Medievalism - the creative interpretation or recreation of the European Middle Ages - has had a major presence in the cultural memory of the modern West, and has grown in scale to become a global phenomenon. Countless examples across aesthetic, material and political domains reveal that the medieval period has long provided a fund of images and ideas that have been vital to defining 'the modern'. Bringing together local, national and global examples and tracing medievalism's unpredictable course from early modern poetry to contemporary digital culture, this authoritative Companion offers a panoramic view of the historical, aesthetic, ideological and conceptual dimensions of this phenomenon. It showcases a range of critical positions and approaches to discussing medievalism, from more 'traditional' historicist and close-reading practices through to theoretically engaged methods. It also acquaints readers with key terms and provides them with a sophisticated conceptual vocabulary for discussing the medieval afterlife in the modern.

Winner, 2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

'[This book] offers 14 substantial essays that succeed both in introducing topics of medievalism to new scholars and in providing new insights that will benefit those already familiar with the re-presentation and re-imagination of the medieval period … Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.'

A. L. Kaufman Source: Choice

'A valuable addition to the Cambridge Companions series. Its paperback price puts it within the reach of most students, and its range and the quality … makes it a desirable addition to the shelves of any medievalist scholar. It is to be hoped that it will inspire fuller explorations of the countless intriguing medievalist works it surveys.'

David Clark Source: The Medieval Review