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Medieval Fantasy as Performance: The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Current Middle Ages
In this book, Michael Cramer views the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), an organization that studies and recreates the middle ages, as a case study for a growing fascination with medieval fantasy in popular culture. He explores the act of medieval re-creation as performance by focusing on the SCA, describing the group's activities, investigating its place in popular culture, and looking at the SCA not so much as a historical society but as an on-going work of performance art; a postmodern counter-culture riff on what it means to be "medieval."
Cramer examines the group's activities, from persona and character development to theatrical performance and personal interaction; from the complex official ceremonies to full contact armored combat with mock broadswords. He explores the SCA in detail to discover how its members adapt and employ ideas about the Middle Ages in performance, ritual reenactment, living history, and re-creation, analyzing the performance of identity through ritual, sport, drama, and personal interaction, and he focuses on the reconstruction of the medieval "king game," a game in which a mock king is chosen to reign over a mock court. The book also studies various ideas about medievalism, including the contrast between reenactment and re-creation, and places these activities in the context of contemporary American society. With three appendixes, a bibliography, and a selection of photos, Cramer demonstrates how and why medieval fantasy is increasingly used in popular culture and analyzes the dissatisfaction with contemporary culture that leads people into these realms of fantasy.
Cramer examines the group's activities, from persona and character development to theatrical performance and personal interaction; from the complex official ceremonies to full contact armored combat with mock broadswords. He explores the SCA in detail to discover how its members adapt and employ ideas about the Middle Ages in performance, ritual reenactment, living history, and re-creation, analyzing the performance of identity through ritual, sport, drama, and personal interaction, and he focuses on the reconstruction of the medieval "king game," a game in which a mock king is chosen to reign over a mock court. The book also studies various ideas about medievalism, including the contrast between reenactment and re-creation, and places these activities in the context of contemporary American society. With three appendixes, a bibliography, and a selection of photos, Cramer demonstrates how and why medieval fantasy is increasingly used in popular culture and analyzes the dissatisfaction with contemporary culture that leads people into these realms of fantasy.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
230 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 14, 2014
Excellent read..written by a former King of the West it is an anthropological look at the SCA and it's immersive culture of performance. The best academic description of the SCA: The SCA is a postmodern construction of a Hollywood version of a Victorian image of a romantic Middle Ages that never really existed. He also describes it as what happens when you get a thousand Don Quixote's in one place. I enjoyed reading some of the history that isn't generally told in articles and found the fact that what is really being re-created is the "king game" which was actually a part of medieval culture.
The discussions of persona -- those who construct one and those who are basically themselves in costumes and interpersonal performance was very interesting. The tug of war in the Society between those seeking an authentic emotional experience versus those who are looking for authentic material culture and how that is causing an underlying split within the Society.
A wonderful look at a King who scripted their reign as a total performance and how that turned out...was fascinating. The description of the real power that the King's wield -- because if they do not implement something the board decrees there isn't really anything they can do about it because the populace gives their allegiance to the monarch and not the BOD and how that has played out over the past few decade made for some very interesting reading.
It gave me a great deal to think about.
The discussions of persona -- those who construct one and those who are basically themselves in costumes and interpersonal performance was very interesting. The tug of war in the Society between those seeking an authentic emotional experience versus those who are looking for authentic material culture and how that is causing an underlying split within the Society.
A wonderful look at a King who scripted their reign as a total performance and how that turned out...was fascinating. The description of the real power that the King's wield -- because if they do not implement something the board decrees there isn't really anything they can do about it because the populace gives their allegiance to the monarch and not the BOD and how that has played out over the past few decade made for some very interesting reading.
It gave me a great deal to think about.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews