1st Edition

From Medievalism to Early-Modernism Adapting the English Past

Edited By Marina Gerzic, Aidan Norrie Copyright 2019
    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    From Medievalism to Early-Modernism: Adapting the English Past is a collection of essays that both analyses the historical and cultural medieval and early modern past, and engages with the medievalism and early-modernism—a new term introduced in this collection—present in contemporary popular culture. By focusing on often overlooked uses of the past in contemporary culture—such as the allusions to John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (1623) in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, and the impact of intertextual references and internet fandom on the BBC’s The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses—the contributors illustrate how cinematic, televisual, artistic, and literary depictions of the historical and cultural past not only re-purpose the past in varying ways, but also build on a history of adaptations that audiences have come to know and expect. From Medievalism to Early-Modernism: Adapting the English Past analyses the way that the medieval and early modern periods are used in modern adaptations, and how these adaptations both reflect contemporary concerns, and engage with a history of intertextuality and intervisuality.



    Acknowledgements





    List of Figures





    Notes on Contributors





    1. Introduction: Medievalism and Early-Modernism in Adaptations of the English Past



    Marina Gerzic and Aidan Norrie





    Section I: Cultural Medievalism and Early-Modernism





    2. Wonder Woman and the Nine Ladies Worthy: The Male Gaze and what it takes to be a ‘Worthy Woman’



    Simone Celine Marshall





    3. The King, the Sword, and the Stone: The Recent Afterlives of King Arthur



    Sarah Gordon





    4. Brand Chaucer: The Poet and the Nation



    Martin Laidlaw





    5. Moving between Life and Death: Horror films and the Medieval Walking Corpse



    Polina Ignatova





    6. From Cabaret to Gladiator: Refiguring Masculinity in Julie Taymor’s Titus



    Marina Gerzic





    7. "There’s My Exchange": The Hogarth Shakespeare



    Sheila T. Cavanagh





    8. Bloody Brothers and Suffering Sisters: The Duchess of Malfi and Harry Potter



    Lisa Hopkins





    Section II: Historical Medievalism and Early-Modernism





    9. Playing in a Virtual Medieval World: Video Game Adaptations of England through Role-play



    Ben Redder





    10. "I can piss on Calais from Dover": Adaptation and Medievalism in Graphic Novel Depictions of the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453)



    Iain A. MacInnes





    11. Beyond "tits and dragons": Medievalism, Medieval History, and Perceptions in Game of Thrones



    Hilary Jane Locke





    12. Re-fashioning Richard III: Intertextuality, Fandom, and the (Mobile) Body in The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses



    Marina Gerzic





    13. The Many Afterlives of Elizabeth Barton



    Annie Blachly





    14. The Queen, the Bishop, the Virgin, and the Cross: Catholicism versus Protestantism in Elizabeth



    Aidan Norrie





    15. "Unseen but very evident": Ghosts, Hauntings, and the Civil War Past



    Michael Durrant





    Index

    Biography

    Marina Gerzic works for the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at The University of Western Australia, in both research and administrative roles. She also works as the Executive Administrator for the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and as the editorial assistant for the academic journal Parergon. She has published articles on film and adaptation theory, Shakespeare, pedagogy, cinematic music, cultural studies, science fiction, comics and graphic novels, and children’s literature.





    Aidan Norrie is a historian of monarchy, and is currently a Chancellor’s International Scholar in the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at The University of Warwick. He is the editor, with Lisa Hopkins, of Women on the Edge in Early Modern Europe (Amsterdam University Press); and, with Mark Houlahan, of On the Edge of Early Modern English Drama (MIP University Press).



    "From Medievalism to Early-Modernism is a useful, engaging contribution to the growing body of scholarship interested in the ways in which the medieval and early modern periods have been rethought, adapted, and reinterpreted across centuries. In its innovative and fresh approach to the material, including insights gleaned from the disciplines of film and television studies, video game studies, and fan studies, it is likely to be of significant interest to scholars working on the complex, often surprising, afterlife of the medieval and early modern periods."

    – Stephanie Russo, Macquarie University, Parergon