Amy Kaufman

Amy S. Kaufman (Ph.D. Northeastern University 2006) is Assistant Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University, where she teaches courses in Early European literature and Arthurian legend. She edited the 2010 Year’s Work in Medievalism and serves as chair of the medieval and Arthurian area for the National Popular and American Culture Association. Her articles on medieval Arthurian legend and medievalism in contemporary culture have appeared in Arthuriana, Studies in Medievalism, Groniek, Parergon, and several edited collections. She is currently finishing a book on women in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur entitled Malory's Women: Radical Subjects. This talk is excerpted from her newest project, Medievalism and Masculinity in the Twenty-First Century.

Amy Kaufman will be in residence October 24-26.  She will give a public lecture, work with students during a brown-bag lunch, and visit classes.

Public Lecture: October 25, 2012 at 4:10 p.m..  Location BU 21

Lecture Title: Medievalism and Fundamentalism in the Twenty-First Century

Brief Description: Twenty-first-century America has experienced a surge in popular representations of the Middle Ages. Despite movement further and further into a technological future, audiences are increasingly indulging in medieval fantasy through video games like Dragon Age and Skyrim, movies about King Arthur and Robin Hood, television series like Camelot and Game of Thrones, and knighthood and princess memes in products for young adults. In addition to these popular returns to the Middle Ages, extreme religious movements also promise a return to an idealized medieval past. Kaufman will examine the use of medieval imagery in the American Fundamentalist Movement’s events--purity balls, princess rallies, and knighthood ceremonies--exploring what seemingly disparate phenomena like grandiose modesty balls and salacious episodes of Game of Thrones have in common: their desire to naturalize gender roles with the weight of history.