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Muslim Heroes on Screen
If films drawing on Middle East tropes often highlight white Westerners, figures such as Sinbad and the Thief of Bagdad embody a counter-tradition of protagonists, derived from Islamic folklore and history, who are portrayed as ‘Other’ to Western audiences. In Muslim Heroes on Screen, Daniel O’Brien explores the depiction of these characters in Euro-American cinema from the silent era to the present day. Far from being mere racial masquerade, these screen portrayals are more complex and nuanced than is generally allowed, not least in terms of the shifting concepts and assumptions that inform their Muslim identity. Using films ranging from Douglas Fairbanks’ The Thief of Bagdad, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, El Cid, Kingdom of Heaven and The Message to The Wind and the Lion, O’Brien considers how the representational strategies of Western filmmakers may transcend such Muslim stereotypes as fanatic antagonists or passive victims. These figures possess a cultural significance which cannot be fully appreciated by Euro-American audiences without reference to their distinction as Muslim heroes and the implications and resonances of an Islamicized protagonist.
Remaking the Middle Ages
Proposing a fresh theoretical approach to the study of cinematic portrayals of the Middle Ages, this book uses both semiotics and historiography to demonstrate how contemporary filmmakers have attempted to recreate the past in a way that, while largely imagined, is also logical, meaningful, and as truthful as possible. Carrying out this critical approach, the author analyzes a wide range of films depicting the Middle Ages, arguing that most of these films either reflect the past through a series of visual signs (a concept he has called "iconic recreation") or by comparing the past to a modern equivalent (called "paradigmatic representation").
Diversity
Volume 22, Diversity, is a special volume in the new series of Medievalia et Humanistica, focusing on the diversity of voices in medieval and early Renaissance literature. Six original articles explore themes of law, art, and piety at all levels of medieval and early Renaissance society, from the common audience of Malory's England to the aristocratic courts of Germany. . In addition to these six original articles, this volume offers two review articles and 28 review notices on 49 recent publications. Scholars, teachers, and students will find this volume presents a sampling of the variety and abundance of medieval and early Renaissance studies today.
Tolkien and the Study of His Sources
Source criticism--analysis of a writer's source material--has emerged as one of the most popular approaches in exploring the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien drew from many disparate sources, an understanding of these sources, as well as how and why he incorporated them, can enhance readers' appreciation. This set of new essays by leading Tolkien scholars describes the theory and methodology for proper source criticism and provides practical demonstrations of the approach.
Beowulf in Comic Books and Graphic Novels
The legendary story of Beowulf comes to us in only one medieval manuscript with no illustrations. Modern comic book and graphic novel artists have created visual interpretations of Beowulf for decades, both illustrating and altering the classic story to pull out new themes. This book examines the growing canon of Beowulf comic books and graphic novels since the 1940s, and shows the remarkable emergence of new traditions--from re-envisioning the medieval look, to creating new plotlines, and even to transforming his identity. While placing Beowulf in a fantastical medieval setting, a techno-dystopia of the future, or modern-day America, artists have appropriated the tale to comment on social issues such as war, environmental issues, masculinity, and consumerism. Whether Beowulf is fighting new monsters or allying with popular comic book superheroes, these artists are creating a new canon of illustration that redefines Beowulf's place in our culture.
Medievalism
Definitions of keywords and terms for the study of medievalism.
Christian Popular Culture from The Chronicles of Narnia to Duck Dynasty
Christian popular culture has tremendous influence on many American churchgoers. When we have a choice between studying the Bible and reading novels, downloading movies, or watching television, we become less familiar with Numbers than with Narnia. This book examines popular Christian narratives with rigorous scholarly methods and assumes that they are just as complex, fascinating, and worthy of investigation as the latest secular Netflix series or dystopian novel. While most scholars focus on the religious aspects of Christian texts, this study takes a new approach by analyzing their social responsibility in portraying the complex dynamics of race, class, and gender in a profoundly unequal America. Close readings of six case studies--The Chronicles of Narnia, Francine Rivers's Redeeming Love, Jan Karon's Mitford novels, Left Behind, the films of the Sherwood Baptist Church, and Duck Dynasty--uncover both harmful stereotypes and Christians serving as leaders in social justice.
History on Film/Film on History
Since first publication in 2006, Robert A. Rosenstone's History on Film/Film on History has established itself as a classic treatise on the historical film and its role in bringing history to life. In this updated version of his ground-breaking and widely-acclaimed text, Robert Rosenstone argues that to leave history films out of the discussion of the meaning of the past is to ignore a major factor in our understanding of past events. He champions the dramatic feature as a legitimate way of doing history, even though it is largely fictional. He examines what history films convey about the past and how they convey it, demonstrating the need to learn how to read and understand this new visual ...
Remembering the Medieval Present: Generative Uses of England’s Pre-Conquest Past, 10th to 15th Centuries
This volume of essays focuses on how individuals living in the late tenth through fifteenth centuries engaged with the authorizing culture of the Anglo-Saxons. Drawing from a reservoir of undertreated early English documents and texts, each contributor shows how individual poets, ecclesiasts, legists, and institutions claimed Anglo-Saxon predecessors for rhetorical purposes in response to social, cultural, and linguistic change. Contributors trouble simple definitions of identity and period, exploring how medieval authors looked to earlier periods of history to define social identities and make claims for their present moment based on the political fiction of an imagined community of a single, distinct nation unified in identity by descent and religion. Contributors are Cynthia Turner Camp, Irina Dumitrescu, Jay Paul Gates, Erin Michelle Goeres, Mary Kate Hurley, Maren Clegg Hyer, Nicole Marafioti, Brian O’Camb, Kathleen Smith, Carla María Thomas, Larissa Tracy, and Eric Weiskott. See inside the book.
Wonder and Skepticism in the Middle Ages
Wonder and Skepticism in the Middle Ages explores the response by medieval society to tales of marvels and the supernatural, which ranged from firm belief to outright rejection, and asks why the believers believed, and why the skeptical disbelieved. Despite living in a world whose structures more often than not supported belief, there were still a great many who disbelieved, most notably scholastic philosophers who began a polemical programme against belief in marvels. Keagan Brewer reevaluates the Middle Ages’ reputation as an era of credulity by considering the evidence for incidences of marvels, miracles and the supernatural and demonstrating the reasons people did and did not believe i...
