Medieval Cultural Studies: Essays in Honour of Stephen Knight

by Ruth Evans (Editor), Helen Fulton (Editor)

This collection of newly commissioned essays celebrates the sixty-fifth birthday of Professor Stephen Knight in 2005 by paying tribute to his pioneering work in a discipline we call ‘medieval cultural studies’. This is the first book-length study of this relatively new discipline. The contributions are grouped under five main Defining the Medieval Cultural Studies?; Robin Hood; Historical Chaucer; The Cultural Politics of Romance; Cultural Politics/The Politics of Culture. The essays address their subjects – ‘medievalism’; Robin Hood; fabliaux; medievalist crime fiction; medieval romance; Chaucer; contemporary novels with medieval drama settings; medieval London; skaldic poetry; the crusades – in the broad spirit of the kind of work that used to be done at the Birmingham Centre for Cultural Studies, and which is carried on more widely in cultural studies departments in the US, Australia and the rest of Britain. Distinguished contributors from Australia, North America, England, Scotland and Wales bear witness to Stephen Knight’s diverse teaching experiences and research interests, by reflecting on and developing the work of a man who has inaugurated so much innovative thinking about the medieval past and its cultural legacies.

286 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 1900

Reviews

[Geoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The nineteen (really eighteen) essays in this tribute to Stephen Knight are divided into five sections:
I) Defining the Field: Medieval Cultural Studies – essays by Matthews, Scanlon, Hahn
II) Robin Hood – essays by Ormrod, Cooper, Driver, Ohlgren
III) Historical Chaucer – essays by Phillips, Fulton, Kelly, Trigg
IV) The Cultural Politics of Romance – essays by Delany, Evans, Speed
V) Cultural Politics/The Politics of Culture – essays by Ross, Barnes, Rogerson; bibliography by Sussex
The sections are somewhat arbitrary and there is considerable overlap.

It probably comes as no surprise that I read this collection because of the RH content. And the usual suspects (Hahn, Cooper, Ohlgren, Phillips) have delivered solid, if uninspired, contributions. Martha W. Driver’s essay “‘We Band of Brothers’: Rousing Speeches from Robin Hood to Black Knight” was entertaining. The essays by Scanlon, Fulton, Trigg, Barnes and (especially) Margaret Rogerson’s “Explaining the ‘Mysteries’: Medieval Theatre and Modern Fictions” were all interesting.

The boundary between analysis of the middle ages and representations of it (medievalism) is blurred. Rogerson’s essay seeks to demonstrate how a cultural artefact (the mystery plays) are reworked in a modern medium (the novel) that also participates in scholarly reevaluation of medieval drama. I wish I’d come across this essay earlier – the information Rogerson supplies on a medieval work (Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge) would’ve come in handy for an argument a discussion I had a couple of years back. Essay collections like this usually provide a path to another book or article to read. This collection is no exception and I think it had an added bonus – the two novels discussed in Rogerson’s essay. McCaughrean’s A Little Lower than the Angels and Unsworth’s Morality Play have been added to my TBR list.

A common refrain of mine with collection like this is that they are a mixed bag. And guess what? This one is no different!