Fantasy and Science-Fiction Medievalisms is now available! This fascinating study “illuminate[s] how the manifold layers of meaning attached to medieval in fantasy and science fiction are constructed.”
On The Lord of the Rings
“The Lord of the Rings also fed a powerful American appetite for medievalism that soon manifested itself not only through a new wave of pulp-fiction fantasy but also through the emergence of adult-audience comic books, historical reenactment, and immersive role-playing games.”
However, “Tolkien’s novels constitute the central [medievalist visual narrative] but certainly not the only one. Anglo-Saxon epic and elegiac poetry, Scandinavian sagas, Tolkien’s letters, and Victorian literature and painting, as well as the illustrated versions of Tolkien’s books, are some of the intertexts that find their way into the final result.”
On A Game of Thrones
“Gritty or ‘grimdark’ fantasy claims to be a reaction against what is seen as a romanticized, even bowdlerized, version of the Middle Ages inspired in fantasy by the imitation of Tolkien’s work.’
“George R. R. Martin has fetishized a version of the Middle Ages that he believes is as authentic as possible under the circumstances, and this fetishization leads to the inclusion of problematic elements, such as rape, incest, chattel slavery, and violence against women.”
Download the flyer for Fantasy and Science-Fiction Medievalisms.
Order online by July 30 for a 35% discount – use coupon code Medieval2015.
This book is in the Cambria Studies in Classicism, Orientalism, and Medievalism book series (General Editor: Nickolas A. Haydock).
Catch the editor Helen Young at the The Middle Ages in the Modern World conference at the University of Lincoln (June 29 – July 3) and at the Leeds International Medieval Congress (July 6 – 9!
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See the Cambria Press website for more books.
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