Updated Info on The Middle Ages on Television

Meriem Pagès and Karolyn Kinane's collection The Middle Ages on Television: Critical Essays is now available for purchase and the full contents list made available. Complete details follow.

The Middle Ages on Television: Critical Essays
Edited by Meriem Pagès and Karolyn Kinane

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-7941-2
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-4766-2009-1
notes, bibliographies, index
228pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2015

Price: $40.00
Available for immediate shipment

About the Book
The 21st century has seen a resurgence of popular interest in the Middle Ages. Television in particular has presented a wide and diverse array of “medieval” offerings. Yet there exists little scholarship on television medievalism.

This collection fills the gap with 10 new essays focusing on the depiction of the Middle Ages in popular culture and questioning the role of television in shaping our ideas about past and present. The contributors emphasize the need for scholars of medievalism to pay attention to its manifestations on the small screen. The essays cover quite a range of topics, including genre, gender and sexuality. The series covered are Game of Thrones, Merlin, Full Metal Jousting, Joan of Arcadia, Tudors, Camelot and Mists of Avalon.


Table of Contents

Introduction: Television Medievalisms (Meriem Pages and Karolyn Kinane) 1

Part 1. Personal and Political Desires
The Most Dangerous Sport in History Is About to Be Reborn: Medievalism and Violence in Full Metal Jousting (Angela Jane Weisl) 15
Joan of Arcadia: A Modern Maiden on Trial (Stephanie L. Coker) 31
William Webbe’s Wench: Henry VIII, History and Popular Culture (Shannon McSheffrey) 53
Nature and Adventure in Die Jagd nach dem Schatz der Nibelungen (Evan Torner) 78

Part 2. Narrative and Genre
Episodic Arthur: Merlin, Camelot and the Visual Modernization of the Medieval Literary Romance Tradition (Melissa Ridley Elmes) 99
Are You Kidding? King Arthur and the Knights of Justice (Sandy Feinstein) 122

Part 3. Gender and Sexuality
Television’s Male Gaze: The Male Perspective in TNT’s Mists of Avalon (Michael W. George) 141
Gendering Morals, Magic and Medievalism in the BBC’s Merlin (Elysse T. Meredith) 158
Arthur and Guenievre: The Royal Couple of Kaamelott (Tara Foster) 174
Homosexuality in Television Medievalism (Torben R. Gebhardt) 197

About the Contributors 215

Index 217


About the Editors
Meriem Pages is an associate professor of English and director of the Medieval and Renaissance Forum at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire. Karolyn Kinane is an associate professor of English and director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire.

Elizabeth I on Film CFP

[UPDATE]: Elizabeth I on Film: Kalamazoo, May 9-12, 2013
full name / name of organization:
Queen Elizabeth I Society
contact email:
ariehl@auburn.edu

Our panel in 2013 will focus on representations of Elizabeth I in the classic and more recent film narratives. In the last decade alone, the image of Elizabeth I on film has ranged from Dame Judi Dench's aged but energetic queen to Cate Blanchett's preternaturally youthful 55 year old monarch to the adolescent princess played by Laoise Murray on _The Tudors_. This panel will seek to explore the general trajectories of representing Elizabeth I on screen as well as identify and analyze the developments, continuities, and significance of these representations in the 21st century.

This session is sponsored by Queen Elizabeth I Society.

Please email the abstracts (300 words or less) to Anna Riehl Bertolet, ariehl@auburn.edu, no later than September 15, 2011.

Tudors on Screen Book

Coming soon from McFarland: 

The Tudors on Film and Television
Sue Parrill and William B. Robison

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-5891-2
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-4766-0031-4
ca. 25 photos, chronology, filmography, bibliography, index
softcover (8.5 x 11) 2012

Price: $75.00

Not Yet Published, Available Fall/Winter 2012

About the Book

With its mix of family drama, sex, and violence, Britain’s Tudor dynasty (1485-1603) has long excited the interest of filmmakers and moviegoers. Since the birth of movie-making technology, the lives and times of Kings Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Edward VI and Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I have remained popular cinematic themes. From 1895’s The Execution of Mary Stuart to 2011’s Anonymous, this comprehensive filmography chronicles every known film about the Tudor era, including feature films; made-for-television films, mini-series, and series; documentaries; animated films; and shorts. From royal biographies to period pieces to modern movies with flashbacks or time travel, this work reveals how these films both convey the attitudes of Tudor times and reflect the era in which they were made.

About the Authors
Sue Parrill is professor emeritus and former head of the department of English at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. William B. Robison is a professor of history and heads the Department of History and Political Science at Southeastern Louisiana University. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.