Recasting the Past: Early Modern to Postmodern Medievalisms

1649, the radical Digger movement called on the people of England to ‘throw down that Norman yoke’; in 1849, at the launch of the periodical the Anglo-Saxon, its British readers were addressed as ‘Anglo-Saxons all’; and in 2009, a cover story for Harpers magazine accused American soldiers in Afghanistan of acting ‘exactly like the crusaders of 1096’.

This AHRC-supported conference will draw together research examining how, from the Renaissance to the present, historical narratives about Britain’s ‘medieval’ past have been drawn on to foster communal identities; to fuel, legitimate or oppose social and political change; and to resist or moderate the forces of modernity. Confirmed speakers include Rosemary Hill, author of God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (2007) and Janet Marquardt, author of From Martyr to Monument: The Abbey of Cluny as Cultural Patrimony (2009).

Possible topics might include:

• The formation of regional and national identities
• The politics of Pre-Raphaelitism Gothic architecture
• The reception of historical medieval figures – King Alfred, Richard III, the Black Prince, etc
• The social/political agendas of translation and editing projects
• The uses of chivalry, monasticism, feudalism, etc in post-medieval thought and praxis
• The establishment of medieval-inspired institutions and associations
• The social uses of King Arthur, Robin Hood and other medieval myths/legends/folklore