VS-Literatures of Medieval Britain: Appropriating the Medieval Past: The Political Middle Ages in Literary and Cultural Discourse
Peter Löffelbein
Comments
The Middle Ages keep playing an important role in the cultural imagination of the modern (Western) world. Literary and cultural productions – from video games to TV series and fantasy literature – continue to return to the Middle Ages as modernity’s Other, alternately casting them as a ‘Dark Age’ of cruelty, ignorance and superstition, or as an idealized era of authenticity and social cohesion.
Inevitably, these conceptions carry ideological implications concerning social identities, societal dynamics, and the body politic. Conversely, political discourse has long been using and abusing the Middle Ages and their representation in literature and culture: the most telling cases include the 19th-century formation of national identities, the Chartist movement for social reform, fascist ideologies, and contemporary debates surrounding neo-feudalism and techno-feudalism.
In this seminar, we will examine the political dimensions of the Middle Ages in literary and cultural discourse, including the appropriation of ‘the medieval’ in political discussions past and present. By discussing literary texts, select other forms of cultural production, and political analyses, students shall become familiar with historical and contemporary manifestations of medievalism and learn to analyse its incidental and strategic uses in various discursive fields.
16 Class schedule
Regular appointments