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Medievalism
Medievalism: a Critical History
An accessibly-written survey of the origins and growth of the discipline of medievalism studies.
The field known as "medievalism studies" concerns the life of the Middle Ages after the Middle Ages. Originating some thirty years ago, it examines reinventions and reworkings of the medieval from the Reformation to postmodernity,from Bale and Leland to HBO's Game of Thrones. But what exactly is it? An offshoot of medieval studies? A version of reception studies? Or a new form of cultural studies? Can such a diverse field claim coherence? Should it be housed in departments of English, or History, or should it always be interdisciplinary?
In responding to such questions, the author traces the history of medievalism from its earliest appearances in the sixteenth century to the present day, across a range of examples drawn from the spheres of literature, art, architecture, music and more. He identifies two major modes, the grotesque and the romantic, and focuses on key phases of the development of medievalism in the Reformation, the late eighteenth century, and above all the period between 1815 and 1850, which, he argues, represents the zenith of medievalist cultural production. He also contends that the 1840s were medievalism's one moment of canonicity in several European cultures at once. After that, medievalism became a minority form, rarely marked with cultural prestige, though always pervasive and influential.
a Critical History scrutinises several key categories - space, time, and selfhood - and traces the impact of medievalism on each. It will be the essential guide to a complex and still evolving field of inquiry.
David Matthews is Professor of Medieval and Medievalism Studies at the University of Manchester.
The field known as "medievalism studies" concerns the life of the Middle Ages after the Middle Ages. Originating some thirty years ago, it examines reinventions and reworkings of the medieval from the Reformation to postmodernity,from Bale and Leland to HBO's Game of Thrones. But what exactly is it? An offshoot of medieval studies? A version of reception studies? Or a new form of cultural studies? Can such a diverse field claim coherence? Should it be housed in departments of English, or History, or should it always be interdisciplinary?
In responding to such questions, the author traces the history of medievalism from its earliest appearances in the sixteenth century to the present day, across a range of examples drawn from the spheres of literature, art, architecture, music and more. He identifies two major modes, the grotesque and the romantic, and focuses on key phases of the development of medievalism in the Reformation, the late eighteenth century, and above all the period between 1815 and 1850, which, he argues, represents the zenith of medievalist cultural production. He also contends that the 1840s were medievalism's one moment of canonicity in several European cultures at once. After that, medievalism became a minority form, rarely marked with cultural prestige, though always pervasive and influential.
a Critical History scrutinises several key categories - space, time, and selfhood - and traces the impact of medievalism on each. It will be the essential guide to a complex and still evolving field of inquiry.
David Matthews is Professor of Medieval and Medievalism Studies at the University of Manchester.
229 pages, Hardcover
First published January 15, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 7, 2017
This book is a revealing exploration of representative modes of medievalism. It examines the people, institutions, and moments that have driven societies around the world to reimagine and revive a medieval past. Eschewing shallow comprehensiveness, David Matthews instead offers a careful and extended handling of significant moments of medieval revival.
There is a good deal about the distinctions between medieval studies and medievalism studies, as well as the connections between them. All the attention is warranted, I think. Discerning what Matthews means by medievalism requires seeing how various disciplines within the academy have understood themselves. Matthews is a helpful guide to such questions.
The real meat of the book is in the sort of big-picture history. From Sir Walter Scott and Cardinal Newman embracing structures of medieval ceremony in the early nineteen century to today’s medieval reenactments and medieval markets that employ touristic capital by celebrating a medieval inheritance, Matthews explores the positive vision of the romantic middle ages. Imagined as a world of chivalry and preindustrial economy defined by courtesy and noblesse, the romantic medieval offers connection to the land and a sense of more primitive, and more peaceful, social relations to those who long for a world before industrialism and global capitalism. A negative vision of the grotesque middle ages–a world of barbarity and violence, of cruelty, ignorance, superstition, and narrow parochialism–always follows close on the heels of the romantic. Matthews' argument examines the ways in which communities and thinkers recover both grim and grand visions of the medieval, but also explores aspects medievalism that fall outside this neat binary.
The book moves deftly between examinations of medieval recovery in statecraft, aesthetics, art, literature, architecture, and the scholarly discipline of medieval studies. Matthews shows that an investment in the medieval has often spanned academic interest in historical detail and popular interest in knights and castles. He pays particular attention to what is here called civic medievalism: attempts by writers and thinkers to recover that part of the middle ages that encouraged trade, labor, and industry, an interest on the part of statesmen and business leaders who find in the middle ages a worthy model of infrastructural expansion and open commerce.
Likewise, with careful eye on ways in which being “medieval” can serve as a condemnation, Matthews pays close attention to how the idea of being medieval in the present day has the power to both attract and repel those who see an unevenness of time in our present world. Some societies are disparaged as being "medieval," and individuals are critiqued for "living in the past." This is never in any sense true, but the idea has been used to great effect in many cases, and Matthews offers some thoughtful analysis of representative cases.
So, all in all, the book asks readers to consider why we employ the past to do work in the present, and how the pursuit of recovering the past makes that very past a malleable thing. This charge falls on scholar and layman alike. Careful not to exaggerate the significance of medievalism while discussing moments when it was merely one stream of many, Matthews also directs attention to ways in which interest in the medieval world has been underrecognized. This is a commendably searching and scholarly contribution to the study of medievalism, and one that I'm really glad to have in my collection.
There is a good deal about the distinctions between medieval studies and medievalism studies, as well as the connections between them. All the attention is warranted, I think. Discerning what Matthews means by medievalism requires seeing how various disciplines within the academy have understood themselves. Matthews is a helpful guide to such questions.
The real meat of the book is in the sort of big-picture history. From Sir Walter Scott and Cardinal Newman embracing structures of medieval ceremony in the early nineteen century to today’s medieval reenactments and medieval markets that employ touristic capital by celebrating a medieval inheritance, Matthews explores the positive vision of the romantic middle ages. Imagined as a world of chivalry and preindustrial economy defined by courtesy and noblesse, the romantic medieval offers connection to the land and a sense of more primitive, and more peaceful, social relations to those who long for a world before industrialism and global capitalism. A negative vision of the grotesque middle ages–a world of barbarity and violence, of cruelty, ignorance, superstition, and narrow parochialism–always follows close on the heels of the romantic. Matthews' argument examines the ways in which communities and thinkers recover both grim and grand visions of the medieval, but also explores aspects medievalism that fall outside this neat binary.
The book moves deftly between examinations of medieval recovery in statecraft, aesthetics, art, literature, architecture, and the scholarly discipline of medieval studies. Matthews shows that an investment in the medieval has often spanned academic interest in historical detail and popular interest in knights and castles. He pays particular attention to what is here called civic medievalism: attempts by writers and thinkers to recover that part of the middle ages that encouraged trade, labor, and industry, an interest on the part of statesmen and business leaders who find in the middle ages a worthy model of infrastructural expansion and open commerce.
Likewise, with careful eye on ways in which being “medieval” can serve as a condemnation, Matthews pays close attention to how the idea of being medieval in the present day has the power to both attract and repel those who see an unevenness of time in our present world. Some societies are disparaged as being "medieval," and individuals are critiqued for "living in the past." This is never in any sense true, but the idea has been used to great effect in many cases, and Matthews offers some thoughtful analysis of representative cases.
So, all in all, the book asks readers to consider why we employ the past to do work in the present, and how the pursuit of recovering the past makes that very past a malleable thing. This charge falls on scholar and layman alike. Careful not to exaggerate the significance of medievalism while discussing moments when it was merely one stream of many, Matthews also directs attention to ways in which interest in the medieval world has been underrecognized. This is a commendably searching and scholarly contribution to the study of medievalism, and one that I'm really glad to have in my collection.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews