Race, Class, and Gender in "Medieval" Cinema

Tison Pugh is Professor of English at the University of Central Florida.

An informative, stimulating collection of academic, yet reader-friendly, meditations on the cinematic representation of that most modern of historical and intellectual constructs, the Middle Ages. In welcome contrast to much work on medievalism, the larger cultural phenomenon to which these films are intriguingly related, the editors and contributors demonstrate a sophisticated awareness of the important work done during the last decade on the many intersections between film and history. It is also welcome that all involved, though at least primarily trained in other fields, prove themselves expert enough in all relevant matters cinematic to make this volume of interest to their colleagues in film studies.With its sustaining concentration on gender and otherness more generally, Race, Class, and Gender in "Medieval" Cinema also makesan important contribution to ongoing, importantdebates within the related areas of cultural and political identity studies.' - R. Barton Palmer, Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature and Director of the Film and International Culture program at Clemson University; Author of Medieval Epic and Romance and Traditions in World Cinema 'This stimulating collection sheds important light on the ways in which medieval films construct the past to interrogate the present, particularly as they wrestle with questions of race, class and gender. Its thoughtful and thought-provoking essays cover a wide range of national cinemas (Hollywood, Egypt, France, and Japan), historical periods (from Occupied France to 2004's King Arthur ) and genres (fantasy, horror, martial arts), allowing the collection to address its central concerns from a variety of perspectives and presenting a truly rich "other Middle Ages" for film scholars and medievalists.' - Susan Aronstein, University of Wyoming

• Introduction; L.Ramey & T.Pugh PART I: MULTICULTURAL IDENTITIES: A LOST IDEAL? Once, Present and Future Kings: Kingdom of Heaven and the Multi-temporality of Medieval Film; A.Lindley Chahine's Destiny: Prophetic Nostalgia and the Other Middle Ages; D.Hoffman Reversing the Crusades: Hegmony, Orientalism and Film Language in Youssef Chahine's Saladin ; J.Ganim Samurai on Shifting Ground: Negotiating the Medieval and the Modern in Seven Samurai and Yojimbo; R.P.Schiff PART II: BARBARISM AND THE MEDIEVAL OTHER Vikings Through the Eyes of an Arab Ethnographer: Constructions of the Other in The 13th Warrior ; L. Shutters Mission Historical, or "[t]here were a hell of a lot of knights": Ethnicity and Alterity in Jerry Bruckheimer's King Arthur ; C.Jewers Inner-City Chivalry in Gil Junger's Black Knight : A South Central Yankee in King Leo's Court; L.Finke & M.Shichtman Queering the Medieval Dead: History, Horror, and Masculinity in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead Trilogy ; T.Pugh PART III: ROMANTIC VALUES In Praise of Troubadourism: Creating Community in Occupied France, 1942-1943; L.Ramey Sexing Warrior Women in China's Martial Arts World: King Hu's A Touch of Zen ; P.Lorge The Hawk, the Wolf, and the Mouse: Gender and Other in Ladyhawke; A.J.Weisl Chaucer's Man Show: Anachronistic Authority in Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale ; H.Crocker The "Other" Women of Sherwood: The Construction of Difference and Gender in Cinematic Treatments of the Robin Hood Legend; L.Stock & C.Gregory