From Medievalism to Early-Modernism: Adapting the English Past ed. by Marina Gerzić, and Aidan Norrie

Abstract

Reviewed by: From Medievalism to Early-Modernism: Adapting the English Past ed. by Marina Gerzić, and Aidan Norrie Stephanie Russo Gerzić, Marina, and Aidan Norrie, eds, From Medievalism to Early-Modernism: Adapting the English Past ( Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture, 11), Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2019; hardback; pp. 280; 9 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. £115.00; ISBN 9781138366572. Marina Gerzić and Aidan Norrie's edited collection is motivated by the question, 'why is there not an equivalent term like medievalism for early modern historical and cultural afterlives?' (p. 1). This question is one with which those of us who work on this material have had to grapple, and Gerzić and Norrie's intervention into this debate is welcome. They propose the term 'early-modernism', with the hyphen used to avoid confusion with modernism, as a means to address this gap. As the editors note, the terms 'Tudorism' and 'Shakespearean' are sometimes used, but both of these terms are very specific and English-centric, thus excluding material on global early-modernisms (p. 3). One might be moved to wonder, then, why half of this collection is devoted to medievalist subject matter. Certainly, the chapters dealing with early-modernist material are amongst the most entertaining and genuinely novel contributions to the scholarship. However, a closer reading of this volume reveals that the editors were wise to combine medievalist and early-modernist material here. The contributions nicely speak to each other across traditional period divides and cultures and, as Gerzić and Norrie highlight, such a division would only 'perpetuate the reductive and unhelpful division between the medieval and the early modern periods' (p. 7). Gerzić and Norrie note that the volume is wholly concerned with, as the subtitle suggests, adaptations of the English past, and one would hope that this volume will provide a useful model for further work on global approaches to the subject matter. The editors should also be commended for the diverse range of voices included in this volume, from graduate students and early career researchers to more senior scholars in the field. The collection is divided into two sections: 'Cultural Medievalism and Early-Modernism'; and 'Historical Medievalism and Early-Modernism'. The first section deals with adaptations of cultural, mostly literary, texts. The subject matter of this section ranges from Wonder Woman and the Nine Ladies Worthy to reimaginings of Chaucer, the Arthurian legends, Shakespeare, and medieval and modern zombies. Lisa Hopkins's work on the influence of The Duchess of Malfi on the Harry Potter series is one of the most entertaining of the volume, as Hopkins convincingly argues that the representation of sibling relationships in Rowling's novels, in particular, is informed by John Webster's Jacobean tragedy (p. 117). Polina Ignatova's exploration of the resonances between popular cultural representations of zombies and medieval folklore about the walking dead is also particularly illuminating in its conclusion that 'the zombie story is as constrained as its subjects, with the same plots being recycled again and again' (p. 79). The second section of the collection examines adaptations that present the historical past, rather than a specific text. Subjects canvassed include video game [End Page 249] adaptations of medieval history, graphic novel depictions of the Hundred Years' War, the afterlives of Elizabeth Barton, ghosts of the Civil War past, religious conflict in the film Elizabeth and, of course, Game of Thrones. The highlight of this section, however, is Marina Gerzić's reading of Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as Richard III in The Hollow Crown, a recent BBC adaptation of Shakespeare's history plays. Gerzić traces the way that Cumberbatch's previous roles, and star image, fed into the interpretation of his performance, particularly by his enthusiastic fans (known as the 'Cumberbitches'). Gerzić's use of fan studies to inform her reading of how Richard III is represented in the production provides a useful framework for further research in the field, especially given the immense popularity of certain medieval and early modern subjects in internet subcultures. Ben Redder's contribution on medievalist video games is also particularly interesting, given the immense popularity of the form and the ability of video games to present a highly stylized...