Comic Medievalism: Laughing at the Middle Ages

222 Pages·2014·3.295 MB·English

by  Louise D'Arcens

MEDIEVALISM
MEDIEVALISM
MEDIEVALISM LOU I SE D’A RC E N S
MEDIEVALISM
C
O
M
The role of laughter and humour in the postmedieval citation,
I
interpretation or recreation of the Middle Ages has hitherto
C
received little attention, a gap in scholarship which this book

aims to fill. Examining a wide range of comic texts and practices
M
across several centuries, from Don Quixote and early Chaucerian
modernisation through to Victorian theatre, the Monty Python E
films, television and the experience of visiting sites of ‘heritage
D
tourism’ such as the Jorvik Viking Museum at York, it identifies
what has been perceived as uniquely funny about the Middle I
E
Ages in different times and places, and how this has influenced
ideas not just about the medieval but also about modernity. V
Tracing the development and permutations of its various A
registers, including satire, parody, irony, camp, wit, jokes, and
L
farce, the author offers fresh and amusing insight into comic
I
medievalism as a vehicle for critical commentary on the present
S
as well as the past, and shows that for as long as there has been
M
medievalism, people have laughed at and with the Middle Ages.
LOUISE D’ARCENS is Associate Professor in English
Literatures at the University of Wollongong.
Cover: Unknown Artist, Laughing Jester, Photo © Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
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C O M I C M E D I E VA L I S M
O
U
I
Laughing
S
E
at the
D
’
A Middle
R
C Ages
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S
an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB) and
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620-2731 (US)
www.boydellandbrewer.com
Volume IV
Comic Medievalism
ISSN 2043–8230
Series Editors
Karl Fugelso
Chris Jones
Medievalism aims to provide a forum for monographs and collections devoted to the
burgeoning and highly dynamic multi-disciplinary field of medievalism studies: that is, work
investigating the influence and appearance of ‘the medieval’ in the society and culture of
later ages. Titles within the series will investigate the post-medieval construction and mani-
festations of the Middle Ages – attitudes towards, and uses and meanings of, ‘the medieval’
– in all fields of culture, from politics and international relations, literature, history, archi-
tecture, and ceremonial ritual to film and the visual arts. It welcomes a wide range of topics,
from historiographical subjects to revivalism, with the emphasis always firmly on what the
idea of ‘the medieval’ has variously meant and continues to mean; it is founded on the belief
that scholars interested in the Middle Ages can and should communicate their research
both beyond and within the academic community of medievalists, and on the continuing
relevance and presence of ‘the medieval’ in the contemporary world.
New proposals are welcomed. They may be sent directly to the editors or the publishers
at the addresses given below.
Professor Karl Fugelso Dr Chris Jones Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Art Department School of English PO Box 9
Towson University University of St Andrews Woodbridge
3103 Center for the Arts St Andrews Suffolk IP12 3DF
8000 York Road Fife KY16 9AL UK
Towson, MD 21252–0001 UK
USA
Previous volumes in this series
I
Anglo-Saxon Culture and the Modern Imagination
edited by David Clark and Nicholas Perkins
II
Medievalist Enlightenment: From Charles Perrault to Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Alicia C. Montoya
III
Memory and Myths of the Norman Conquest
Siobhan Brownlie
Comic Medievalism
Laughing at the Middle Ages
Louise D’Arcens
D. S. BREWER
© Louise D’Arcens 2014
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Louise D’Arcens to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2014
D. S. Brewer, Cambridge
ISBN 978 1 84384 380 1
D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy
of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
For Robert, Eva and Mimi
with love and thanks

Contents
Illustrations viii
Acknowledgements ix
I The Set Up
Introduction: Laughing at, with and in the Middle Ages 3
1 The Cervantean Paradigm: Comedy, Madness and Meta-Medievalism 23
in Don Quixote
II Oldies But Goodies: Comic Recovery
2 Scraping the Rust from the Joking Bard: Chaucer in the Age of Wit 43
3 Medievalist Farce as Anti-Totalitarian Weapon: Dario Fo as Modern 68
Giullare
III Hit and Myth: Performing and Parodying Medievalism
4 Pre-Modern Camp and Faerie Legshows: Travestying the Middle Ages 91
on the Nineteenth-Century Stage
5 Up the Middle Ages: Performing Tradition in Comic Medievalist Cinema 112
IV That’s Edutainment: Comedy and History
6 ‘The Past is a Different and Fairly Disgusting Country’: The Middle Ages 139
in Recent British ‘Jocumentary’
7 Smelling the Past: Medieval Heritage Tourism and the Phenomenology 161
of Ironic Nostalgia
Afterword: Laughing into the Future 181
Bibliography 185
Index 201
Illustrations
Figure 1 The joy of Francis and his brothers at the acceptance of their Rule, 82
by Dario Fo, from Francis, the Holy Jester, January 2014
performance. Reproduced with permission of the Archivio
Franca Rame Dario Fo
Figure 2 Miss Maud Boyd as Robin Hood, The Sketch Magazine, 110
27 December 1893 Reproduced with the permission of the Victoria
and Albert Museum, London.
Figure 3 Tony Robinson as a medieval purple maker, Season 2, Episode 2 142
of The Worst Jobs in History. Reproduced with the permission of
Spire Films
Figure 4 ‘Get Face to Face with Vikings’, from Jorvik Viking Centre 164
webpage. Reproduced with permission of the York Archaeological
Trust
Figure 5 The Viking ‘Ghost’, Drifa, Jorvik Viking Centre display. 166
Reproduced with permission of the York Archaeological Trust
Figure 6 The Smell Map, Jorvik Viking Centre guide book. 170
Reproduced with permission of the York Archaeological Trust
The author and publishers are grateful to all the institutions and individuals listed
for permission to reproduce the materials in which they hold copyright. Every
effort has been made to trace the copyright holders; apologies are offered for any
omission, and the publishers will be pleased to add any necessary acknowledge-
ment in subsequent editions.
Acknowledgements
I am fortunate to have been able to complete this book as part of an Australian
Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship, which I received for the project
FT120100931 ‘Comic Medievalism and the Modern World’. The ARC Centre of
Excellence for the History of Emotions has also supported me with Associate
Investigator funding, which has enabled me to run a seminar directly relevant
to the subject of this book. Some of the preliminary research for this study
was undertaken while I was the recipient of a collaborative ARC Discovery
Grant. I would like to acknowledge the support of the ARC in enabling me to
complete a number of large projects over the last several years. I wish also to
thank the University Research Committee at the University of Wollongong for
awarding me a ‘near-miss’ grant that assisted my research and the preparation
of this manuscript.
I have numerous colleagues and friends in the field of medievalism studies
whose stimulating conversation, and generous and astute suggestions, have
improved my thinking, research and writing. There are many, many people who
could be named, but I will limit myself to thanking Andrew Lynch, Stephanie
Trigg, John Ganim, Chris Jones, David Matthews, Stephen Knight, Eileen Joy,
Clare Monagle, Lawrence Warner, Kim Wilkins, Clare Bradford and Narelle
Campbell. In the area of film studies, I would like to thank Adrian Martin and
Gino Moliterno for their guidance and helpful conversations, and for helping
me track down the wonderful Brancaleone films.
My colleagues at the University of Wollongong, especially my colleagues in
the English Literatures Program, are a true pleasure to work with. I would like to
thank all of my Program colleagues for being consistently collegial, un-egoistic
and fun to be around. Leigh Dale in particular has been a source of constant
encouragement, as well as being the voice of sanity at some key moments.
Thanks also to Noel Broadhead for assistance in seeking image permissions.
At Boydell & Brewer, I would like to thank Caroline Palmer for her guid-