Approaches to Medievalism: A Consideration of Taxonomy and Methodology through Fantasy Fiction

Methodologies for examining medievalism commonly rely on considerations of a text's relationship with medieval sources, but such approaches are limited because they do not take into account the ways intervening years have influenced modern concepts of the Middle Ages. An approach which includes both the historical and imaginative 'medieval' and examines the purpose and effects of medievalism offers scope for more comprehensive interrogations. Investigation of modern fantasy writing such as the genre fiction of Katharine Kerr and the more literary works of Neil Gaiman demonstrates the usefulness of such a methodology.