa

New/Recent Arthurian Films

2010-11-10T00:07:00.002-05:00

A reminder that updates on Arthurian films, including this week's telefilm Avalon High, can be found on the Are You From Camelot? Blog.

SyFy November 2010

2010-11-10T00:05:00.001-05:00

The following represent this month's medieval-themed listings from SyFy. As always, the complete schedule for the month can be found at http://www.syfy.com/schedule/index.php.

TUES, NOV 9

06:00 PM
Stargate SG-1
Thor's Chariot

WEDNES, NOV 17

01:00 AM
Movie
Merlin's Apprentice - Part One
03:00 AM
Movie
Merlin's Apprentice - Part Two

FRI, NOV 26

08:00 AM
Movie Marathon
Highlander: The Source

SUN, NOV 28

09:00 PM
Movie Marathon
Eragon

MON, NOV 29

01:00 AM
Movie Marathon: Syfy Original Movie
Fire And Ice
03:00 AM
Movie Marathon: Syfy Original Movie
Dragon Storm

Also airing Highlander.

Chiller November 2010

2010-11-09T23:50:00.001-05:00

The following represent this month's medieval-themed listings for Chiller. My apologies for the delay in posting, there was a bug on the schedule page.

Complete month's schedule at http://www.chillertv.com/schedule/.

SUN, NOV 14

08:00 AM
Supernatural Sciences King Arthur
09:00 AM
Special Cracking The Da Vinci Code
11:00 AM
Supernatural Sciences King Arthur
12:00 PM
Special Cracking The Da Vinci Code

MON, NOV 22

09:00 AM
Forever Knight Father's Day
10:00 AM
Forever Knight Undue Process
11:00 AM
Forever Knight Bad Blood
12:00 PM
Forever Knight Can't Run, Can't Hide
01:00 PM
Forever Knight Capital Offense
02:00 PM
Forever Knight Amateur Night

WEDNES, NOV 24

10:00 PM
Vampire Week Dracula's Curse (2006)

THURS, NOV 25

02:30 AM
Vampire Week Dracula's Curse (2006)

Also airing this month: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Poltergeist: The Legacy.

Further Calls for Papers

2010-11-09T23:14:00.000-05:00

Additional calls for papers have been posted to the SF, Fantasy, & Legend Area Blog including:

CFP: The Return of the Ring (11/11/11; Loughborough University 8/16-20/12)

CFP: "European Traditions of the Fantastic" for Fastitocalon volume II (2011) (No. 2 11/15/10)

CFP: Mythcon 42 (n.d.; Albuquerque, NM 7/15-18/11)

2010-11-09T22:34:00.000-05:00

I just posted a call for Mythcon 42 on the SF, Fantasy, & Legend Area Blog. The conference theme, "Monsters, Marvels, and Minstrels: The Rise of Modern Medievalism," is of interest to medievalists as well.

Chiller October 2010

2010-10-01T23:14:00.000-04:00

Here are the relevant listings for Chiller. The complete month's schedule can be accessed at http://www.chillertv.com/schedule/.

SUN, 10 OCT
09:00 AM
Sanctuary Fata Morgana
[Arthurian]

WEDNES, 13 OCT
09:00 AM
Forever Knight Killer Instinct
10:00 AM
Forever Knight A Fate Worse Than Death
11:00 AM
Forever Knight Stranger Than Fiction
12:00 PM
Forever Knight Forward Into The Past
01:00 PM
Forever Knight Hunted
02:00 PM
Forever Knight Faithful Followers

THURS, 14 OCT
03:30 PM
Monsters Sleeping Dragon
[relevance unknown]

SyFy October 2010 Listings

2010-10-01T22:04:00.000-04:00

Here are the this month's relevant listings for SyFy. The complete month can be accessed at http://www.syfy.com/schedule/index.php?__source=Syfy_Global_Nav.

FRI, 1 OCT

09:00 AM
31 Days Of Halloween Movie
Dark Prince: The True Story Of Dracula

SAT, 9 OCT
05:00 PM
31 Days Of Halloween: Syfy Original Movie
Thor: Hammer Of The Gods

SUN, 10 OCT
03:00 AM
31 Days Of Halloween: Syfy Original Movie
Rock Monster

MON, 11 OCT
03:30 AM
31 Days Of Halloween Movie
Beowulf (1999)

FRI, 15 OCT
08:00 AM
31 Days Of Halloween: Syfy Original Movie
Dark Relic
10:00 AM
31 Days Of Halloween: Syfy Original Movie
Grendel
12:00 PM
31 Days Of Halloween Movie
Beowulf (1999)

TUES, 19 OCT
11:00 AM
31 Days Of Halloween Movie
Dracula 3000: Infinite Darkness

WEDNES, 20 OCT
01:00 PM
31 Days Of Halloween Movie
Rise Of The Gargoyles
03:00 PM
31 Days Of Halloween: Syfy Original Movie
Reign Of The Gargoyles

TUES., 26 OCT
01:00 AM
31 Days Of Halloween: Syfy Original Movie
Reign Of The Gargoyles

WEDNES, 27 OCT
8:00 AM
Ghost Hunters International
The Spirit Of Robin Hood
01:00 PM
Ghost Hunters
New Hampshire Gothic

FRI, 29 OCT
03:00 AM
31 Days Of Halloween Movie
Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 3: Legacy

SAT, 30 OCT
06:30 PM
31 Days Of Halloween Movie
Underworld

CFP: 23rd International Arthurian Congress (10/1/10; Bristol, UK 7/25-30/11)

2010-09-29T21:42:00.001-04:00

Arthurian Congress 2011
XXIIIrd Triennial Congress of the International Arthurian Society - Bristol, 25-30 July 2011
(complete details at http://www.bris.ac.uk/medievalcentre/arthur/english/index_html)

Conference Location

We are pleased to announce that the 23rd International Congress of the International Arthurian Society will be hosted by the University of Bristol, 25 - 30 July 2011.

Bristol is a thriving city in the South-West of England with a rich medieval history. It has many attractions, medieval and modern, and is ideally located for excursions to places associated with the Arthurian legend, and also to major tourist attractions such as the cities of Bath, Wells and Hereford.

All congress lectures and papers will take place in the University’s imposing Wills Memorial Building, right in the middle of Bristol’s bustling city centre. In addition to a wide range of nearby hotels and a YHA Youth Hostel, cheap single-room accommodation (not en-suite) is available in Clifton Hill House, an attractive student hall of residence in the picturesque area of Clifton, within easy walking distance of the university’s Wills Memorial Building.

Conference Themes and Call for Papers

The conference themes are as follows:

Arthurian ideals and identities.
Late Arthurian romance.
Narrative techniques and styles.
Arthurian manuscripts and early printed editions.
Arthurian images and iconography.
The supernatural and spirituality in the Arthurian world.

If you would like to present a paper on one of the conference themes, please send a brief title and a summary not exceeding 250 words to reach the organisers by 1 October 2010 at the latest; indicate which of the conference themes you wish to address by assigning it the number of the corresponding theme (nos. 1-6). Papers should if possible fit one (or more) of the themes, but if your proposal does not, please assign it the number 7. We also ask you to provide the following personal information: name; affiliation; postal address; e-mail address; number of people accompanying you; where you are thinking of staying (hotel/ youth hostel or University student accommodation).

We also invite proposals for organised sessions and Round Tables linked to the conference themes, both restricted to 90 minutes in length. To propose a Round Table, please send us a brief description of the topic you wish to explore, along with the names and personal details (as above) of at least two members of the society who have already agreed to offer short introductory contributions, and the number of the relevant conference theme.

To propose a session, please send us a brief rationale for the session, the number of the relevant conference theme, and the names and personal details (as above) of those members of the society who have agreed to contribute a paper to the session, and summaries of each of the papers. Sessions should consist of either two or three papers. Proposals for both Round Tables and organised sessions should be submitted to the organisers by 1 September 2010 at the latest.

Please send all proposals for papers, Round Tables, and organised sessions by e-mail to Arthur-2011@bristol.ac.uk

If you do not use e-mail, please send your proposal by post either to Professor Elizabeth Archibald or to Professor Ad Putter, English Department, University of Bristol, 5 Woodland Road, Bristol, England, BS8 1TB, marking your envelope with the phrase ‘Arthur2011’.

Sessions and Excursions

The conference will feature five plenary lectures, given by a truly international range of leading Arthurian scholars:

Bart Besamusca (University of Utrecht)
Siân Echard (University of British Columbia)
Christine Ferlampin-Acher (University of Rennes)
Helen Fulton (University of York)
Andrew Lynch (University of Western Australia)

There will be excursions to sites of Arthurian and medieval interest including Caerleon, Glastonbury, and Hereford.

In addition, we will be holding several masterclasses for postgraduate students, including one on publishing, and one on Arthurian texts in need of further study.

Help with Hellboy

2010-09-26T23:13:00.000-04:00

I am seeking the assistance of someone who would be willing to read and provide a summary of 2 essays in Spanish devoted to the Hellboy comic. The summaries will be included the bibliographic guide to medieval comics scholarship designed to accompany The Medieval Comics Project/The Arthur of the Comics Project.

The two articles can be accessed at the following links:

Hernández, Santiago Cortés. "de Roberto el Diablo narrativa de un héroe de la Edad Media al cómic"

http://rlp.culturaspopulares.org/textos/16/07-Cortes.pdf

López, Jose Luis Cardero. "Hellboy y las Presencias de Otros Mundos.(El Chico del Infierno frente a los Dioses Primordiales)"

http://serbal.pntic.mec.es/AParteRei/cardero61.pdf

Upcoming Movies

2010-09-26T22:02:00.000-04:00

Here are the trailers for two upcoming films the fantasy film Sucker Punch and Tangled, Disney's take on Rapunzel.

Kalamazoo 2010

2010-09-15T22:03:00.000-04:00

The following represents the details for our sponsored session for next year's International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. Many thanks to everyone for their interest.

Twenty-first Century Medievalisms: Re-envisioning the Medieval in the Contemporary World (Roundtable)

Sponsor: The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa (The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages)

Presider: Carl James Grindley (Eugenio María de Hostos Community College)

Paper 1: “Siegfried the Volk-Song: Examining the Interpretations of Siegfried the Dragon-Slayer and the Making of a National History”

Peter H. Johnsson (San Francisco State University)

Paper 2: “Analysis of Arthurian Film Reviews”

Laurie Rizzo (University of Delaware)

Paper 3: “Beowulf in the Twenty-First Century”

Suanna H. Davis (Houston Community College: Central)

Paper 4: “I Want to Believe: Finding the Medieval in The X-Files”

Rebecca Johnson (Princeton University)

Kalamazoo Roundtable

2010-09-07T12:29:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to report that the Society has managed a viable session for the topic "Twenty-first Century Medievalisms: Re-envisioning the Medieval in the Contemporary World (Roundtable)" for next year's Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo. Session details will be posted later this week.

Society eJournal?

2010-09-02T16:06:00.001-04:00

Dear readers and followers,

I am still investigating the possibilities of an ejournal for the society and would appreciate any advice and offers to serve on the editorial board. My feeling is that most scholarship on popular medievalism is neither accessible to nor able to be accessed by the majority of enthusiasts (both academic and nonacademic) and would envision the ejournal as a step towards rectifying these issues.

Comments can be made to the blog or sent to me directly.

Michael Torregrossa, Listserv Moderator/ Blog Editor
Co-Founder, The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

SyFy September 2010 Listings

2010-09-02T00:37:00.000-04:00

Here are this month's listings for SyFy (not Syfy, as I've been posting). As always, the complete listing can be found at SyFy's website.

SUN, 5 SEPT
12:00 PM Movie Marathon: Eragon
02:00 PM Movie Marathon: Highlander: The Source
09:00 PM Movie Marathon: League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The (includes a medieval League)

MON, 6 SEPT
02:00 AM Movie Marathon: Eragon
06:00 PM Movie Marathon: League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The
08:30 PM Movie Marathon: Underworld

SAT, 11 SEPT
09:00 PM Syfy Original Movie: Mandrake [PREMIERE]

SUN, 12 SEPT
01:00 AM Syfy Original Movie: Mandrake
03:00 AM Syfy Original Movie: Book Of Beasts, The

MON, 13 SEPT
12:00 PM Early Edition: Gun (interesting allusion to Merlin)

WEDNES, 15 SEPT
Merlin Season Two mini-marathon
08:00 AM Merlin: Beauty And The Beast - Part 1 (two-part episde with a unique twist on the Loathly Lady motif)
09:00 AM Merlin: Beauty And The Beast - Part 2
10:00 AM Merlin: The Witchfinder
11:00 AM Merlin: The Sins Of The Father

THURS, 16 SEPT
10:00 PM Beast Legends: Fire Dragon (this seems to be a new show--the episode airs many times this month)

FRI, 17 SEPT
01:00 AM Beast Legends: Fire Dragon

SAT, 18 SEPT
02:00 AM Beast Legends: Fire Dragon

SUN, 19 SEPT
10:00 AM Beast Legends: Fire Dragon

TUES, 21 SEPT
03:00 AM Sanctuary: Fata Morgana (Arthurian-themed)

THURS, 23 SEPT
07:00 PM Beast Legends: Fire Dragon

SUN, 26 SEPT
11:00 AM Movie: Beowulf (1999)
01:00 PM Syfy Original Movie: Rock Monster (featuring a sword in a stone and a medieval-era wizard)
09:00 PM Syfy Original Movie: Mandrake

THURS, 30 SEPT
01:30 PM Movie: League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The
10:00 PM Beast Legends: Winged Lion

FRI, 1 OCT
01:00 AM Beast Legends: Winged Lion

Also airing this month: Highlander, Invasion, Jeremiah, and Warehouse 13.

Chiller September 2010 Listings

2010-09-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

Here are Chiller's offerings for the month. My apologies for the delay. As always, the complete schedule can be found online.

WEDNES, 1 SEPT
Forever Night Marathon (series info. at Wikipedia)
09:00 AM
   Forever Knight    Dying For Fame
10:00 AM
   Forever Knight    Only The Lonely
11:00 AM
   Forever Knight    Unreality Tv
12:00 PM
   Forever Knight    Feeding The Beast
01:00 PM
   Forever Knight    If Looks Could Kill
02:00 PM
   Forever Knight    Fatal Mistake
03:00 PM
   Forever Knight    1966
04:00 PM
   Forever Knight    Love You To Death

SUN, 12 SEPT
09:00 AM
   True Horror    Dracula
12:00 PM
   True Horror    Dracula

MON, 20 SEPT
07:00 AM
   Poltergeist: The Legacy    The Last Good Knight (the Holy Grail episode: details at LegacyWeb.com)

WEDNES, 22 SEPT
04:00 AM
   Poltergeist: The Legacy    The Last Good Knight

SUN, 26 SEPT
09:00 AM
   Special    Cracking The Da Vinci Code
12:00 PM
   Special    Cracking The Da Vinci Code

TUES, 28 SEPT
01:30 PM
   The Twilight Zone    The Last Defender Of Camelot (based on the short story by Roger Zelazny: Merlin enlists Lancelot in his centuries-long struggle against Morgan le Fay)

Also airing this month: Poltergeist: The Legacy and Twin Peaks.

New: Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog: Medieval Studies and New Media

2010-08-31T14:29:00.000-04:00

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog: Medieval Studies and New Media

The New Middle Ages
Brantley L. Bryant

Palgrave Macmillan, April 2010
ISBN: 978-0-230-10507-2, ISBN10: 0-230-10507-6,
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 212 pages

Trade Paperback $25.00
Hardcover $85.00

Medieval Studies and New Mediapresents all of the most memorable posts of the medievalist internet phenomenon "Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog," newly revised and updated, along with essays on the genesis of the blog itself, the role of internet blogs in medieval scholarship, and the unique pleasures of studying a time period full of plagues, schisms, and assizes. “Le Vostre GC” and medievalists Bonnie Wheeler, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, and Robert W. Hanning draw new conclusions about the ways medieval studies are perceived, the connection between the past and the present, and the historical roots of popular culture.

Table of Contents

PART I: Medievalism, Blogging, and Popular Culture * Why Ye Sholde Nat Rede this Book--John Gower * Introduction--Bonnie Wheeler * Playing Chaucer--Geoffrey “LeVostreGC” Chaucer * Blogging the Middle Ages--Jeffrey Jerome Cohen * PART II: Medieval Recreations * Chaucerians Do It With Pronounced E’s and Other Risible Relics of a Career in the Medieval Trenches--Robert W. Hanning * Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog 2006-2009--Geoffrey “LeVostreGC” Chaucer et al.

Authors:
Brantley L. Bryant: Geoffrey “LeVostreGC” Chaucer blogs at houseoffame.blogspot.com and is working on a forthcoming poem collecting the “tales” of a group of pilgrims on the way to Canterbury.

Bonnie Wheeler is Professor of English at Southern Methodist University where she directs the Medieval Studies Program. She has edited and co-edited fourteen books, among them The Letters of Heloise and Abelard and Heloise and the Paraclete (with Mary Martin McLaughlin).

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen is Associate Professor of English at George Washington University. He blogs at “In the Middle” (http://www.inthemedievalmiddle.com) and is the author of The Postcolonial Middle Ages; Hybridity, Identity, Monstrosity and Cultural Diversity in the British Middle Ages.

Robert W. Hanning is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of The Vision of History in Early Britain and The Individual in Twelfth-Century Romance.