Fictional and fictionalised religions as heritage? Reflections on the object of critical heritage studies

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article attempts to make a connection between two fields, that usually operate in separate intellectual contexts: critical research on heritage as a social practice and the study of historical and fantasy fiction, concentrating on renditions of the Middle Ages. Both the construction of heritage and the creation of a fictional narrative are ways of processing of the past, although, at first sight, opposites. Claiming a site as heritage and therefore as determining a community’s identity elides the distance between past and present, whereas the authors of historical and fantasy fiction are keen to stress the exotic nature of the Middle Ages. Yet, the article argues that these practices operate on a sliding scale and asks the question whether the telling of a fictional tale about the Middle Ages might be a heritage practice in itself.