‘Otherness’ in the Middle Ages ed. by Hans-Werner Goetz and Ian N. Wood (review)

Abstract

Both Shiloh Carroll and Karen A. Winstead offer critiques of toxic masculinity, the representation of trauma resulting from sexual violence, and the ‘muscular medievalism’ that the series relies on. Carroll offers a detailed analysis of the emasculation of the character Theon Greyjoy, a tool used to explain his trauma resulting from sexual violence, while Winstead draws on the parallels between medieval virgin-martyr legends and the women in George R. R. Martin’s series who are pawns in the game of brutal sexualised violence that the men play. S. C. Thompson offers a detailed analysis of Maria Dahvana Headley’s The Mere Wife (2018), which retells Beowulf for a twentieth-century readership. Thompson shows how Headley subtly draws on the medieval (see, for example, p. 221), including how Headley’s work relies on networks of relationships as well as a sense of duality amongst its characters. The contrasting matriarchal figures of Dana and Willa each has their own different maternal styles and relationships with their sons, and this is mirrored by Headley’s decision to split Beowulf’s Grendel into two characters, namely Dana’s and Willa’s sons Gren and Dylan. Scott Manning’s fascinating essay on the Ringling Bros. Circus’s spectacle about Joan of Arc’s life concludes the collection. The anachronistic spectacles, a mix of medieval, Renaissance, and Victorian medievalism, were intended to entertain with their lavish display of pomp and ceremony, as well as convey piety and patriotism to the early twentieth-century American audiences. The collection should be commended for its focus on global medievalism and for highlighting medievalism in lesser-known adaptations and texts, both literary and cultural. Overall, this timely collection will be of interest to those interested in how the medieval is invoked by and invokes the political (especially the focus on nationalism and extremism), medievalism in performance and popular culture (particularly in Game of Thrones, which is the focus of several of the essays), and medievalism in general. Marina Gerzić, The University of Western Australia