National Medievalism in the Twenty-First Century - 9781843846574

Boydell & Brewer Ltd

National Medievalism in the Twenty-First CenturySwitzerland and Britain\nAuthor(s): Matthias D Berger\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: D.S. Brewer\nISBN-13: 9781843846574, 978-1843846574\nSynopsis\nHow ideas and ideals of an imagined, protean, national Middle Ages have once again become a convergence point for anxieties about politics, history and cultural identity in our time - and why.\n\nAfter a period of abeyance, the link forged in the nineteenth century between the Middle Ages and national identity is increasingly being reclaimed, with numerous groups and individuals mining an imagined medieval past to present ideas and ideals of modern nationhood. Today's national medievalism asserts itself at the interface of culture and politics: in literature and television programming, in journalism and heritage tourism, and in the way political actors of various stripes use a deep past that supposedly proves the nation's steady exceptionalis.