In this work Kathleen Biddick explores the 19th century foundations of medieval studies as an academic discipline as well as certain unexamined contemporary consequences of these origins. By pairing debates over current academic trends and issues with innovative readings of medieval texts, Biddick exposes the presuppositions of the field of medieval studies and significantly shifts the objects of its historical inquiry. Biddick describes how the discipline of medieval studies was defined by a process of isolation and exclusion - a process that not only ignored significant political and cultural issues of the 19th century but also removed the period from the forces of history itself. Wanting to separate themselves from popular studies of medieval culture, and valuing their own studies as scientific, 19th century academics created an exclusive discipline whose structure is consistently practised today, despite the denials of most contemporary medieval scholars. Biddick supports her argument by discussing the unavowed melancholy that medieval Christian felt for Jews and by revealing the unintentional irony of 19th century medievalists’ fabrication of sentimental objects of longing (such as the gothic peasant ). The subsequent historical distortions of this century-old sentimentality, the relevance of worker dislocation during the industrial revolution, and other topics lead to a conclusion in which Biddick considers the impact of an array of factors on current medieval studies. Simultaneously displacing disciplinary stereotypes and altering an angle of historical inquiry, this volume challenges accepted thinking even as it produces a new direction for medieval studies. This book will provoke scholars in this field and appeal to readers who are interested in how historicising processes can affect the development of academic disciplines.
