Philology and racist appropriations of the medieval

Bibliographic Data

ID12880846
AuthorsEduardo Ramos (0000-0001-9016-7418, Arizona State University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume20
Issue7-9
Publication date2023-07-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLiterature Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1741-4113 • E-ISSN: 1741-4113
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lic3.12734
OpenAlexW4385217697
LanguageEN
References cited21

Recent decades have seen an increase in white supremacist appropriations of the Middle Ages. While many medievalists have sought to distance medieval studies from racist appropriations, these appropriations echo positions advanced and legitimized by philologists especially during the nineteenth century. Medieval studies as a discipline developed in the nineteenth century during the rise of nationalist movements, which often manifested as racial nationalism in Europe and the United States, and philologists actively participated in these movements by projecting contemporary national identity unto a constructed medieval past. These philologists often conflated language and race, and their nationalist scholarship helped justify imperialism. Although the ideas of these philologists are considered outdated, they set the foundation for racist appropriations of the Middle Ages and established nationalist frameworks that continue to influence the academy

Art · Comparative literature · Feminism · Literature · Nationalism · Philology · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · Classics · Gender Studies · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

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