NIck Haydock’s book MOVIE MEDIEVALISM: THE IMAGINARY MIDDLE AGES (McFarland 2008) will be out in May of this year. It is already available for eager beavers on Amazon.com. This book provides a theoretical introduction to the study of films about the Middle Ages and what the author calls the “medieval imaginary.” Employing Lacanian psychoanalysis and Deleuze’s philosophy of cinema, Haydock explores images of multivalent time and looks at how contemporary society projects the past it requires in a number of recent films, including: FIRST KNIGHT, A KNIGHT’S TALE, THE MESSENGER: THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, KING ARTHUR, NIGHT WATCH, AND DA VINCI CODE.
Nick Haydock is also in the process of editing with Edward Risden a collection of essays titled HOLLYWOOD IN THE HOLY LAND: THE FEARFUL SYMMETRIES OF MOVIE MEDIEVALISM (also for McFarland & Co.). This book should be out sometime early next fall.
