106-038 Medievalism in Contemporary Culture

Formerly available as 106-255/355. Students who have completed 106-255 or 106-355 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually 25 points of first-year English, see Prerequisites.

This subject interrogates the persistent popularity of medieval themes and stories in contemporary film, fiction, and children's literature. It will consider some medieval narratives which inspire a tradition of revisionary re-writing, as well as modern 'inventions' of the medieval in a range of cultural forms. Through a study of the major patterns in the re-invention of medieval literature, students will be encouraged to think about what these texts reveal about the relations of modernity and postmodernity with the medieval past, and the social and political meaning of the medieval in contemporary representations.

Class participation, and written work totalling 4000 words.

A subject reader will be available.

• Seamus Heaney trans., Beowulf.
• J K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Bloomsbury.
• Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur. 2 volumes, Penguin.
• Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon.
• Karen Cushman, The Midwife's Apprentice. Macmillan.
• Films:, Shrek.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
• A Knight's Tale.
• Braveheart.
• Robin Hood.