Sponsored Listservs Move to Groups.io

For immediate release.

The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain is pleased to announce the re-launching of our two discussion lists at Groups.io following the recent decision by Yahoo! to delete all content from Yahoo! Groups.

Our message archive has been saved and transferred to Groups.io, and new discussions have begun.

To sign-up follow the links below.

Michael A. Torregrossa
Founder, Listserv Moderator, and Blog Editor, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain


The Arthurian Comics Discussion List
https://groups.io/g/arthurian-comixlist

Sponsored by The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, the Arthurian Comics Discussion List was founded by Michael A. Torregrossa in July 2000 to promote intellectual discussion and debate on and to further interest in one of the least researched media of post-medieval Arthuriana in popular culture: Arthurian-themed comics, a form of Arthuriana in existence since at least the 1920s. The corpus, which includes thousands of examples, encompasses all forms of the comics medium, including panel cartoons, comic books, comic strips, graphic albums and novels, manga, and webcomics.


The Arthurian Popular Culture Discussion List
https://groups.io/g/arthpcdl

The Arthurian Popular Culture Discussion List was founded in October 2000 to promote informed discussion and debate about manifestations of the Arthurian legend in popular culture from the Middle Ages to the present day. The list is sibling to the Arthurian Comic Book Discussion List, but the Popular Culture List has a wider scope and will accept posts on all aspects of the Arthurian legend in popular culture (including film, television, role-playing games, fiction, toys and, of course, comic books).

CFP International Arthurian Society, North American Branch Mini-conference within the Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (1/15/2020; Saint Louis University 6/15-20/2020)

Almost missed this. Posted from the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch:

Call for Papers

International Arthurian Society, North American Branch Mini-conference within the Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Saint Louis University

https://www.smrs-slu.org/

June 15-17, 2020

We would like to invite you to submit abstracts for a mini-conference of the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch at the Eight Annual Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies hosted at Saint Louis University. The symposium takes place June 15-20, 2020. The official CFP submission deadline for the conference is December 31, 2018, but you have until January 15, 2020 to submit your proposals; a perk of he having the branch secretary-treasurer serving on the Symposium Program Committee. We can submit as many sessions as we can organize within the context of 3 days of conference sessions.

Each Year, the Executive and Advisory Board of the IAS-NAB invites a scholar to give the Loomises Lecture, which afterwards is published in Arthuriana. For 2020, we have invited Dorrie Armstrong to deliver the Loomises lecture.

With this in mind, here are the sessions that we are inviting your proposals for:

I. Arthurian Women

II. Chivalric Masculinity - When Knights Fail to Live Up to The Code of Chivalry: Who Survives? Who Dies? and Why?

III. Open Topic: all submissions welcome on Arthurian topics



Please submit your abstract to both David F. Johnson (djohnson@fsu.edu) and Evelyn Meyer (evelyn.meyer@slu.edu) no later than January 15, 2020. Do NOT submit it through the symposium submission portal as your submission won’t go to us and the IAS-NAB mini-conference at the SMRS but will be considered as part of the general pool of submissions at the SMRS.



Sincerely,
Evelyn Meyer
Secretary-Treasurer, IAS-NAB

Does the Matter of Britain (Sill) Matter NeMLA Update

I am pleased to announce the slate for our round table on the relevance of the Arthurian tradition. Full details below. My thanks to the panelists for their interesting ideas.


Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

The Figure of King Arthur in the 21st Century
Christopher Berard, Providence College

Is There a Place for the Matter of Britain in Contemporary Arthurian Narrative?
Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

Death Redeems Us Not from Tongues: Thomas Hughes and the 16th-century Crisis of Arthurian History
Liam Daley, University of Maryland College Park

From Round Table Tournaments to Renaissance Festivals: Arthuriana and the Hyperreal
Theresa FitzPatrick, Concordia University Saint Paul

'And What Everybody Else Needs, Too': Seeking the Grail in The Unwritten
Emily Race, Sewanee: The University of the South

Afterlives of Connecticut Yankee Session for NeMLA 2020

It appears that the Afterlives of Connecticut Yankee session will be running after all. 

Here are the details. I am grateful to everyone in Arthurian Studies and Twain Studies that helped make this session possible.


Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain.

Sir Boss, His Successors, and His Surrogates: Classifying Adaptations of Connecticut Yankee
Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

‘Thou Swell’: The Power of Words (and Music) as a Connecticut Yankee goes Back to the Future
Tammy Rose, Independent Scholar

A Secret Agent in King Arthur's Court: MacGyver Saves the 7th Century from Nuclear Proliferation
Emily Race, Sewanee: The University of the South

CFP Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions (Spec. Issue of Coreopsis) (12/24/19)

Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/08/29/quests-magical-journeys-and-wayside-attractions

deadline for submissions:
December 24, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Coreopsis Journal Of Myth & Theatre
contact email:
coreopsisjournalofmyththeatre@gmail.com




Call for papers Spring 2020



Publication date: February 29, 2020



Query/Abstract Deadline: December 20th, 2019

Full paper due upon acceptance of abstract.



Announcements Deadline: February 1, 2020

Coreopsis Journal of Myth & Theatre

Theme:

Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions



“The road goes ever, ever on…” JRR Tolkien.



Quests...an image that evokes enchanted woods, magical beasts, and knights with and without shining armour. The road into the unknown where a great treasure lies at the end. How many have traveled that road, whether in the waking world or in the realm of the heart? Were there pitfalls and wayside attractions?

The realm of mythopoetics and speculative fiction, popular dramas, and the ancient art of the story-song. From the ancient texts of Inanna, the wonder tales of the Mabinogion and Troyes’ Sainte Grail cycle, to Baum’s Land of Oz and Tolkien’s Hobbits, to the very modern American Gods, or McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld the tale of the quest and journeys into the realm of magic and wonder are part and parcel of the art of storytellers.

Whether we explore the realm of story, or use the idea of a quest or journey as a metaphor, or find ourselves walking into the unknown in the waking world, questing after an idea or an object in a laboratory or in the natural world, the image of seeking and finding -- or, not finding -- is a powerful one. In the Spring 2020 issue, we will explore the idea of questing and journeys into the unknown.

Paper topics to consider are:

• The Perilous Distraction - a phrase made famous by the late Joseph Campbell in describing Gawain’s stay in Maiden Castle where all of his needs were met and he never achieved the Grail …
• The Mask and the Mirror: the spiritual journey: metaphors, pilgrimages, rituals, and holy places 
• Pen, quill and microchip: the intellectual quest
• Mythopoetics: analysis of modern retellings and original works of fantasy and speculative fiction that explore journeys and quests
• Failed journeys and the lessons learned: gifts of unknown things
• Science and discovery - Surprise! -: When you were on one quest and discovered that it was something quite different that needed to be discovered
• Exploration: Journeys across oceans, time, and beyond the Earth
• Those who walked away: what does it mean to walk away? From ideas, narratives, beliefs, relationships, workplaces, cities, and countries. What was found? What was lost? 

Send queries and abstracts to: “Spring 2020”  coreopsisjournalofmyththeatre@gmail.com

Please read the submission guidelines before sending your paper or editorial, here: http://societyforritualarts.com/coreopsis/contact-us/

Published 2X yearly, by the Society for Ritual Arts. Peer reviewed. Never for profit.


Last updated August 30, 2019

CFP Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?: Reflections on the State of Arthurian Studies Today (A Roundtable) (EXTENDED DEADLINE 10/7/19; NeMLA Boston 3/5/8/2020)

Call for Papers for Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?: Reflections on the State of Arthurian Studies Today (A Roundtable)

51st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Boston Marriott Copley Place, in Boston, Massachusetts, from 5-8 March 2020

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Paper abstracts are due by 7 October 2019

Session organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

The Arthurian legend is now over a millennium and a half old and continues to inspire new creative works each year. However, texts with widespread distribution and/or lasting impact are rare. Consequently, the Matter of Britain now often seems very distant from our daily lives. The purpose of this session is to explore the reasons for this separation of the stories of Arthur from the popular consciousness.

In conceiving this session, we are interested in exploring the answers to several questions. First, why has the Matter of Britain—once an important part of what J. R. R. Tolkien has termed “the cauldron of story”—now become something that is sampled by few artists with the means to promote their work to the larger segment of the global population that once devoured such stories with enthusiasm? Continuing with this idea, do these works, when noticed, not receive acclaim simply because of their creators’ failure to overcome what Norris J. Lacy has termed the “tyranny of tradition” and produce something that is both recognizable and innovative, or has the legend truly become a niche brand, a fascination to a few cognoscenti but something totally off the radar of most individuals? Similarly, when versions of the legend are produced by individuals with the means to create something that transcends the financial and distributive restrictions that hold back other works (and that might thus have the potential to shape how the current generation perceives the Arthurian story), why do they so often not succeed? Have these creators also simply failed to negotiate the tyranny of tradition, or are audiences at large just not interested in Arthur and all that he represents anymore? Lastly, if the legend no longer appeals, what is the future of Arthurian Studies (and Arthurian scholars) in the remainder of the twenty-first century? Should we entrench ourselves and hope for the best, or can we fight for our field and the glory that was Camelot?

This session is a roundtable, in which 3-10 participants give brief, informal presentations (5-10 minutes) and the session is open to conversation and debate between participants and the audience.

The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18038. Please contact the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Abstract submissions must be made through NeMLA’s official site. Applicants will need to login or create an account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login. Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters (including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should also include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile) and a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.

Please be aware that NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts, but it is required to present at the convention. In addition, note that it is permissible to present on (1) a panel (or seminar) and (2) a roundtable or a creative session, but it is not permissible to present on a panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based), on two panels or two roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further information on these and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.

Chairs will confirm the acceptance of abstracts before 15 October 2019. At that time, applicants must confirm the panel on which they wish to participate. Convention registration/membership for 2019-2020 must be paid by 1 December 2019.

CFP Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (EXTENDED DEADLINE 10/7/19; NeMLA 3/5-8/2020)

Call for Papers for Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

51st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Boston Marriott Copley Place, in Boston, Massachusetts, from 5-8 March 2020

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Paper abstracts are due by 7 October 2019

Session organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

Writer Mark Twain and illustrator Daniel Carter Beard’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) has had a long history of adaptation in popular culture, but the full scope of its reception remains untold. There are, of course, the obvious texts, both in print and on film, that merely retell the story. Of these, more work is needed on the illustrative tradition. Along with retellings, there are also a small number of works that continue Connecticut Yankee. These appear entirely unknown to Twainians but offer a unique approach to the author’s legacy. More importantly, Connecticut Yankee itself or its story as mediated through one of its many retellings has also stimulated new narratives detached from Twain and Beard’s telling that recast characters and restage events. Also relatively unknown by scholars of the novel, these materials can be found throughout modern popular culture, and, although Elizabeth S. Sklar somewhat derisibly labels these as “spinoffs and ripoffs” of the novel, they are of value (as she suggests) and perhaps more so than the retellings because such items serve as the base for an extensive corpus of transformations of the novel that send various protagonists, all characters more familiar to contemporary readers and viewers than Twain’s Hank Morgan, into the medieval past and set a common pattern for time travel stories.

In the end, this session will offer a broad view of adaptations of the Connecticut Yankee story to situate both retellings and the lesser known and/or hitherto unknown continuations and recastings into a new continuum to offer a more complete picture of the novel’s effect on popular culture and provide fresh insight into the various ways that the producers responsible for these re-imaginings have appropriated the story and its time-travel motif for their own purposes.

This session is a paper panel in traditional format, which will include 3-4 participants, reading a formal paper of 15-20 minutes (2500-3000 words) as set by the chair, followed by Q&A.

The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18029. Please contact the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Abstract submissions must be made through NeMLA’s official site. Applicants will need to login or create an account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login. Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters (including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should also include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile) and a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.

Please be aware that NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts, but it is required to present at the convention. In addition, note that it is permissible to present on (1) a panel (or seminar) and (2) a roundtable or a creative session, but it is not permissible to present on a panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based), on two panels or two roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further information on these and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.

Chairs will confirm the acceptance of abstracts before 15 October 2019. At that time, applicants must confirm the panel on which they wish to participate. Convention registration/membership for 2019-2020 must be paid by 1 December 2019.

Handbook of Arthurian Romance Now in Paperback

De Gruyter has recently released the Handbook of Arthurian Romance in an affordable paperback edition. It looks like a valuable resource worthy of most bookshelves.


Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur's Court in Medieval European Literature
https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/457447

Ed. by Tether, Leah / McFadyen, Johnny
In collab. with Busby, Keith / Putter, Ad

Series:De Gruyter Reference

Publication Date:June 2017
xv, 548 pages
Language:English

Paperback
ISBN 978-3-11-065580-3
List price
€ [D] 29.95*
RRP
€ [D] 29.95 / US$ 34.99 / GBP 27.00*



Aims and Scope

The renowned and illustrious tales of King Arthur, his knights and the Round Table pervade all European vernaculars, as well as the Latin tradition. Arthurian narrative material, which had originally been transmitted in oral culture, began to be inscribed regularly in the twelfth century, developing from (pseudo-)historical beginnings in the Latin chronicles of "historians" such as Geoffrey of Monmouth into masterful literary works like the romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Evidently a big hit, Arthur found himself being swiftly translated, adapted and integrated into the literary traditions of almost every European vernacular during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This Handbook seeks to showcase the European character of Arthurian romance both past and present.

By working across national philological boundaries, which in the past have tended to segregate the study of Arthurian romance according to language, as well as by exploring primary texts from different vernaculars and the Latin tradition in conjunction with recent theoretical concepts and approaches, this Handbook brings together a pioneering and more complete view of the specifically European context of Arthurian romance, and promotes the more connected study of Arthurian literature across the entirety of its European context.


Contents (from WorldCat)

Introduction: King Arthur's court in medieval European literature / Leah Tether, Johnny McFadyen --
Historical context : the Middle Ages and the code of chivalry / Robert Rouse --
The International Arthurian Society and Arthurian scholarship / Samantha J. Rayner --
The evolution of the critical canon / Aisling Byrne --
Text-types and formal features / Patrick Moran --
The Arthur-figure / Matthias Meyer --
The manuscript context of Arthurian romance / Keith Busby --
Readership and audience / Bart Besamusca --
Chronology, anachronism and translatio imperii / Sif Rikhardsdottir --
Historiography : fictionality vs. factuality / Helen Fulton --
Rewriting : translation, continuation and adaptation / Jane H.M. Taylor --
Intertextuality / Marjolein Hogenbirk --
New philology/manuscript studies / Stefka G. Eriksen --
Text and image / Alison Stones --
Material studies / Andrew James Johnston --
The natural world / Christine Ferlampin-Acher --
Gender/queer studies / Carolyne Larrington --
Orality, literacy and performativity of Arthurian texts / Richard Trachsler --
Medievalism / Andrew B.R. Elliott --
Post-colonial studies / Andrew Lynch --
Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Crône : life at the Arthurian court / Florian Kragl --
Herr Ivan : chivalric values and negotiations of identity / Sofia Lodén --
La Tavola Ritonda : magic and the supernatural / Giulia Murgia --
Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, ou le Chevalier de la charrette : courtly love / Thomas Hinton --
Sir Percyvell of Galles : a quest for values / Raluca L. Radulescu --
Peredur son of Efrawg : the question of translation and/or adaptation / Lowri Morgans --
The Roman van Walewein and Moriaen : travelling through landscapes and foreign countries / Frank Brandsma --
The Iberian post-vulgate cycle : cyclicity in translation / Paloma Gracia --
Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival : searching for the Grail / Michael Stolz --
Chrétien de Troyes' Erec et Enide : women in Arthurian romance / Laura Chuhan Campbell --
Merlin : Christian ethics and the question of shame / Gareth Griffith --
De ortu Walwanii and Historia Meriadoci : technologies in/of romance / Siân Echard --
Jaufre : genre boundaries and ambiguity / Charmaine Lee.

CFP XXVIth Congress of the International Arthurian Society (10/31/19; Italy July 2020)

The website is now available for the XXVIth Congress of the International Arthurian Society. It can be accessed at http://iascongress2020.unict.it/.

The event is hosted by Catania University, Italy, and will be held on 19-25 July 2020.

Abstracts are due by 31 October 2019.

The selected Congress themes are:

Arthurian Alterities
Arthurian Iconographies
Retelling, resumption, repeating
Paratexts in Arthurian manuscripts
Places of Arthurian emotion
Medievalism

Journal of the International Arthurian Society Vol 7

Here are the details on the latest volume of the Journal of the International Arthurian Society. Full information and ordering instructions at https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jias.2019.7.issue-1/issue-files/jias.2019.7.issue-1.xml.

Journal of the International Arthurian Society
Editor-in-Chief: Tether, Leah / Rayner, Samantha

Volume 7, Issue 1 (Sep 2019)

Titelseiten [FREE ACCESS
Page i


Editorial
Tether, Leah / Rayner, Samantha J.
Page 1


Female Arthurian Scholars: An Initial Collection of Tributes
Rayner, Samantha J.
Page 3


Female Arthurians in Scandinavia: Eufemia, Christina and the Modern Female Scholar
Lodén, Sofia
Page 42

sine mugens nicht erdenken: wand ez kan vor in wenken rechte alsam ein schellec hase**: Women’s German Medieval-Arthurian Scholarship
Meyer, Evelyn / Sterling-Hellenbrand, Alexandra
Page 61

Women’s Contributions to Middle English Arthurian Scholarship
Vishnuvajjala, Usha
Page 91


Celtic Heroines: The Contributions of Women Scholars to Arthurian Studies in the Celtic Languages
Kapphahn, Krista
Page 120


Thanks for Typing: Women’s Roles in Editions and Translations of Arthurian Literature in Penguin Classics, 1959–1985
Lyons, Rebecca E.
Page 140


Afterword
Busby, Keith
Page 163


XXVIth International Arthurian Congress, Catania, Italy, 19–25 July 2020
Page 164


Obituary

Marie-Luce Chênerie (1928–2018)
Ménard, Philippe
Page 166


Sue Ellen Holbrook (1941–2017)
Twomey, Michael W. / Wheeler, Bonnie / Whetter, K. S.
Page 170

Arthuriana 29.3 for Fall 2019

Arthuriana has released the contents list for its next issue posting at http://www.arthuriana.org/access/29-3Contents.html. 

Here are the details:

Table of Contents
(29.3)


‘No Mowth Can Speke Hit’: Silence and Inexpressibility in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur
Alicia A. McCartney
3

How King Arthur Invented Christmas: Reimagining Arthur and Rome in Early Modern Scotland and England
Kenneth Hodges
25


Chivalric Labor, Artisanal Labor, and the Productive Strike in The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain
Schuyler Eastin
43



The 2018 Loomises Lecture
The Evolving Iconography of the Tristan Legend from the Middle Ages to the Present, with Special Emphasis on the Arthurian Revival in British Art
Joan Tasker Grimbert
66




REVIEWS
 
Venetia Bridges, Medieval Narratives of Alexander the Great: Transnational Texts in England and France
Levilson C. Reis 105

 
Jo Ann Cavallo, ed., Teaching the Italian Renaissance Romance Epic
Gloria Allaire 106

 
Sarah Elliott Novacich, Shaping the Archive in Late Medieval England: History, Poetry, and Performance
Daniel Sawyer 109

 
Larissa Tracy, ed., Medieval and Early Modern Murder: Legal, Literary, and Historical Contexts
Benjamin A. Saltzman 111

 
William T. Whobrey, ed. and trans., The Nibelungenlied: with The Klage
Michael Resler 112

CFP English Arthurian Literature Between Malory and Tennyson (9/15/19; Kalamazoo 2020)

Posted on behalf of Chris Berard:

CFP: ENGLISH ARTHURIAN LITERATURE BETWEEN MALORY AND TENNYSON

International Arthurian Society-North American Branch-sponsored session
ICMS “Kalamazoo” 2020

The four centuries between William Caxton’s publication of Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur (1485) and the completion of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s cycle of twelve narrative Arthurian poems, The Idylls of the King (1885), tend to be regarded as ‘an Arthurian nadir’ for English-language Arthurian literature. This generalization, as Alan Lupack has noted, trivializes a rich assortment of texts in which Arthur plays a leading role, but one that often departs considerably from his Malorian likeness. This panel seeks to foster an exploration of the portrayal of King Arthur within this corpus of ‘lesser’ Arthuriana. Our aim is to promote interest in these oft-forgotten texts, and to explore how these treatments of Arthur more broadly illuminate post-medieval reception of the history and literature of the Middle Ages. We invite you to explore the portrayal of King Arthur in English literary works written between 1485 and 1885—the more eccentric, the better. How was King Arthur applied to the cultural context in which the given text was composed? Did medieval Arthurian narratives serve as source material? We encourage an examination of the harmonization, successful or unsuccessful, of old and new genres and motifs.

Session format: 15-20-minute papers

Please send your 300-word abstract and completed  PIF form to David Johnson, djohnson@fsu.edu, and Christopher Berard, cberard2@providence.edu,  by September 15.

Make Medievalism Matter: Kalamazoo 2020 News

A much belated notice that our sponsored session on professionalism and Medievalism Studies was rejected by the organizers of the 2020 International Congress on Medieval Studies. The session was designed following many conversations at this year's conference with medieval(ism)ists that felt out of place in the field of Medieval Studies and were seeking support and mentoring.

The full proposal follows:

Proposed session #1 title: Can We Be More Than the Middle Ages? The Place of Medievalism Studies within Medieval Studies (Roundtable)

      Proposed session #1 format: Roundtable

      Importance #1: Medievalisms are the lifeblood of our field. They create interest in the Middle Ages and keep its legacies alive despite our distances from the era in time and space, but does our fascination with this material come at a cost, one few are willing to pay? Can medievalists, of all levels, successfully integrate popular representations of the medieval into their research and careers, or must Medievalism Studies remain an outlier, a guilty pleasure rather than an appropriate option to  further the field? Through this roundtable, we seek to explore the answers to these and similar questions.

      Method #1: The academic study of medievalism has been viewed as a legitimate avenue of inquiry for just over forty years, and scholarship on medieval-themed art, comics, drama, fiction, film, games, and television programming has grown considerably over time. However, the phenomenal success of Medievalism Studies can be more a curse than a blessing. Medieval Studies and its more traditional sub-disciplines are not always as welcoming of this material as they appear, and we wonder whether the pursuit of medievalisms is a worthwhile endeavor or something capable of causing stigma or even harm to fall upon the researcher.

      Keywords #1: Medievalism, Inclusion

The official response is that our session "was rejected because its content was duplicated by other medievalism proposals that were more strongly conceptualized. The Committee believes that the subject the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain proposed can be addressed by papers submitted to other sessions."

We remain convinced that our session proposal was unique and necessary, and, with the aid our sibling  group, the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture,  will seek to place it elsewhere in the hopes of initiating this much needed conversation and produce some answers for those that see themselves as affected.

Please contact us at medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com for suggestions or comments.

Michael Torregrossa
Founder, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain
Founder, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Arthuriana Summer 2019

The latest number of Arthuriana has been released. It is a special issue devoted to celebrating the work of Kevin J. Harty.

Subscribers may access the contents at the journal website or through Project MUSE.


Table of Contents
(29.2)


Preface
Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack 3

‘Who are the Britons?’ Questions of Ethnic and National Identity in Arthurian Films
Christopher A. Snyder 6

Queer as Folk
Donald L. Hoffman 24

Tristan in Film
Joan Tasker Grimbert 47

A Connecticut Yankee at the Movies
Barbara Tepa Lupack 64

Romancing the Cold War: America’s Atomic Narrative Gets Medieval
Susan Aronstein 86

From Kids as Galahad to Kid Galahad
Alan Lupack 102



REVIEWS
 
Glen Burger, Conduct Becoming: Good Wives and Husbands in the Later Middle Ages
Nicole Sidhu 115
 
Michael Calabrese, An Introduction to Piers Plowman
Rosemary O’Neill 117
 
Joe Cornish, dir., The Kid Who Would Be King  
Alan Lupack 119
 
David Mackenzie, dir., Outlaw King
Andrew B.R. Elliott 121
 
Karen Sullivan, The Danger of Romance: Truth, Fantasy, and Arthurian Fictions
Laine E. Doggett 122
 
James Wan, dir., Aquaman  
Susan Aronstein and Taran Drummond 124

CFP Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?: Reflections on the State of Arthurian Studies Today (A Roundtable) (9/30/2019; NeMLA Boston 3/5-8/2020)

Call for Papers for Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?: Reflections on the State of Arthurian Studies Today (A Roundtable)

51st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Boston Marriott Copley Place, in Boston, Massachusetts, from 5-8 March 2020

Paper abstracts are due by 30 September 2019

Session organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

The Arthurian legend is now over a millennium and a half old and continues to inspire new creative works each year. However, texts with widespread distribution and/or lasting impact are rare. Consequently, the Matter of Britain now often seems very distant from our daily lives. The purpose of this session is to explore the reasons for this separation of the stories of Arthur from the popular consciousness.

In conceiving this session, we are interested in exploring the answers to several questions. First, why has the Matter of Britain—once an important part of what J. R. R. Tolkien has termed “the cauldron of story”—now become something that is sampled by few artists with the means to promote their work to the larger segment of the global population that once devoured such stories with enthusiasm? Continuing with this idea, do these works, when noticed, not receive acclaim simply because of their creators’ failure to overcome what Norris J. Lacy has termed the “tyranny of tradition” and produce something that is both recognizable and innovative, or has the legend truly become a niche brand, a fascination to a few cognoscenti but something totally off the radar of most individuals? Similarly, when versions of the legend are produced by individuals with the means to create something that transcends the financial and distributive restrictions that hold back other works (and that might thus have the potential to shape how the current generation perceives the Arthurian story), why do they so often not succeed? Have these creators also simply failed to negotiate the tyranny of tradition, or are audiences at large just not interested in Arthur and all that he represents anymore? Lastly, if the legend no longer appeals, what is the future of Arthurian Studies (and Arthurian scholars) in the remainder of the twenty-first century? Should we entrench ourselves and hope for the best, or can we fight for our field and the glory that was Camelot?

This session is a roundtable, in which 3-10 participants give brief, informal presentations (5-10 minutes) and the session is open to conversation and debate between participants and the audience.

The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18038. Please contact the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Abstract submissions must be made through NeMLA’s official site. Applicants will need to login or create an account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login. Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters (including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should also include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile) and a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.

Please be aware that NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts, but it is required to present at the convention. In addition, note that it is permissible to present on (1) a panel (or seminar) and (2) a roundtable or a creative session, but it is not permissible to present on a panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based), on two panels or two roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further information on these and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.

Chairs will confirm the acceptance of abstracts before 15 October 2019. At that time, applicants must confirm the panel on which they wish to participate. Convention registration/membership for 2019-2020 must be paid by 1 December 2019.

CFP Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (9/30/2019; NeMLA Boston 3/5-8/2020)

Call for Papers for Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

51st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Boston Marriott Copley Place, in Boston, Massachusetts, from 5-8 March 2020

Paper abstracts are due by 30 September 2019

Session organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

Writer Mark Twain and illustrator Daniel Carter Beard’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) has had a long history of adaptation in popular culture, but the full scope of its reception remains untold. There are, of course, the obvious texts, both in print and on film, that merely retell the story. Of these, more work is needed on the illustrative tradition. Along with retellings, there are also a small number of works that continue Connecticut Yankee. These appear entirely unknown to Twainians but offer a unique approach to the author’s legacy. More importantly, Connecticut Yankee itself or its story as mediated through one of its many retellings has also stimulated new narratives detached from Twain and Beard’s telling that recast characters and restage events. Also relatively unknown by scholars of the novel, these materials can be found throughout modern popular culture, and, although Elizabeth S. Sklar somewhat derisibly labels these as “spinoffs and ripoffs” of the novel, they are of value (as she suggests) and perhaps more so than the retellings because such items serve as the base for an extensive corpus of transformations of the novel that send various protagonists, all characters more familiar to contemporary readers and viewers than Twain’s Hank Morgan, into the medieval past and set a common pattern for time travel stories.

In the end, this session will offer a broad view of adaptations of the Connecticut Yankee story to situate both retellings and the lesser known and/or hitherto unknown continuations and recastings into a new continuum to offer a more complete picture of the novel’s effect on popular culture and provide fresh insight into the various ways that the producers responsible for these re-imaginings have appropriated the story and its time-travel motif for their own purposes.

This session is a paper panel in traditional format, which will include 3-4 participants, reading a formal paper of 15-20 minutes (2500-3000 words) as set by the chair, followed by Q&A.

The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18029. Please contact the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Abstract submissions must be made through NeMLA’s official site. Applicants will need to login or create an account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login. Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters (including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should also include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile) and a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.

Please be aware that NeMLA membership is not required to submit abstracts, but it is required to present at the convention. In addition, note that it is permissible to present on (1) a panel (or seminar) and (2) a roundtable or a creative session, but it is not permissible to present on a panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based), on two panels or two roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further information on these and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.

Chairs will confirm the acceptance of abstracts before 15 October 2019. At that time, applicants must confirm the panel on which they wish to participate. Convention registration/membership for 2019-2020 must be paid by 1 December 2019.

NeMLA News

I'm pleased to announce that the Northeast Modern Language Association has accepted two Arthurian themed sessions that I submitted for their 2020 convention. Full details to follow.

Michael A. Torregrossa
Founder, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture

Arthuriana for Spring 2019 Out Now

Arthuriana Vol. 29, No. 1 for Spring 2019 is now available to subscribers and on Project MUSE. The contents are as follows. The main section is a special issue on "Malorian and Scholarly Retraction.

INTRODUCTION
‘But rather I wolde sey: here in thys worlde he chaunged hys lyff ’: Malorian and Scholarly Retraction
Karen Cherewatuk and Meg Roland

Retraction and the Making of Arthurian Texts
Michael W. Twomey

Malory’s Lancelot: Not ‘Either/Or’ but ‘Both/And’
Karen Cherewatuk

‘But that was but favour of makers’: Retractions, Editions, and Authorship in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur
Meg Roland

Malory’s Political Views: My Final Retraction
Edward Donald Kennedy

Memory and Losing One’s Head in Malory’s Morte Darthur
Catherine Batt

Mordred’s Lost Childhood
Elizabeth Archibald

Memories of War: Retracting the Interpretive Tradition of the Alliterative Morte Arthure
Fiona Tolhurst and K.S. Whetter

Malory’s Death Poem
Thomas H. Crofts


*Winner of the ‘Fair Unknown’ Award*
‘And there she lete make herself a nunne’: Guinevere’s Afterlife as a Nun in British Culture of the Mid-Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century
Ellie Crookes


The Round Table: News from the IAS-NAB



REVIEWS

Laura Chuhan Campbell, The Medieval Merlin Tradition in France and Italy: Prophecy, Paradox, and Translatio
Florence Marsal

Katherine Barnes Echols, King Arthur and Robin Hood on the Radio: Adaptations for American Listeners
Dan Nastali

Joshua Byron Smith, Walter Map and the Matter of Britain
Elizabeth M. Willingham

Leah Tether, Publishing the Grail in Medieval and Renaissance France
Leona Archer

Raymond H. Thompson, The Swan Maiden
Norris J. Lacy