New Zealand Medievalism

‘This is an informative introduction to the little-explored medievalist past and present of New Zealand, expanding the innovative domain of global medievalism. Ranging from the contribution of New Zealand scholars to medieval literature and philology, via Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy to the Christchurch mosque shootings of 2019, these essays explore the interaction between ideas about the Middle Ages, colonialism, postcolonialism and national identity, strikingly illuminating New Zealand's cultural history’ - Carolyne Larrington, Emeritus Professor of Medieval European Literature, University of Oxford.

‘While the reception of Australian medievalisms has received ample scholarly attention in the last 30 years, work on the afterlife of the English and European Middle Ages in New Zealand has lagged behind. The essays in New Zealand Medievalism offer the first broad based panorama of the complex cultural process of reception, which manifests itself not only in how New Zealand academics created their own iteration of medieval studies, but also in how politics, religion, literature, film, architecture, and music reimagined the Middle Ages and participated in creating the global phenomenon of medievalism’ - Richard Utz, Professor of Medievalism Studies, Georgia Institute of Technology.

‘This insightful new volume examines Aotearoa’s disproportionately large influence on the discipline of medieval studies over the past 100 years. From the so-called Oxford NZ mafia and their influence at the cultural centre, to generations of NZ medievalists working around the world, to contemporary reimaginings of medieval and medievalist narratives such as the Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings, and to dark iterations of the medieval in the rhetoric of the global right-wing, these essays reflect the impact of the (post)colonial antipode on the formation and historical heart of the discipline of English Literature’ – Robert Rouse, Associate Professor of English Language and Literatures, University of British Columbia.