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IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 1742: 21st-Century Medievalism

Thursday 6 July 2017, 14.15-15.45

Moderator/Chair:Michael Evans, Faculty of Social Science, Delta College, Michigan
Paper 1742-a'The Dwarf, the Cripple, and the Mother of Madness': Representing Bodily Impairment in Medieval Television Dramas
(Language: English)
Rachael Gillibrand, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Index terms: Daily Life, Medievalism and Antiquarianism, Social History, Technology
Paper 1742-bThe Witcher Series: A New Perspective on Medieval 'Otherness'
(Language: English)
George Rusu, Facultatea de Istorie, Universitatea din Bucureşti
Index terms: Folk Studies, Mentalities
Paper 1742-cNostalgia for the Pre-Modern Pagan: 'Othering' and Belonging
(Language: English)
Helen B. M. Dell, Department of English, University of Melbourne
Index terms: Medievalism and Antiquarianism, Music, Pagan Religions
Abstract

Paper -a:
In recent years television serials have seen a surge in popularity, with an increasing number of fantasy and period dramas drawing inspiration from the Middle Ages. Through a discussion of the debates surrounding medievalism and current research into medieval disability aids, this paper will use examples from late medieval period dramas (including, but not limited to, Game of Thrones, The White Queen, The Hollow Crown, and Reign) in order to ask how modern audiences both understand and represent late medieval disability, and whether or not these examples are reflective of late medieval visual and material evidence.

Paper -b:
This paper proposes a new perspective on medieval 'otherness' in a medium that has not been thoroughly explored at least when it comes to the impact that it has in contemporary culture: that of video games. I wish to present to your attention a series that spans several mediums: literature, film, and video games, giving more importance to the latter. This study is meant to show a reinterpretation of 'otherness' from two different points of view: first the player-character dichotomy and secondly the relationship between a marginal character and the social and political environment he interacts with.

Paper -c:
For many Neo-Pagans the medieval past is benignly associated in imagination with Paganism. On a supposedly historical level, however, it is distinguished and anathematised as the time when Paganism was suppressed by Christianity. Some contemporary Pagans claim that pre-modern Paganism in Europe has survived underground up to the present time. For many modern Pagans, therefore, the medieval has a double aspect: on one hand as providing a lineage for contemporary Paganism, on the other, as the hated Other of Paganism-Christianity. My paper is an enquiry, through the lens of Neo-Paganism, into the emotional range of medievalist nostalgia and the dynamic between its different expressions.