Medievalism in the Modern World: Essays in Honour of Leslie Workman

Description

The twenty-six essays in this volume examine the process of creating the Middle Ages. In doing so, they honour Leslie Workman, who has led the revival of the study of medievalism in the past two generations, and leads this sub-discipline towards the comprehensiveness that Lord Acton as early as 1859 had promised: 'Two great principles divide the world, and contend for the mastery: antiquity and the Middle Ages. These are the two civilizations that have preceded us, the two elements of which ours is composed. All political as well as religious questions reduce themselves practically to this. This is the great dualism that runs through our society.' While using different approaches and discussing topics in a variety of specialised fields, the contributions clearly centre on negotiating the reception of medieval culture in the Early Modern, Modern and Contemporary periods, thus presenting a broad and representative picture of current research in medievalism. Editorial Note xi Tabula Gratulatoria xiii INTRODUCTION Medievalism in the Modern World: Introductory Perspectives / Richard Utz and Tom Shippey 1 'WATERSHEDS' RE-EXAMINED The Anxiety of Authority and Medievalizing the New World / Theresa Ann Sears 15 Humanist Allusions and Medieval Themes: The 'Receyving' of Queen Anne, London, 1533 / Richard Osberg 27 Christopher Middleton and Elizabethan Medievalism / John Simons 43 Medievalism and the Salem Witch Trials / Bernard Rosenthal 61 APPROPRIATING THE PAST Absent Presence: The Romantic-Era Magna Charta and the English Constitution / Clare Simmons 69 The Swanscombe Legend and the Historiography of Kentish Gavelkind / R. J. Smith 85 Representing the Middle Ages: Court Festivals in Nineteenth-Century Prussia / David Barclay 105 'Deutschland, Deutschland, Über Alles'? Walther von der Vogelweide, Hoffmann von Fallersleben and the 'Song of the Germans': Medievalism, Nationalism and/or Racism / Ulrich Müller 117 St. George and the Pendragon / Roger Simpson 131 BYGONE MEDIEVALISMS 'The Death-Song of Ragnar Lodbrog': A Study in Sensibilities / Tom Shippey 155 Carlyle and the Medievalism of the North / Alice Chandler 173 Medieval Images: Joseph Viktor von Scheffèl's 'Ekkehard' and St. Gall / Werner Wunderlich 193 The (Fai)Lure of the Aesthetic Ideal and the (Re)Formation of Art: The Medieval Paradigm that Frames 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' / Felicia Bonaparte 227 Dante on the Edwardian Stage: Stephen Phillips's 'Paolo and Francesca' / William Calin 255 Medievalism, Classicism, and the Fiction of E. M. Forster / Kathleen Verduin 263 CONTEMPORARY MEDIEVALISMS Reconstructing the Middle Ages: The Monk's Sermon in 'The Seventh Seal' / William D. Paden 287 Theorizing Medievalism: The Case of 'Gone with the Wind' / Rosemary Welsh 307 Gnosticism, the Middle Ages, and the Search for Responsibility: Immortals in Popular Fiction / Gwendolyn Morgan 317 'Anthem': Auden's 'Cædmon's Hymn' / Paul E. Szarmach 329 'In Rama Sonat Gemitus...': The Becket Story in a Danish Medievalist Music Drama, 'A Vigil for Thomas Becket' / Nils Holger Petersen 341 MEDIEVALISM AND THE ACADEMY 'Cleansing' the Discipline: Ernst Robert Curtius and his Medievalist Turn / Richard Utz 359 The Ideological Use of Chaucer: The Examples of Kittredge and Donaldson / Britton J. Harwood 379 Medievalism and the Problem of Radical Evil in Snodgrass's 'The Fuehrer Bunker' / David Metzger 393 Romancing the Text, Medievalizing the Book / David Greetham 409 DOCUMENTS Speaking of Medievalism: An Interview with Leslie J. Workman / Richard Utz 433 Leslie Workman: A Speech of Thanks / William Calin 451