Redefining Nation and Nationalism: A Post-Nineteenth-Century Approach for a Modern Medieval Studies

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Ali Frauman; Emerson S. F. Richards

Organizer Affiliation

Indiana Univ.-Bloomington; Indiana Univ.-Bloomington

Presider Name

Ali Frauman

Paper Title 1

Invoking Authority of the Middle Ages in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Presenter 1 Name

Colleen M. Thomas

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Independent Scholar

Paper Title 2

Oliphants, Alterity, and the Alt-Right

Presenter 2 Name

Jeffrey McCambridge

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Ohio Univ.

Paper Title 3

When the Bough Breaks: How the Forks in Niðrstigningarsaga's Transmission History Rock the Image of Iceland as "Cradle of Democracy"

Presenter 3 Name

Stephen C. E. Hopkins

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Indiana Univ.-Bloomington

Start Date

12-5-2018 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1335

Description

This panel examines how the idea of 'nationalism' and the 'nation' has been misused in Medieval Studies and other groups, ranging from the innocuous (vis-à-vis textbooks and scholarship that seeks to simplify the development of the nation state) to the deeply problematic (vis-à-vis the alt-right and other nationalist groups). This panel seeks to show the complicated nature of medieval literature when considered beyond the inheritance of nineteenth-century English, French, and German scholars.

Emerson S. Richards