From ‘Game of Thrones’ to neo-Nazi viking obsessions, medieval images have a currency in contemporary culture that spans from the mainstream to the fringe. Why does the past have such a hold on us today? And what do we make of debates over medieval ‘authenticity’ that presume the medieval world was uniformly white, misogynistic and hyper-violent? Real medievalists Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan and Ben Bertrand join Art for the End Times to unpack the cultural complexes at work in contemporary medieval representations, and provide an actual historical perspective from their field. You can read Drew and Ben’s Current Affairs article “Medieval Dreams and Far Right Nightmares” here.
Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan is a PhD candidate in Art History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Ben Bertrand is a History PhD candidate at Fordham University.
Post-Production: Dwayne Gladden
Transcript
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