Neomedievalism, Popular Culture, and the Academy - (Medievalism) by Kelly Ann Fitzpatrick (Paperback)

About the Book

The medieval in the modern world is here explored in a variety of media, from film and book to gaming.

Book Synopsis

The medieval in the modern world is here explored in a variety of media, from film and book to gaming.

Medievalism - the ways in which post-medieval societies perceive, interpret, reimagine, or appropriate the Middle Ages - permeates popular culture. From Disney princesses to Game of Thrones, medieval fairs to World of Warcraft, contemporary culture keeps finding new ways to reinvent and repackage the period. Medievalism itself, then, continues to evolve while it is also subject to technological advances, prominent invocations in political discourse, and the changing priorities of the academy. This has led some scholars to adopt the term "neomedievalism", a concept originating in part from the work of the late Umberto Eco, which calls for new avenues of inquiry into the wayswe think about the medieval.
This book examines recent evolutions of (neo)medievalism across multiple media, from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to the film Beowulf and medieval gaming. These evolutions can take the form of what one might consider to be pop culture objects of critique (art, commodity, amusement park, video game) or academic tools of critique (monographs, articles, lectures, university seminars). It is by reconciling theseseemingly disparate forms that we can better understand the continual, interconnected, and often politicized reinvention of the Middle Ages in both popular and academic culture.

Review Quotes

[Fitzpatrick's work makes] worthwhile contributions to the field and and demonstrate[s] the breadth of this subject.--FOLKLORE

The ultimate value of this book for scholars is for us to be consciously thinking about books, films, and games as artifacts of neomedievalism in our teaching and our research. Doing so will open new horizons for what we can know about the medieval world and how we study it.-- "SPECULUM"

In this excellent volume Fitzpatrick (Georgia Institute of Technology) explores why academics and creators of literature, film, television, and gaming platforms continue to mine, represent, repurpose, and appropriate the history and culture of the Middle Ages. Highly Recommended.-- "CHOICE"