East Asian Medievalisms

This Element offers a brief introduction to East Asian medievalisms through selected literary forms and contemporary media. The introduction outlines the meaning of key terms such as 'medieval' (or 'Middle Period') or 'feudal' within East Asian literary-cultural contexts specifically. It then offers a few East Asian case studies (Chinese, Korean, and Japanese) to illustrate three different models for understanding global medievalism in Asian transnational contexts. These models are displacement, juxtaposition, and asynchrony. Primary materials include poetry, architecture, film, and visual narrative (manga and anime). This Element ends with research and teaching questions (suitable for classroom use) as well as a list of further readings and materials.