The Post-Historical Middle Ages / The New Middle Ages (PDF)

ELIZABETH SCALA is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.
SYLVIA FEDERICO is Assistant Professor of English at Bates College, USA.

"A superb collection of fearless essays. About its potential impact, one could say that it anatomizes the present field of medieval literary studies and points in the direction the field should go in the future - except that the volume as a whole so fully explodes the concept of a unitary present and a single direction in which any field progresses. Suffice it to say, then, that the challenges posed by these smart essays are not ones that any historically minded literary critic can easily shrug off - like the past itself, which has its ways of living with us." - Carolyn Dinshaw, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and English, New York University

"Seeking neither to bury nor to praise historicism, this vital collection instead provokes much-needed discussion about the oftentimes tacit commitments of the historicist modes of inquiry that have dominated medieval literary studies for well over two decades. A curiosity cabinet of medievalisms, the individual contributions - while espousing a variety of critical allegiances - all scrutinize what is at stake in the stories we tell about the past as well as our own desires to have the past speak to our current selves. Multiple questions come under examination here: What is the allure of the alterity of the medieval and what are its possible consequences? From whence issues the hegemony of historicism? Can materialism exist independently of historicism? In answering these questions and posing many more, the distinguished contributions assembled by Federico and Scala will have broad appeal for both those new to the medieval field as well as seasoned scholars." - Kellie Robertson, Associate Professor of English, University of Wisconsin, Madison

"An extraordinarily elegant, lucid, and important collection. These essays demonstrate the rigors of an historical method that they also seek to reach beyond, and the brilliance of its editing makes this a real conversation. Many of these essays are important