The art, literature and material culture of the medieval world

Meg Boulton, Jane Hawkes & Melissa Herman, editors

This volume challenges traditional perceptions of the Medieval, exploring the many ways in which it was actively transformatory and how ideas of change are reflexively understood within academic discourse. The Medieval was long viewed as an unenlightened counterpoint to the ‘Classical’ and the ‘Renaissance’, being perceived as static and monolithic compared to their pivotal dynamism. Despite this, the Medieval period witnessed immense transition and transformation, change and development, producing significant and challenging material. Here, the wider debate about cultural crossroads and understandings in the Medieval period is readdressed, to ask what the Medieval was, is and might be.

Contributors: Colum Hourihane (ind.), Aleksandra McClain (U York), D.A. Lenton (Australian National U), Neil Christie (U Leicester), Jane Hawkes (U York), Philippa Turner (U York), Małgorzata Krasnodebska-D’Aughton (UCC), Diarmuid Scully (UCC), Eric Lacey (UCL), Michael D.J. Bintley (Canterbury), Victoria Symons (UCL), Zoë Dumelow (York Minster), Meg Boulton (U York), Heidi Stoner (U York), Harry Stirrup (ind.), Carol Farr (ind.), N.G. Baker (ind.), Melissa Herman (U York).

Meg Boulton is a freelance art historian awarded her doctorate by University of York. Jane Hawkes is reader in the Department of History of Art, University of York. Melissa Herman is currently pursuing her PhD at University of York