Centenary University Lecture: "Thrones and Thorns: Medieval Myths in the Modern Imagination" | Explore Warren

 

Centenary University Lecture: "Thrones and Thorns: Medieval Myths in the Modern Imagination"

Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - 7:00pm

Rutherfurd Hall is pleased to announce the 2017 Centenary University FREE Lecture Series sponsored by The House of the Good Shepherd. This talk with Speaker Joey McMullen, PhD, Assistant Professor of English at Centenary University, will explore the simultaneous fascination with and fear of all things medieval in the modern imagination. Two counter-intuitive stereotypes prevail: on the one hand, the medieval is often demonized as a backwards “Dark Ages” (e.g., Trump’s declaration in the second debate that the “carnage” ISIS instigates “is like medieval times”) and, on the other, it is romanticized for the idealized chivalry and bravery of its knights (e.g., Purity Balls). These contrasting myths permeate modern society, politics, and religion, revealing that the medieval is never truly as distant as we like to believe—it is the too-close cousin whose likeness makes us uncomfortable because in it we encounter aspects of ourselves. We cannot understand ourselves, our “modernity” without reconciling with our past, with the ideas and practices that tend not to go away.

For more information about this or any other event, please visit their website or call  908-852-1894 x338

 

Rutherfurd Hall

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