To me, methought, who waited with a crowd,
There came a bark that, blowing forward, bore
King Arthur, like a modern gentleman
Of stateliest port; and all the people cried,
"Arthur is come again: he cannot die."

"Morte d'Arthur" (1842)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Arthuriana 21.1

I seem to have missed posting this earlier in the year (the journal is available in print and online to subscribers only):

Arthuriana 21.1
Table of Contents

Special Issue on Renaissance Arthurian Literature and C. S. Lewis
Guest edited by Ty Buckman and Charles Ross

An Arthurian Omaggio to Michael Murrin and James Nohrnberg
Ty Buckman and Charles Ross 3

Spenser and the Search for Asian Silk
Michael Murrin 7

The Mythical Method in Song, Saga, Prose and Verse: Part One
James C. Nohrnberg 20

'Arthurian Torsos' and Professor Nohrnberg's Unrepeatable Experiment
Ty Buckman 39

Arthuriana and the Limits of C. S. Lewis' Ariosto Marginalia
Charles Ross 46

Merlin, Magic, and the Meta-fantastic: The Matter of That Hideous Strength 66
Thomas L. Martin

Corcodiles and Crusades: Egypt in Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso 85
Jo Ann Cavallo

Delay the War but Not the Sex: Boiardo on Action and Time 97
Brady J. Spangenberg


REVIEWS

Karen Cherewatuk and K. S. Whetter, eds., The Arthurian Way of Death: The English Tradition
Keith Busby 110

Elizabeth Archibald and Ad Putter, eds, The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend
Alex Mueller 111

Curt Columbus, dir. 'Lerner & Loewe's Camelot'
Kevin J. Harty 113

Rosalind Field, Phillipa Hardman and Michelle Sweeney, eds., Christianity and Romance in Medieval England
Thomas H. Crofts 114

Helen Fulton, ed., A Companion to Arthurian Literature
Jane H. M. Taylor 116

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Harry Potter Studies from Edwin Mellen

Edwin Mellen Press has a long history with publishing Arthurian studies, and I just came across this book earlier in the month. A number of the essays (in red) reference parallels between the series and the Arthurian story, and the final essay by Perry offers a detailed analysis linking Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to the Arthurian novels of T. H. White.

Scholarly Studies in Harry Potter: Applying Academic Methods to a Popular Text
Hallett, Cynthia Whitney , editor
Series: Studies in British Literature Number: 99

ISBN10: 0-7734-6010-1 ISBN13: 978-0-7734-6010-2 Pages: 300 Year: 2005
Imprint: Edwin Mellen Press
USA List Price: $109.95 UK List Price: £ 69.95

This book is intended primarily for an academic audience, especially scholars – students and teachers – doing research and publication in categories such as myth and legend, children’s literature, and the Harry Potter series in particular. Additionally, it is meant for college and university teachers. However, the essays do not contain jargon that would put off an avid “lay” Harry Potter fan. Overall, this collection is an excellent addition to the growing analytical scholarship on the Harry Potter series; however, it is the first academic collection to offer practical methods of using Rowling’s novels in a variety of college and university classroom situations.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction – Serious Scholarship and Academic Hocus Pocus: Conjuring Harry Potter into the Canon (Cynthia Whitney Hallet)
1. Educating Harry Potter: A Muggle’s Perspective on Magic and Knowledge in the Wizard World of J. K. Rowling (Sarah E. Maier)
2. Harry Potter and the Temporal Prime Directive: Time Travel, Rule-Breaking, and Misapprehension in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Ron W. Cooley)
3. If yeh know where to go: Vision and Mapping in the Wizarding World (Jonathan P. Lewis)
4. A Basilisk, a Phoenix, and a Philosopher’s Stone: Harry Potter’s Myths and Legends (Peggy J. Huey)
5. Death and Rebirth: Harry Potter & the Mythology of the Phoenix (Sarah E. Gibbons)
6. The Harlequin in the Weasley Twins: Jesters in the Court of Prince Harry (and J. K. Rowling) (Rebecca Whitus Longster)
7. Lessons in Transfiguration: Allegories of Male Identity in Rowling’s Harry Potter Series (Casey Cothran)
– Conjuring Harry Potter into the Canon
8. Reading J. K. Rowling Magically: Creating C. S. Lewis’s “Good Reader” (Ernelle Fife)
9. The Problem of Identity in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Leigh A. Neithardt)
10. Of Young Magicians and Growing Up: J. K. Rowling, Her Critics, and the “Cultural Infantilism” Debate (Steve Barfield)
11. High-Brow Harry Potter: J. K. Rowling’s Series as College-Level Literature (Laura Baker Shearer)
12. Hogwarts vs. “The Values’ Wasteland”: Harry Potter and the Formation of Character (William Wandless)
13. Metaphor and MetaFantasy: Questing for Literary Inheritance in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Evelyn M. Perry)
About the Contributors
Afterword