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New World Medievalisms
The Middle Ages in the American Cultural Imaginary
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
Examines how the European Middle Ages has been used and received in a variety of American cultural contexts.
There is a deep-seated preoccupation in North America with the cultures of the European Middle Ages, but despite the insightful conversations that have developed between medieval and postcolonial studies, this phenomenon remains underexplored. This book considers these New World medievalisms, from the links between New World colonization and Christian crusades to the medievalisms endemic to contemporary cultural productions, such as Game of Thrones, demonstrating how European figures and narratives have functioned to rationalize Euro-American colonial efforts.
Each of the chapters takes up a period of British colonial or U.S. cultural history, with an eye to how authors of that period depict, refer to and imagine the medieval. Topics range from the remarkable popularity throughout American literary history of Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote to the role the Norman Conquest of Britain played in the British-American colonial cultural imaginary. It also showcases subversive counter-narratives from Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Ursula K. Le Guin; these authors challenge the use of anachronistic and geographically displaced medieval figures and narratives to define a modern nation-state such as the United States. Drawing on postcolonial theory, medievalism studies, medieval studies and American studies, this book shows how the "medieval/modern divide" continues to inform U.S. national identity and American historiography more generally.
There is a deep-seated preoccupation in North America with the cultures of the European Middle Ages, but despite the insightful conversations that have developed between medieval and postcolonial studies, this phenomenon remains underexplored. This book considers these New World medievalisms, from the links between New World colonization and Christian crusades to the medievalisms endemic to contemporary cultural productions, such as Game of Thrones, demonstrating how European figures and narratives have functioned to rationalize Euro-American colonial efforts.
Each of the chapters takes up a period of British colonial or U.S. cultural history, with an eye to how authors of that period depict, refer to and imagine the medieval. Topics range from the remarkable popularity throughout American literary history of Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote to the role the Norman Conquest of Britain played in the British-American colonial cultural imaginary. It also showcases subversive counter-narratives from Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Ursula K. Le Guin; these authors challenge the use of anachronistic and geographically displaced medieval figures and narratives to define a modern nation-state such as the United States. Drawing on postcolonial theory, medievalism studies, medieval studies and American studies, this book shows how the "medieval/modern divide" continues to inform U.S. national identity and American historiography more generally.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Scott Corbet Riley
SCOTT CORBET RILEY holds a Ph.D. in Literature from UC Santa Cruz and currently teaches Latin at Lakeside School in Seattle, Washington.
Reviews
Drawing on postcolonial theory, medievalism studies, medieval studies and American studies, this book shows how the "medieval/modern divide" continues to inform U.S. national identity and American historiography more generally.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
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Acknowledgement
vi -
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Introduction
1 -
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1 The New World Crusades: British Colonial Charters, Pilgrim- Crusaders, and the Transatlantic Captivity Narrative
17 -
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2 Errant in the Wilderness: The Naming of California, Don Quixote’s America, and Other Geographic Fantasies
35 -
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3 Mad Trist: American Anglo-Saxonism, James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, and Edgar Allan Poe’s Subversive Medievalism
55 -
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4 The Time Machine in the Garden: Frontier Medievalisms, Owen Wister’s Te Virginian, and Mark Twain’s Apophatic America
74 -
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5 The Persistent Medieval: T.S. Eliot’s Te Waste Land, Ezra Pound’s The Cantos, and William Faulkner’s Organic Medievalism
98 -
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6 The Spectacle of the Medieval: America’s New Feudalism, HBO’s Game of Trones, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish Novels
120 -
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Conclusion
140 -
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Bibliography
155 -
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Index
177
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 29, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9781805435464
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781805435464
Keywords for this book
European Middle Ages; North America; medievalisms; Game of Thrones; British colonial history; U.S. cultural history; Miguel Cervantes; Don Quixote; Norman Conquest; Edgar Allan Poe; postcolonial theory; American historiography; Ursula K. Le Guin
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
