International Medievalism and Popular Culture ed. by Louise D'arcens and Andrew Lynch (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: International Medievalism and Popular Culture ed. by Louise D'arcens and Andrew Lynch Kevin J. Harty louise d'arcens and andrew lynch, eds. International Medievalism and Popular Culture. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2022. Pp. xxx, 251 (with 18 b&w illustrations). isbn: 978–1–63857–110–0. $59.95. The paperback reissue of International Medievalism and Popular Culture—first published in hardback in 2014—is significant for three reasons. First, it reminds us that medievalism is now finally a recognized area of rigorous academic inquiry. We have come a long way from when, in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Leslie J. Workman and Kathleen Verduin had to make the scholarly case that medievalism was something more than the stepchild (or bastard!) of the more serious and important field of medieval studies. Second, the reissue of this collection of essays reminds readers of the important work being done on medievalism by our colleagues in Australia, who contribute all but two of the essays in this volume. And third, these essays by diverse hands remind us of the many ways in which the cultures of the Middle Ages have found expression in the modern and post-modern worlds in Australia and beyond. In their introduction, the editors lay out the argument advanced collectively by the essays in this volume: 'The "popular Middle Ages" has travelled a long way from its nationalistic origins, entering a realm in which the labels national, postcolonial, transnational, international, and global all require as much revisitation and renegotiation as that most slippery of all terms, the medieval' (p. xxvi). Clare Monagle follows the introduction with a discussion of how Hedley Bull's The Anarchial Society (1977) and its paradigm for the New Medievalism continue to offer a problematic approach both to theories about international relations and to the ways in which medievalism has been and continues to be used (and misused) in public discourse. Helen Dell next offers an analysis of how and why the Harry Potter franchise infuriated members of the Christian Right and thwarted their attempts to insulate their children from the wider world. Louise D'Arcens moves on to a comparative discussion of how three Ridley Scott films—Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Body of Lies (2008), and the 2010 Robin Hood—are imperfect exercises in defining international and domestic medievalism. In Scott's case, D'Arcens argues, the road to Hell. … John M. Ganim approaches the relationship between the Middle Ages and the Arab Spring though an examination of what he labels 'the built environment of the Islamic world' (p. 59). Using architectural projects funded by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Ganim argues that these projects reuse parts of the fabric of medieval Islam, often found in Western discussions of orientalism, for new and not-yet-fully defined purposes. Helen Hickey and Stephanie Trigg document the medievalism appropriated in the nineteenth century by the Australian United Tinsmiths to support their efforts to achieve fair wages and decent working conditions. Karen Hall switches genres in her essay on the medievalism on display in contemporary Australian visual art by Alexia Sinclair, G.W. Bot, Irene Barberis, and Laith McGregor, whose works reflect the 'ability of fragments and traces of the medieval to speak to the present' (p. 119). Nickolas Haydock analyzes the forms of medievalism in Julia Kristeva's 2006 novel Murder in Byzantium and concludes that the novel is a successful, but provocative, attempt to explore the links between the [End Page 106] Crusades and contemporary Western military interventions in the Middle East. Chantal Bourgault du Coudray's essay is a reflection on the character Little Red Riding Hood and the implications across multiple disciplines that the oft retold multi-genre tale of a young girl alone and lost in the forest has. Laurie Ormond's essay serves as both an introduction to contemporary Australian fantasy fiction and an admission that such fiction raises not-easily-answered questions about the vulnerability of women to male sexual violence. The emphasis in these fictional works on female vulnerability can be read as both countering and reinforcing gender stereotypes. Anne McKendry follows with a discussion that argues for the 'Australianness' of William Wallace, William Thatcher, and...