The Middle Ages in Popular Culture: Medievalism and Genre by Helen Young (review)

The contributors explore a wide range of contemporary literary and cinematographic works that faintly mirror the Middle Ages. Medievalism is very much ‘in’ today, and the exponential growth of creative interactions with the pre-modern world through fantasy products certainly justifies and even requires that scholars turn their attention to this popular culture. While medievalists will not find much of interest here, those working in contemporary literature and film are well served by the individual studies. Helen Young introduces the general topic and briefly summarizes each article’s main points, but does not investigate the particular character of this new form of medievalism in theoretical terms and does not provide specific reflections on the nature of and reasons for this new wave.

We are obviously in a new phase of Medievalism, well beyond the time of The Lord of Rings, The Name of the Rose, or The Mists of Avalon, so it would have been helpful if Young had explained this collection’s motivation and objectives. Dealing with popular culture through literary and cinematographic works proves to be quite valid, but medievalism finds expression in many other media as well, including card games, video games, and in practical performances (Society of Creative Anachronism), not many of which are considered here, with the exception of Assassin’s Creed.

Clare Bradford and Rebecca Hutton examine female protagonists in Arthurian television series such as The Legend of Prince Valiant, highlighting the clearly noticeable comedy behind it, ridiculing, especially, Arthurian knights. Judy Ann Ford continues to evaluate the image of women in the two films Red Riding Hood (2011) and Brave (2012). From here Geneva Diamond turns to Julie Gardwood’s popular romance novels (no dates or titles are supplied) in which courtship and the subsequent efforts to establish marriage assume the central role, again strangely idealizing patriarchal power structures.

Robin Anne Reid emphasizes that in current medievalist literature, as in Nicola Griffith’s Hild (2013), the question of authenticity has been abandoned in favor of fantasy and imagination, which also applies to contemporary political activism in defense of women’s causes. Alana Bennett discusses the emergence of what she calls ‘neo-medieval’ music in the contemporary scene that pursues its own agenda and no longer tries to imitate medieval models. Most medieval musicologists, however, would not agree with this assessment, though it would not diminish the aesthetic appeal of neo-medieval music.

Subsequently Elisabeth Herbst Buzay and Emmanuel Buzay focus on the video-game Assasin’s Creed (2007) where the world of contemporary Rome and the twelfth century are interlaced, all of which then interrogates historical authenticity—unfortunately a euphemism for the disregard of accuracy and factuality. But why would we even look for historical facts in fantasy products?

Carol L. Robinson analyzes gender and sexuality in William Gibson’s science fiction novels and Lana and Andy Wachowski’s films, which she intriguingly compares with Tolkien’s trilogy, thus outlining remarkable connections in the realm of medievalism where the quest for archetypal goals continues. Similarly, the detective genre that draws upon medieval themes attracts abiding interest among modern readers, as Anne McKendry illustrates in her study of novels by Ellis Peters, Peter Tremayne, and Bernard Knight (again, no dates or titles are provided).

Finally, Molly Brown revisits such historicizing novels as those by Kevin Crossley-Holland (Arthur) and Catherine Fisher (Corbenic) where the notion is ultimately dismissed that there is anything like ‘true history’ or ‘true fact.’ Such literature “resist[s] the illusion that fiction can in any way function as a mirror reflecting a ‘real’ past” (195). This seems, however, like throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water, assuming that there would be a consensus about what is close to historical truth. Overall, neither the theoretical premises are well developed nor does the reader gain a clear idea about these novels, which address primarily young readers. Brown does not provide publication dates or authors’ first names, jumping in media res without supplying the necessary background...