Laughing at the Medieval: Arthurian Legends, Monty Python and A Knight’s Tale

Author: Julia Richards Sub-editor: Honor Rush Image Credit: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". The Daily Sentinel https://romesentinel.com/stories/monty-python-and-the-holy-grail,34679. The role of comedy is instrumental to medievalist films such as Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975) and A Knight’s Tale (2001), serving to both ridicule the Medieval and acknowledge its essentiality in Medieval text traditions.…

Understanding the Sino-Soviet Split: The Great Leap Forward

Author: Dominique Jones Sub-editor: Tahlia Antrobus Editor: Julia Richards Russia-China relations have undergone many ebbs and flows. One of the most contentious periods of Sino-Soviet relations began at the introduction of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Great Leap Forward in 1958. The Soviets’ disapproval of the Great Leap Forward initiated discontent with the Chinese…

Her Property: White Women as Slave Mistresses in the Antebellum South

Author: Pavani Athukorala Sub-editor: Molly Lidgerwood Editor: Julia Richards Content Warnings: slavery, racism, and sexual abuse That the Antebellum Southern belle, long-mythologised as a wisp of delicate submission and refined piety, could bear witness and contribute to the barbarities of slavery seems unfathomable. Many scholars have, in fact, been loath to consider it. This essay,…

Gender Fluidity in the Late Middle Ages: a case study of Saint Wilgefortis

Author: Allegra McCormack Sub-editor: Emerson Hurley Editor: Julia Richards Within late medieval Europe, gender fluidity was often understood in terms of transgression or rejection of prevailing social, political and theological expectations. While social performances of gender were heavily influenced by a strict gender binary, some miracle stories provided a space where gender fluidity was more…

The Parthenon Marbles: Ancient Meaning, Colonialism and the Importance of Mythologised History in the Modern Debate

Author: Indigo Coulson Sub-editor: Maija Drezins The removal of the Parthenon Marbles by the British Lord Elgin in the 19th century, when Athens was under Ottoman rule, is the source of modern debate surrounding where the marbles should be displayed in the 21st century. Though many of the Marbles currently reside in the British Museum,…