Medievalism, Politics and Mass Media: Appropriating the Middle Ages in the Twenty-First Century

237 Pages·2017·8.392 MB·English

by  Andrew B.R. Elliott

MEDIEVALISM
MEDIEVALISM
In 2001, George Bush provoked global uproar by describing
the nascent War on Terror as a ‘Crusade’. His comments,
however, were welcomed by Al-Qaeda, who had long been
describing Western powers in precisely the same terms, as
modern Crusaders once again invading the Middle East. Ten
years later in 2011, Anders Behring Breivik launched a tragic
attack in Norway, killing 77 unarmed civilians, mostly teenagers. P
Breivik saw himself as a Templar Knight, a member of a group o
l
of knights allegedly resurrected in London in 2002 by one i
t
‘Lionheart’. Later investigations suggested that the blogger, i
c
Lionheart, might have had links to the right-wing, anti-Muslim,
s
English Defence League and other so-called ‘counterjihad’ a
blogging networks decrying an Islamic invasion of Europe. n Politics and

d
Though extreme examples, these cases all share a crucial detail:

M
the framing of current political issues in terms of recognisable
Mass Media
medieval precedents. In the widespread use of medievalism a
s
across social- and mass-media channels, it is clear that such
s
political medievalisms are not intended as a specific reference

M
to a historical precedent, but as a use of the past for modern
Appropriating the Middle Ages
concerns. The argument of this book is that we need new ways e
d
of analysing this kind of medievalism; extending far beyond the in the Twenty-first Century
i
concept of anachronism or inaccuracy, references to Crusades, a
Templars and Vikings affect the way we understand our world.
Using theories of communication and media studies to examine
popular medievalism, the author investigates what effect such
A
medieval terminology can have on a mass-mediated audience N
and on the understanding of the Middle Ages in general. D
R
E
ANDREW B.R. ELLIOTT is Senior Lecturer in Media W
and Cultural Studies at the University of Lincoln.

B
COVER DESIGN: SIMON LOXLEY .R
.

E
L
L
I
O
T
T
ANDREW B.R. ELLIOTT
An imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620–2731 (US)
Volume X
Medievalism, Politics and Mass Media
MedPolMassMedia_bookB.indb 1 26/01/2017 21:23
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 manifesta-
tions 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, architecture, and
ceremonial ritual to film and the visual arts. It welcomes a wide range of topics, from histo-
riographical 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 pres-
ence 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 are printed at the back of this book
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Medievalism, Politics
and Mass Media
Appropriating the Middle Ages
in the Twenty-First Century
Andrew B. R. Elliott
D. S. BREWER
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© Andrew B. R. Elliott 2017
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 Andrew B. R. Elliott 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 2017
D. S. Brewer, Cambridge
ISBN 978 1 84384 463 1
The Boydell Press 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
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To Kevin J. Harty
MedPolMassMedia_bookB.indb 5 26/01/2017 21:23
MedPolMassMedia_bookB.indb 6 26/01/2017 21:23
Contents
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1
1 Not Dead Yet: The Middle Ages in the Twenty-first Century 13
2 Getting Medieval on Your RSS: Medievalism and the Mass Media 38
3 “Let’s not go back to the Middle Ages”: Medievalism, the Dark Ages
and the Myth of Progress 55
4 “This crusade, this War on Terror, is gonna take a while”:
The Bush Doctrine, the Crusades and Neomedievalism 78
5 “They have announced explicitly that this is a Crusader war”:
Al Qaeda and Holy War 106
6 “The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ”: Anders Behring Breivik
and the Templar Knights 132
7 “God bless the EDL, the new Templar Knights”: The EDL,
the Far Right and the Crusaders 155
8 “These women-raping, Muslim-murdering, medieval monsters”:
IS, the Middle Ages and the Mass Media 183
Bibliography 205
Index 215
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Figures
1 Marriage equality demonstration: Joan of Arc. Wikipedia Commons
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marriage_equality_
demonstration_Paris_2013_01_27_31.jpg), under Creative Commons
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication 3
2 Medieval Reactions. Author generated through screen capture.
Original image reproduced with kind permission from the Royal
Library of the Netherlands 21
3 Medieval Facepalm. Author generated from original image by
Nachosan (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons 22
4 Saladin on Syrian banknote. Image reproduced with permission,
courtesy of Armen Hovsepian 116
5 EDL logo in hoc signo vinces. By Spitfire1 (Own work)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons 167
6 EDL Jihad meme. Author-generated screen capture.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/481322278895553403/, also listed under
https://www.pinterest.com/bigandnasty18/knights-templars/ 168
7 Medieval IS on Twitter. Author-generated screen capture 197
The author and publishers are grateful to all the institutions and individuals listed for permis-
sion 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 acknowledgement in subsequent editions
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Acknowledgements
I would first like to thank my students, past and present, for challenging me every
day. An important part of the job of a lecturer in film and media is to teach the
canonical communication studies theories; for one who started his academic career
as a medievalist, this has often proved difficult for me. However, I am fortunate
enough to have some amazing students who, daily, force me to think through how
media change and how we must think up new theories because of these changes.
Such challenges not only keep me on my toes but also started me on the path that
would ultimately lead to this book, because I had to think how the media deal with
the medieval. I would also like to thank the welcoming faculty and students at the
University of Moorhead, Minnesota, where I delivered an early version of the theory
outlined in this book, and to those who offered critiques and ideas after my talk.
To them I apologise for my garbling of Icelandic names. I also presented a section
of Chapter 7 at the International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo in 2015. I am
grateful to my co-panellists and audience who asked the helpful kind of awkward
questions which made me plug gaps in my thinking. Likewise, a version of the
chapter on ISIS was presented to colleagues at Lincoln who offered equally valuable
criticism and new ideas.
I owe an ongoing debt of gratitude to my indefatigable Head of School, Sarah
Barrow, and my former director of research, Ann Gray, who both helped me to get
that ‘difficult second book’ off the ground while coping with the demands placed on
an early career researcher. In an academic environment in which those at an early
stage of their career find the goalposts shifting almost daily in response to the whims
of education secretaries, budget cuts and endless three-letter acronyms, I have been
immensely lucky to have two such calm, patient and accomplished scholars to help
me figure it all out. Sarah was also unfeasibly tolerant of my tendency to disap-
pear off to talks and conferences at awkward moments when I was supposed to be
teaching, and both of them tirelessly supported my various funding bids related to
this project. I would also like to thank Krista Cowman for helping me with bids,
with the practical arrangements for my research leave in which I wrote much of this
book, for encouraging me to pursue the project and for allowing me the freedom to
teach in the School of History, where I think I learnt much more than my students
ever did. My colleagues Nigel Morris, Grethe Mitchell, Dave Boothroyd and Brian
Winston all helped me, chatted through ideas and prevented me from saying some
of the more obviously nonsensical things about media theory. If I continue to say
those nonsensical things, they are not responsible.
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