Monday, October 15, 2012

Munster Masquerade

Frankensteinian Arthuriana (a variant of Undead Arthuriana) seems a relatively rare and underdeveloped sub tradition of Monstrous Arthuriana, yet it has some gems, including the premiere episode of television's The Munsters. In "Munster Masquerade," Herman Munster (a version of Frankenstein's monster) attends a Halloween party in the guise of King Arthur and much comedy ensues. The episode can be viewed on Amazon and from iTunes, and a number of images (including the one accompanying this post) are available from SitcomsOnline.com at http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=141243.


Updates

Many apologies for the long delay in updating the site (and responding to your emails). Below are the details of our sponsored session for next year's Medieval Congress. I will add further content to the blog as time permits.


Arthurian Monster Quest: Investigating the Monsters of the Arthurian Tradition (Roundtable)
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain

Presider: Charlotte A. T. Wulf, Stevenson University

Paper 1: Ysbaddaden Pencawr: A Gentler Giant?
Lisa LeBlanc, Anna Maria College

Paper 2: The Giant of Mont-Saint-Michel: Grendelkin?
Kris Kobold, York University

Paper 3: Monstrous Felines in Old French Arthuriana, or There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Chapalu
Brandy N. Brown, The Pennsylvania State University


Paper 4: Lycanthropy and Absence in Arthur and Gorlagon
Angela Tenga, Florida Institute of Technology


Paper 5: “An Unsemely Sighte”: Medieval Arthurian Women as Monstrosities
S. Elizabeth Passmore, University of Southern Indiana


Saturday, June 30, 2012

Arthurian Monster Quest CFP

CALL FOR PAPERS
ARTHURIAN MONSTER QUEST
INVESTIGATING THE MONSTERS OF THE ARTHURIAN TRADITION, MEDIEVAL THROUGH MODERN
A SESSION FOR THE 48TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES (WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, KALAMAZOO, MI) FROM 9-12 MAY 2013
SPONSORED BY THE ALLIANCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH ON THE VILLAINS OF THE MATTER OF BRITAIN
PROPOSALS BY 1 SEPTEMBER 2012 (EARLY SUBMISSION RECOMMENDED)

Inspired by the pioneering work of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, teratology, the study of monsters, is experiencing a renaissance of late in Medieval Studies. Much of this new work has been conducted under the auspices of MEARCSTAPA (Monsters: the Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application), but there remain other avenues to explore, especially with regards to fields of interest, like Arthurian Studies, that stretch outside the medieval and into the various eras of post-medieval history. In sponsoring this session, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain hopes to offer some much needed illumination into the darker parts of Arthur’s realm and provide some sense of the history of the monsters that dwell in these shadows.

In existence for nearly fifteen hundred years, the Matter of Britain, the body of myths and legends associated with King Arthur and his court, has long been linked with the supernatural, chiefly in Arthur’s own nebulous fate as the Once and Future King and in the wonder-workings of the incubus-spawned Merlin, the fairy women variously called the Lady of the Lake, and Arthur’s sibling Morgan le Fay, who is of human origin despite her otherworldly title. These characters have all received much attention from scholars, but the larger mass of Arthurian preternature has not. Besides these examples, the denizens of Camelot presented in medieval texts encounter many further mystical creatures, all of which we might consider as unnatural, or monstrous, today, including demons, dragons, the Fair Folk, figures we would now label as witches, giants, griffins, hellhounds, the restless dead, unicorns, werewolves, and, who can forget, the enigmatic Questing Beast. These monsters, although important features of their respective narratives, have all received little attention in modern scholarship. Their successors have received even less attention, despite the continuance of all of these preternatural beings in post-medieval Arthurian texts, including such extremes as the Blazing Dragons franchise, which recasts Arthurian figures as anthropomorphic dragons. In addition, as the corpus of Arthuriana has expanded exponentially following the close of the Middle Ages, this new Matter of Britain has also introduced additional creatures of the night (such as ogres, vampires, zombies, and a plethora of new creations featured in the Merlin television series) not found in medieval tales of Arthur’s court. Modern Arthurian texts, moreover, have expanded the provenance of the monstrous and transformed ordinary figures from the legend into monsters. It is this world of Arthurian monsters that we seek to explore in these sessions with the intent of opening up their realm for further discussion and appreciation.

Please note, all submissions will also be considered for a special issue of Arthuriana on the topic. Completed essays will be due in June 2013.

PLEASE SUBMIT PROPOSALS OF 500 WORDS OR LESS, PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM (AVAILABLE AT http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html), AND A COPY OF YOUR CV TO THE ORGANIZERS AT ArthurianVillainyResearch@gmail.com PLEASE INCLUDE “KALAMAZOO 2013 PROPOSAL” IN THE SUBJECT LINE

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ALLIANCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH ON THE VILLAINS OF THE MATTER OF BRITAIN, PLEASE ACCESS OUR BLOG AT http://ArthurianVillainyResearch.blogspot.com/

New Blog

Welcome to the latest web outreach of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain. Please help us expand our links by emailing us.

Thanks,
Michael Torregrossa
Founder, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain