Nineteenth- and twentieth-century medievalisms in british literature
the 62nd international congress on medieval studies; western michigan university
kalamazoo, mi
may 13-15, 2027

 Abstract Deadline: September 15, 2026

In Charles Dickens’s Dombey and Son (1848), Mr. Dombey, Mr. Carker, Mrs. Skewton (Cleopatra), her daughter Edith (soon to be Mrs. Dombey), and Major Bagstock visit Warwick Castle:

“Oh!” cried Mrs. Skewton, with a faded little scream of rapture, “the Castle is charming!—associations of the Middle Ages—and all that—which is so truly exquisite. Don’t you dote upon the Middle Ages, Mr. Carker?”

“Very much, indeed,” said Mr. Carker.

“Such charming times!” cried Cleopatra. “So full of faith! So vigorous and forcible! So picturesque! So perfectly removed from commonplace! Oh dear! If they would only leave us a little more of the poetry of existence in these terrible days!”

Mrs. Skewton was looking sharp after Mr. Dombey all the time she said this, who was looking at Edith: who was listening, but who never lifted up her eyes.

“We are dreadfully real, Mr. Carker,” said Mrs. Skewton; “are we not?”

For this session, proposals might explore the factors, both nostalgic and cynical, that shaped nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature about the Middle Ages. What historical, social, and intellectual views shaped British nineteenth- and twentieth century approaches to the Middle Ages? How are nineteenth-century British medievalisms in particular both a check against and validation of progress? In what ways were these views limited or biased based on what the Victorians knew and believed and did not know, particularly when compared to advances in historical, psychological, and political knowledge in the next centuries? How have nineteenth- and twentieth-century medievalisms shaped adaptation and scholarship since? 

Along these lines, proposals might acknowledge the broader concept of medievalism(s), which not only invokes the cultural (e.g., gender, race, social class) and global dimensions of the Middle Ages but also includes traditional historical and philological critical approaches as well as creative, interpretive approaches. How do writers, historians, artists, and others in the British nineteenth and twentieth centuries both research and uncover the Middle Ages as well as creatively imagine and reimagine it?

Submit proposals using the International Congress Confex system:

https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress

Contact: Robert Sirabian (rsirabia@uwsp.edu) and Daniel Najork (daniel.najork@asu.edu)

Image Source: The End of the Song by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1902