The United States of Medievalism ed. by Tison Pugh and Susan Aronstein

Reviewed by: The United States of Medievalism ed. by Tison Pugh and Susan Aronstein David Matthews tison pugh and susan aronstein, eds., The United States of Medievalism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021. Pp. x, 323. isbn: 978-1-4875-2508-8. $44.95. Few readers these days will blink at what might once have been thought a paradox in such a title as this. It is well known that western colonial settler cultures have routinely imposed versions of the Middle Ages wherever they have gone, and so it is that travellers will come across the medieval hyperreal where indigenous peoples might once have been. Still, while the neo-Gothic cathedrals of the eastern seaboard and the neo-chivalric aspirations of the pre-war South might be fairly well known, the sheer reach and breadth of medievalism in the present-day US is what impresses here. 'It would be a virtually impossible task,' the editors aver in a brief and crisp introduction, 'to tally the complete range of American medievalisms.' The land is 'dotted with tourist castles and neo-Gothic college campuses, as well as with medieval fairs, museums, cathedrals …' (p. 8). The book is arranged in three parts. The first, 'Building the American Middle Ages,' starts us off on relatively familiar ground in the north-east and Kathleen Coyne Kelly on the 'medievalized gardens' of Boston and Cambridge. It moves on to ecclesiastical buildings in Philadelphia in the hands of Kevin J. Harty. Proceeding amusingly into Dan Brown territory, Laurie Finke describes the Masonic medievalism of Washington, D.C. Then Alfred Thomas takes a look at 'Medieval Chicago' through architecture, patronage, and capital, propounding the strong thesis that far from resisting capital, architectural medievalism celebrated it. Part Two, 'Living in the American Middle Ages,' takes us south and west but also into New York City—where Candace Barrington walks through the stations of the cross as they were constructed in a 2018 public art installation. Richard Utz polemically looks at knighthood and race in modern Atlanta; Jana K. Schulman goes to Minnesota and its Viking heritage, while Alison Gulley details 'Searching for Salvation in Medieval Appalachia.' Rounding out the section, Lowell Gallagher's chapter 'Wounded Landscapes: Topographies of Franciscan Spirituality and Deep Ecology in California Medievalism' pursues, completely counter-intuitively, the San Andreas fault (dramatically pictured on the essay's second page) as 'a topographical medium aevum born of the fissuring and interpretively opaque space-time of the in-between' (p. 199). Strap yourselves in: this is the wildest ride in the whole book. Part Three, 'Playing in the American Middle Ages,' begins with the editors' own contribution, 'Orlando's Medieval Heritage Project'; Candace Barrington reappears, co-writing with Usha Vishnuvajjala on New Orleans, which they [End Page 157] playfully but persuasively suggest is 'perhaps the most medieval of American cities' (p. 246). Lorraine Kochanske Stock, playing medievalism-anthropologist, goes among the players of 'Medieval May-Games, Robin Hood Revels, and "Pleasure Faires" in Contemporary Texas.' Finally, the well-known writing team of Laurie Finke and Martin Shichtman 'Get Medieval' in Sin City. Las Vegas is well known for its 'built medievalisms,' which constitute a 'layer of unironic pastiche through which visitors are invited to circulate.' But this is not a tour of those medievalisms and the premise is rather that the medievalism of Vegas 'resides less in its hyperreal reproductions of medieval sites … than in its structural function in creating and maintaining a pilgrimage site for sin, where desperate people flock to be healed of their sickness. …' As with Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrimage, 'the Vegas pilgrimage promises to heal …' (p. 285). The essay pursues this premise increasingly persuasively and brings the book to a triumphant close. There is no afterword or attempt to sum up. There does not need to be. It is clear the editors have not imposed a style and there is wide variation of approach. Some of the essays are quite descriptive and content to sit back somewhat from whatever the medievalism in question might be doing (Coyne Kelly, Schulman). Others are more overtly polemical (Utz, Thomas). Some are more personal and experiential (notably, Barrington on New York City). Others still adopt more overtly theorized...

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