King Arthur Forever: The Matter of Britain in Postmedieval Popular Culture

Arthuriana 21.4 Out Now

2011-12-20T19:04:00.001-05:00

The latest number of Arthuriana shipped this week. It is a slender volume and includes the following contents:

Table of Contents
(21.4)

Strange Bedfellows: Politics, Miscegenation, and Translatio in Two Lays of Lanval
Katherine McLoone 3

Chivalric Failure in The Jeaste of Sir Gawain
Sarah Lindsay 23

Arthur's Ermine Arms
Norris J. Lacy 42

The Charm of (Re)making: Problems of Arthurian Television Serialization
Andrew B. R. Elliott 53

REVIEWS

Frank Brandsma, The Interlace Structure of the Third Part of the Prose Lancelot 68
Michelle Szkilnik

Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, Chrétien Continued: A Study of the Conte du Graal and its Verse Continuations 69
Ewa Slojka

Sergi Mainer, The Scottish Romance Tradition, c. 1375–c. 1550: Nation, Chivalry and Knighthood. 71
Nicola Royan

Zrinka Stahuljak, Virginie Greene, Sarah Kay, Sharon Kinoshita, and Peggy
McCracken, Thinking Through Chrétien de Troyes. 72
Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner

Monica L. Wright. Weaving Narrative: Clothing in Twelfth-Century French Romance 74
Paula Mae Carns

Arthurian Heroes and Villains

2011-11-28T01:17:00.001-05:00

Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Medieval Romance
Edited by Neil Cartlidge

Details

First Published: 19 Apr 2012

$90.00
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843843047
Pages: 244
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Studies in Medieval Romance
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
Details updated on 27 Nov 2011

Medieval romances so insistently celebrate the triumphs of heroes and the discomfiture of villains that they discourage recognition of just how morally ambiguous, antisocial or even downright sinister their protagonists can be, and, correspondingly, of just how admirable or impressive their defeated opponents often are. This tension between the heroic and the antiheroic makes a major contribution to the dramatic complexity of medieval romance, but it is not an aspect of the genre that has been frequently discussed up. Focusing on fourteen distinct characters and character-types in medieval narrative, this book attempts to illustrate the range of different ways in which the imaginative power and appeal of romance-texts often depends on contradictions implicit in the very ideal of heroism.

Dr Neil Cartlidge is Lecturer in English at the University of Durham.

Contributors: Neil Cartlidge, Penny Eley, David Ashurst, Meg Lamont, Laura Ashe, Judith Weiss, Gareth Griffith, Kate McClune, Nancy Mason Bradbury, Ad Putter, Robert Rouse, Siobhain Bly Calkin, James Wade, Stephanie Vierick Gibbs Kamath

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Turnus
3 Alexander the Great
4 Hengist
5 Harold Godwineson
6 Mordred
7 Merlin
8 Gawain
9 Gamelyn
10 Ralph the Collier
11 The Antiheroic Heart
12 Crusaders
13 Saracens
14 Ungallant Knights
15 Sons of Devils

ICoM 2011

2011-11-04T23:49:00.001-04:00

With apologies for cross-posting:

The International Society for the Study of Medievalism recently convened its 26th International Conference on Medievalism at the University of New Mexico under the general theme of Medievalism, Arthuriana, and Landscapes of Enchantment from 21-22 October 2011. Sessions on Arthurian subjects covered material from the early modern era to today and explored the Matter of Britain in drama, musical theater, fiction, and television..

The complete program can be accessed at http://ims.unm.edu/sim/.

Arthurian Literature for 2010

2011-10-19T21:48:00.000-04:00

Publisher D. S. Brewer has recently released an all Malory issue of the annual Arthurian Literature. Unfortunately, the contributors are not listed online, but other details are as follows:

Arthurian Literature XXVIII
Spec. Issue: Blood, Sex, Malory: Essays on the Morte Darthur
Edited by David Clark and Kate McClune.

First Published: 20 Oct 2011
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843842811
Pages: 214
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer

Sex, blood, and gender have diverse associations in the Malorian tradition, yet their inter-relatedness and intersections are comparatively understudied. This present collection of essays is intended to go some way toward remedying the need for a sustained examination of blood ties, kinship, gender, and sexuality, and the prominence of these themes in Malory's work. They concentrate in particular upon the analyses of sexuality and sexual activity (and its lack or erasure) and the significance of blood (and blood-shedding) in the Morte Darthur, as well as the interconnections with gender (biological sex) and familial ("blood") relations in the Morte, its sources and its later reworkings. The result is a wide-ranging investigation into related but distinctive thematic preoccupations, including the national and kinship affiliations of Malorian knights, sibling relationships, deviant sexuality, and blood-spilling in martial and intimate contexts.

Contents
1 Preface
2 Reading Malory's Bloody Bedrooms
3 [Dis]Figuring Transgressive Desire: Blood, Sex, and Stained Sheets in Malory's Morte Darthur
4 Bewmaynes: The Threat from the Kitchen
5 Sibling Relations in Malory's Morte Darthur
6 'Traytoures' and 'Treson': the Language of Treason in the Works of Sir Thomas Malory
7 'The Vengeaunce of My Brethirne': Blood Ties in Malory's Morte Darthur
8 Malory and the Scots
9 Blood, Faith and Saracens in 'The Book of Sir Tristram'
10 Barriers Unbroken: Sir Palomydes the Saracen in 'The Book of Sir Tristram'
11 Virginity, Sexuality, Repression and Return in the 'Tale of the Sankgreal'
12 Launcelot in Compromising Positions: Fabliau in Malory's 'Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake'

Arthuriana for Fall 2011

2011-10-19T21:36:00.000-04:00

The latest issue of Arthuriana was recently released to print and digital subscribers (it is also available on Project Muse to those with access to the service). The issue is devoted to medieval Arthuriana, but the reviews include some comments on modern adaptions of the legend. Contents are as follows:

Arthuriana 21.3 (Fall 2011)

The Failure of Justice, The Failure of Arthur
Laura K. Bedwell 3

Longevity and the Loathly Ladies in Three Medieval Romances
Sandy Feinstein 23

Salvage Anthropology and Displaced Mourning in the Lais of Marie de France
Shirin Azizeh Khanmohamadi 49

Malory's Marginalia Reconsidered
James Wade 70

The Round Table 87 [a report from the IAS Triennial Congress this past summer]

REVIEWS

Mark Adderely, The Hawk and the Cup 91
Ann Howey

Laura Ashe, Ivana Djordjevic, and Judith Weiss, eds., The Exploitations of Medieval Romance 92
Myra Seaman

Barbara Tepa Lupack, The Girls' King Arthur: Tales of the Women of Camelot 95
Amy S. Kaufman

Molly Martin, Vision and Gender in Malory's Morte Darthur 96
Kenneth Hodges

Lancelot Grail:The Old French Arhturian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Translation. Parts I and II 98
Joan Tasker Grimbert

Hanks on Tolkien and Malory

2011-10-09T02:04:00.000-04:00

I came across the following essay earlier today:

Hanks, D. Thomas, Jr. “ ‘A Far Green Country Under a Swift Sunrise’—Tolkien’s Eucastastrophe and Malory’s ‘Morte Darthur'.” Fifteenth-Century Studies 36 (2011): 49-64.

Excerpts are available on Amazon and through Google Books, and, through them, one can see that Hanks' offers an insightful reassessment of Malory's final book based on Tolkien's theories of narrative presented in the essay "On Fairy Stories." This is definitely something to track down and read the full version.

Michael Torregrossa

Kalamazoo Roundtable on Arthurian Film and TV

2011-09-25T19:20:00.000-04:00

Finalized details on our co-sponsored roundtable on Arthurian film and television can now be viewed at the Are Your From Camelot? blog.

Arthurian Stories for Kids (and the Young at Heart)

2011-09-11T20:33:00.003-04:00

The BBC website features a series of four Arthurian stories as part of their Wales History section as follows:

"Morgana's Secret Island" (two modern-day kids met Morgan le Fay and visit Avalon)

"Sabrina's Mountain Adventure" (a modern-day girl travels to the Arthurian past and interacts with Cai and Bedwyr)

"Becoming Merlin" (a retelling of Merlin's coming into his powers)

"Guinevere's Wedding" (an account of Guinevere's first meeting with King Arthur)

The stories are accompanied by a series of games related to the four stories, and both the stories and games are also available in Welsh. In addition, the website also includes a selection of stories adapted from the Mabinogion (including the Arthurian tales), but these (as far as I can determine) are only available in Welsh at this time.

Arthuriana 21.1

2011-07-27T17:53:00.001-04:00

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

Harry Potter Studies from Edwin Mellen

2011-07-23T14:53:00.000-04:00

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

New Book on Robert Holdstock

2011-06-16T13:20:00.000-04:00

The Mythic Fantasy of Robert Holdstock: Critical Essays on the Fiction

Edited by Donald E. Morse and Kalman Matolcsy
Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III
Foreword by Brian Aldiss

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-4942-2
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8521-5
notes, bibliography, index
202pp. softcover 2011
Price: $35.00

About the Book
Robert Holdstock was a prolific writer whose oeuvre included horror, fantasy, mystery and the novelization of films, often published under pseudonyms. These twelve critical essays explore Holdstock’s varied output by displaying his works against the backdrop of folk and fairy tales, dissecting their spatiotemporal order, and examining them as psychic fantasies of our unconscious life or as exempla of the sublime. The individual novels of the Mythago Wood sequence are explored, as is Holdstock’s early science fiction and the Merlin Codex series.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi
Foreword: Under the Spell of a Magician
BRIAN W. ALDISS 1
Introduction: Mythago Wood—“A Source of Visions and Adventure”
DONALD E. MORSE 3

Part One: Approaches
1. The Embodiment of Abstraction in the Mythago Novels
W. A. SENIOR 13
2. Masks in the Forest: The Dynamics of Surface and Depth in the Mythago Cycle
KÁLMÁN MATOLCSY 26
3. Exploring the Habitats of Myths: The Spatiotemporal Structure of Ryhope Wood
STEFAN EKMAN 46

Part Two: The Novels
4. Time Winds: Early Science Fiction
ANDY SAWYER 67
5. Profusion Sublime and the Fantastic: Mythago Wood
MAREK OZIEWICZ 81
6. Tallis, the Feminine Presence in Mythago Wood: Lavondyss: Journey to an Unknown Region
ELIZABETH A. WHITTINGHAM 96
7. Embedded Narratives in Lavondyss and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness
VERA BENCZIK 114
8. Stories to Illuminate Truth and Lies to Hide Pain: Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn
DONALD E. MORSE 129
9. “A Heap of Broken Images”—The Mythological Wasteland of the Mind: The Hollowing and Ancient Echoes
ILDIKÓ LIMPÁR 141
10. “So many names in so many tongues...”: Allusive Mythology in Celtika
C. W. SULLIVAN III 156
11. Thresholds, Polders, and Crosshatches in the Merlin Codex
TOM SHIPPEY 165

Robert Holdstock Bibliography 177
About the Contributors 183
Index 187

About the Author
Donald E. Morse is a professor at the University of Debrecen, in Hungary, and is an emeritus professor at the University of Oakland in Michigan. He is the author of a dozen books and over 100 scholarly articles. Kalman Matolcsy is a translator, poet, composer, and a professor at the University of Debrecen. He has written numerous scholarly articles on the literature of horror, fantasy and science fiction. Donald E. Palumbo is a professor of English at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He lives in Greenville. C.W. Sullivan III is a professor of arts and sciences at East Carolina University and a full member of the Welsh Academy. He is the author of numerous books and the on-line journal Celtic Cultural Studies.

CFP: The Return of King Arthur in the Post-Medieval World (12/1/11; Plymouth, NH 4/20-21/12)

2011-05-14T14:28:00.002-04:00

ONCE AND FUTURE KINGS?
THE RETURN OF KING ARTHUR IN THE POST-MEDIEVAL WORLD
Session Sponsored by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages
For the 33rd Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum
Plymouth State University (Plymouth, NH)
20-21 April 2011
Proposals by 12/1/11

According to legend, Merlin once prophesied that King Arthur would not die but come again and aid us in our darkest days. In fulfillment of this prophecy, Arthur and his surrogates have returned many times in fictional texts, and, although Arthur himself has failed to return in the flesh in the real world, we continue to believe in the legend of the Once and Future King and have often invoked it in times of crisis. Still, while the motif of Arthur redivivus remains a popular component of the modern intermedia Matter of Britain, few studies have addressed why this particular aspect of Arthurian myth has remained relevant in the post-medieval era. It is our intention to explore this neglected area of Arthurian Studies in this sponsored session.

For “Once and Future Kings? The Return of King Arthur in the Post-medieval World,” we are especially interested in studies that look at the invocation of the legend of the Once and Future King during flash points in history (like times of war and national crises) as these suggest the most vital components of its reception history, but we also hope that presenters will explore other uses of the motif in diverse genres and media from the close of the Middle Ages to the present day.

No later that 1 December 2011, interested individuals should submit full contact information (name, address, phone/cell, and email), paper titles, and abstracts of 300-500 words to the session organizers, who will then forward them to the conference committee. Address all inquiries and proposals to the organizers at the following address: Popular.Culture.and.the.Middle.Ages@gmail.com and include “Once and Future Kings” in the subject line.

Arthurian Studies at PCA/ACA

2011-05-10T18:59:00.002-04:00

There were a number of Arthurian-themed sessions at last month's Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture & American Culture Association and the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture & American Culture Association held in San Antonio, Texas, from 4/20-23/11. Unfortunately, I cannot copy and paste from the PDF version of the program to list these sessions. The complete program can be accessed at http://pcaaca.org/conference/conf_program.php. Most of the sessions are listed under the Arthurian Legends Area.

Comics Get Medieval 2012 Call for Papers

2011-05-08T02:06:00.000-04:00

The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages is pleased to announce our sponsorship of sessions under the theme of "The Comics Get Medieval 2012: A Celebration of Medieval-Themed Comics in Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of Prince Valiant" for the 2012 Joint Meeting of the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association to be held in Boston, Massachusetts, from 4-7 April 2012.

Complete details can be accessed at The Medieval Comics Project Blog at http://medieval-comics-project.blogspot.com/2011/05/comics-get-medieval-2012-call-for.html.

Arthurian Pedagogy in Christianity and Romance in Medieval England

2011-04-27T22:37:00.001-04:00

Published last year by D. S. Brewer:

Christianity and Romance in Medieval England
Edited by Rosalind Field, Phillipa Hardman, and Michelle Sweeney

First Published: 15 Apr 2010
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843842194
Pages: 226
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Christianity and Culture: Issues in Teaching/Research
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB
$90.00

The relationship between the Christianity of medieval culture and its most characteristic narrative, the romance, is complex and the modern reading of it is too often confused. Not only can it be difficult to negotiate the distant, sometimes alien concepts of religious cultures of past centuries in a modern, secular, multi-cultural society, but there is no straightforward Christian context of Middle English romance - or of medieval romance in general, although this volume focuses on the romances of England. Medieval audiences had apparently very different expectations and demands of their entertainment: some looking for, and evidently finding, moral exempla and analogues of biblical narratives, others secular, even sensational, entertainment of a type condemned by moralising voices.

The essays collected here show how the romances of medieval England engage with its Christian culture. Topics include the handling of material from pre-Christian cultures, classical and Celtic, the effect of the Crusades, the meaning of chivalry, and the place of women in pious romances. Case studies, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Malory's Morte Darthur, offer new readings and ideas for teaching romance to contemporary students. They do not present a single view of a complex situation, but demonstrate the importance of reading romances with an awareness of the knowledge and cultural capital represented by Christianity for its original writers and audiences.

Contributors: HELEN PHILLIPS, STEPHEN KNIGHT, PHILLIPA HARDMAN, MARIANNE AILES, RALUCA L. RADULESCU, CORINNE SAUNDERS, K.S. WHETTER, ANDREA HOPKINS, ROSALIND FIELD, DEREK BREWER, D. THOMAS HANKS, MICHELLE SWEENEY

Contents

1 Introduction
2 Medieval Classical Romances: The Perils of Inheritance
3 Celticity and Christianity in Medieval Romance
4 Crusading, Chivalry and the Saracen World in Insular Romance
5 How Christian is Chivalry?
6 Magic and Christianity
7 Subverting, Containing and Upholding Christianity in Medieval Romance
8 Female Saints and Romance Heroines: Feminine Fiction and Faith among the Literate Elite
9 Athelston of the Middle English Nativity of St Edmund

10 Romance Traditions and Christian Values in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

11 Questioning Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Teaching the Text through its Medieval English Christian Context

12 Teaching Malory: A Subject-Centred Approach

Arthuriana Special Issue on 19th-Century Arthuriana

2011-04-26T22:36:00.000-04:00

The latest number of Arthuriana (21.2) for Summer 2011 includes the following contents of interest:

Introduction
Alan Lupack 3

'Recalled to Life': King Arthur's Return and the Body of the Past in Nineteenth-Century England
Megan L. Morris 5

All Dressed Up: Revivalism and the Fashion for Arthur in Victorian Culture
Inga Bryden 28

Sacred Relics: Travelers and the Holy Grail
Roger Simpson 42

The Arctic Arthur
Stephen Knight 59

Popular Images Derived from Tennyson's Arthurian Poems 90
Alan Lupack

REVIEWS

Laurie A. Finke and Martin B. Shichtman, Cinematic Illuminations: The Middle Ages on Film
Kevin J. Harty

Tadahiro Ikegami, trans., Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Kuniko Shoji

Program Available for 2011 Arthurian Congress

2011-04-26T22:03:00.022-04:00

The program for the 23rd International Congress of the International Arthurian Society to be held at Bristol University, Bristol, England, from 25-30 July 2011, is now available online and can be accessed at the following link: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/medievalcentre/arthur/english/index_html. Further details and registration information can also be accessed there.

Sessions on the Arthuriana of modern popular culture include:

TUESDAY, 26 JULY

2-3:30 PM

A. Arthur and the Arts
Sponsor: North American Branch
Moderator: Barbara Tepa LUPACK
1. Ann F. HOWEY (Brock University) – What Power Have Words?: Musical Interpretations of Elaine’s Letter to Lancelot
2. Alan LUPACK (University of Rochester) – Illuminating Arthurian Texts – in the Nineteenth Century
3. Andrew B. R. ELLIOTT (University of Lincoln) – Locating Arthur in the Visual Arts

E. Arthur in the Seventeenth Century
1. Toshiyuki TAKAMIYA (Keio University) – Peter Heylyn’s Reference to the Healing of Sir Urry in Microcosmos(1625)
2. Helen COOPER (University of Cambridge) – Milton’s Unwritten Arthuriad
3. Michael WENTHE (American University, Washington D.C.) – The Yiddish King Arthur in the Seventeenth Century: Tradition and Transformation

8:00 PM
Public Lecture: Richard BARBER
King Arthur and The Public: Popular Reaction to the Arthurian Legend

WEDNESDAY, 27 JULY

9:15-10:45 AM
D. Échos arthuriens tardifs
2. Fanny MAILLET (Paris-Sorbonne University/University of Göttingen) – Arthur, en mieux: le monde imaginaire de la Table Ronde au XVIIIe siècle à travers l’exemple des faux extraits de la Bibliothèque universelle des romans

E. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
2. Daniel NASTALI (Independent Scholar) – Jessie Weston and the Green Knight

11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
E. Iberian Connections
1. Juan Miguel ZARANDONA (University of Valladolid) – The Originality and Creative Achievement of the Merlin, An Opera by Albéniz and Money-Coutts
2. Carlos A. Sanz MINGO (Cardiff University) – King Arthur in the Arena: Spanish Arthurian Texts

1:45-3:15 PM

A. Time for Arthur: Ideological Deployments of Arthurian Space
Moderator: Siân ECHARD (University of British Columbia)
3. Cory RUSHTON (St. Francis Xavier University) – Arthur and the Royal Navy, 1891-2009

D. Chicks in Chainmail: Arthurian Pedagogy for Girls
Moderator: Laurie FINKE (Kenyon College)
1. Susan ARONSTEIN (University of Wyoming) – The Queens of Avalon: William Forbush’s Arthurian Antidote
2. Roberta DAVIDSON (Whitman College) – When King Arthur is PG
3. Fiona TOLHURST (University of Geneva) – Contemporary Arthurian Fiction: Helping Girls to Be Heroic?
4. Amy KAUFMAN (Middle Tennessee State University) – ‘His Princess’: Incest, Purity Balls, and Arthurian Family Drama

FRIDAY, 29 JULY

11:40 AM - 1:10 PM

E. The Arthur of the Digital Publishing Age
Sponsor: CoDE (Cultures and Digital Economy) Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University
Moderator: Andrew B.R. ELLIOTT (University of Lincoln)
1. Samantha RAYNER (Anglia Ruskin University) – Publishing Paratexts: An Arthurian Cover Up Story
2. Leah TETHER (Durham University) – Digitising Arthur: The Death and Rebirth of Codicology
3. Scott LLOYD (Aberystwyth University) – Searching for Arthur: Accessibility and Visibility in the Digital Age

SATURDAY, 30 JULY

9:15-10:45 AM

B. Arthur: Chronicle Traditions
2. Thea SUMMERFIELD (Utrecht University) – King Arthur for a Scottish King: James V

C. Arthurian Revivals
1. Roger SIMPSON (Independent Scholar) – Robert Trevelyan and Arthur Bell: Rejecting the Grail
2. Karen CHEREWATUK (St. Olaf College) – Minnesota's Grail Maidens: Abbey's Galahad Murals in the Guild House of the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour
3. Velma RICHMOND (Holy Names University) – King Arthur and his Knights for Edwardian Children
4. Philip C. BOARDMAN (University of Nevada) – Sir Thomas Malory, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Problem of Adaptation

11:15 AM - 12:15 PM

B. Malory and the History of the Book
2. Yuri FUWA (Keio University) – The Editor at Work: Joseph Haslewood's Edition of Malory (1816)

E. Arthurian Ideals and Identities: Camelot
1. Anne N. BORNSCHEIN (University of Pennsylvania) – Queering Camelot: Transgressive Sexuality in Recent French Arthurian Fiction
2. Janina TRAXLER (Manchester College) – Saving Camelot

Advance Notice Kalamazoo 2012

2011-04-06T22:49:00.002-04:00

The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages has proposed the following sessions for the 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies to be held from 10-13 May 2012. Further details on each session can be found by clicking the respective links.

Are You From Camelot? Recent Arthurian Film, Television, and Electronic Games as Innovators of the Arthurian Tradition and Their Impact (Roundtable)

The Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo: New Perspectives for Incorporating Comics into Medieval Studies Teaching and Research (Roundtable)

Tyler Tichelaar's King Arthur's Children

2011-02-19T02:14:00.000-05:00

There is an extended post on Tyler Tichelaar's recent book Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition (Modern History Press, 2011) at our affiliate blog Researching the Villains of the Matter of Britain.

New from Arthuriana 20.4

2011-02-17T20:25:00.001-05:00

The latest number of Arthuriana 20.4 (Winter 2010) includes the following articles of interest:

Parke Godwin and the Lessons of History
Roberta Davidson

Authors of historical fiction claim that their work restores a narrative of meaning to the past, and that it recovers the experiences of those individuals or groups who have been excluded from the formal historical record. This two-fold function is particularly important to Parke Godwin, who suggests that, to recreate the past, the storyteller must be willing both to utilize and to go against the historical record. He positions himself as a kind of ‘pagan,’ resurrecting an older, more ‘authentic’ world to which he postulates Arthur belonged.

Playing with Gender in Arthur, King of Time and Space
Christina Francis

By developing characters with unstable and changeable sex identification, Paul Gadzikowski creates an Arthurian world with fluid gender boundaries in his webcomic Arthur, King of Time and Space. The effect of this fluidity is a cast of Arthurian characters that continuously confronts sex and gender stereotypes, inviting audiences to reconsider their own assumptions about sex and gender.

Daniel Mangrané and Carlos Serrano de Osma's Spanish Parsifal (1951): a Strange Film?
Juan Miguel Zarandona

The Spanish cinematic work entitled Parsifal (1951) has always been termed ‘strange’ and regarded as an artistic failure. However, reconsideration of the context in which this film was produced suggests it is worthy of greater attention. After considering the difficult history of Spanish cinema, General Franco’s Spain, local legends of the Grail, and the Wagnerian cult in Barcelona, we can see that Parsifal is a very interesting interpretation of the story of the Arthurian knight.

Articles can also be accessed through Project MUSE.

Comics Get Medieval 2011 Update (Cross-Posted)

2011-01-27T20:50:00.003-05:00

A belated update on the status of The Comics Get Medieval 2011 sessions for the upcoming Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association's annual meeting this spring:

The session has been cancelled due to lack of interest.

Please consider submitting a proposal for The Comics Get Medieval 2012 sessions to convene at PCA/ACA in Boston and (pending approval) at Kalamazoo. 2012 is the 75th anniversary of Prince Valiant, and it would be great to make ourselves visible as we commemorate this landmark event.

Michael Torregrossa

Blog and Listserv Editor
Co-Founder

Welcome

2011-01-27T20:32:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the latest incarnation of KingArthurForever.org. This version of the site has been refocused on the manifestations, reception, and appropriation of the Matter of Britain in post-medieval popular culture and is designed to complement (and, perhaps eventually, replace) the Arthurian Popular Culture Discussion List.

Enjoy your visit,
Michael Torregrossa

Blog and Listserv Moderator
Co-Founder