Barring such illnesses as claustrophobia or agoraphobia, or situations such as medical isolation or incarceration, most people move naturally from smaller to larger spaces and back again without giving the process much thought. But paying attention to our own movement in space yields all sorts of sensory experiences from something relaxing to something terrifying or even astonishingly beautiful. Our sense of expandable/contractible space can influence how we process everything from Japanes...

A story that follows a simple trajectory is seldom worth telling. But the unexpected overturning of narrative progress creates complexity and interest, directing the reader's attention to the most powerful elements of a story.Exile, for example, upsets a protagonist's hopes for a happy earthly life, emphasizing spiritual perception instead. Waking life interrupts dreams, just as dreams may redirect how one lives.Focusing on medieval literature, this study explores how narra...

Since its founding in 1943, Medievalia et Humanistica has won worldwide recognition as the first scholarly publication in America to devote itself entirely to medieval and Renaissance studies. Since 1970, a new series, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America and edited by an international board of distinguished scholars and critics, has published interdisciplinary articles. In yearly hardcover volumes, the new series publishes significant scholarship, criticism, an...

The discipline of medievalism has produced a great deal of scholarship acknowledging the "makers" of the Middle Ages: those who re-discovered the period from 500 to 1500 by engaging with its cultural works, seeking inspiration from them, or fantasizing about them. Yet such approaches - organized by time period, geography, or theme - often lack an overarching critical framework. This volume aims to provide such a framework, by calling into question the problematic yet commonly accepted voca...

Why did the most read work in English literature go without cinematic adaptation for so long? And why did five major film treatments appear between 1999 and 2008? This book explores the growing number of films based on the Old English epic poem Beowulf, and furthers the ongoing consideration of filmic medievalism. Will the powerful influence of cinema affect the future reception of this great cultural, linguistic and inherently visual work? The films inevitably sway away from not ...

Alfgar's Stories from Beowulf is a work of original fiction by noted medieval literary scholar E. L. Risden adding to the traditional tale of Beowulf, a heroic Scandinavian monster-slayer. Inspired by the original epic, Risden has created a work of gripping adventure and deep emotion. In "Grendel's Mother," Risden approaches Beowulf from the perspective of the feral monster of the same name from the epic. "Lay of the Last Survivor" tells of a fated man who finds himself alone, the sole inh...

The Year's Work in Medievalism includes vetted essays from the Studies in Medievalism--now International Society for the Study of Medievalism--annual conference and from submissions to the editor throughout the year. The current volume includes a range of topics from medievalism in literature and art to the neomedievalism of movies and games. It includes these scholarly contributions: E. L. Risden, Introductory Letter from the Editor Gwendolyn Morgan, Recollections of Medievalism Richard U...

A Living Light explores some of the major events in the life of Hildegard of Bingen: mystic, physician, composer, and one of the foremost intellectuals of the Middle Ages. In the form of a dramatic novella, it telescopes to such life-changing events as the courageous recording of her visions, the Church's acceptance of her accounts of prophetic experience, the formation of her own abbey, and the interdiction against her nuns for the burial of a revolutionary on holy ground. A story of char...

The 14th century English alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is admired for its morally complex plot and brilliant poetics. A chivalric romance placed in an Arthurian setting, it has since received acclaim for its commentary regarding important socio-political and religious concerns. The poem's technical brilliance blends psychological depth and vivid language to produce an effect widely considered superior to any other work of the time. Although the poem is a combin...