Beyond Arthurian Romances: The Reach of Victorian Medievalism [Hardcover]

Leaving the traditional focus on Arthurian romance and Gothic tales, the essays in this collection address how the Victorians looked back to the Middle Ages to create a sense of authority for their own ideas in areas such as art, religion, gender expectations, and social services. This book will interest specialists in the Victorian period from various fields and will also be a welcome addition to any library serving substantial humanities divisions. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the essays, this collection would be useful in a wide range of humanities classes beyond the traditional literature class.PART ONE: THE NEW/OLD FRAMEWORK FOR FEMAL VOCATION Where Medieval Romance Meets Victorian Reality: The Woman Question in William Morris's The Wood Beyond the World ; L.Campbell Lessons from the Medieval Convent: Adelaide Proctor's A Legend of Provence ; C.A.Col?n PART TWO: COMMUNITY: DEVELOPMENT AND RESPONSIBILITY Norse Fatalism and Victorian Mourning in Matthew Arnold's Balder Dead ; E.Hu & K.Zarins Designing Spaces of Inclusion: Victorian Medievalism and the Creation of Community; C.Wagner PART THREE: THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST The Worship of Courage : William Morris's Sigurd and Volsung and Victorian Medievalism; R.Frith What's Wrong with Raphael? The Pre-Raphaelite Critique of High Renaissance Painting and Affirmation of Medieval Painting; I.Smithson PART FOUR: MODELS FOR FAITH AND AUTHORITY Counter-Medievalism: Or Protestants Rewrite the Middle Ages; M.E.Burstein PART FIVE: VICTORIAN POPULAR CULTURE Charlotte Yonge's Victorian Normans in The Little Duke; S.Wakefield Victorian Medieval Performance; B.Bell Deconstructing the Knight in Shining Armor: The Disillusionment of the Turn of the Century; S.M.Schwab

'Comprehensive in scope and specific in detail, there is much to interest scholar and lay reader, specialist and generalist, in the themes and subjects covered by this book.' - The Journal of William Morris Studies