Workshop

12th & 13th June 2023
Universität Siegen
Herrengarten
AH-A 217/18

The workshop will be held in English.

This workshop aims to investigate the transformation of knowledge about the Middle Ages in popular fantasy and their construction of neomedieval secondary worlds. Objects of research are therefore recent examples of intermedia fantasy (TV-Series Films, Video Games, Board Games) which illustrate the popularization of medieval history, literature, and mythology. Research questions aim at the specific conditions and the framing of such neomedieval fantasy world-building, and the inclusion of contemporary discourses of identity politics (race, gender). Furthermore, the varying medial requirements, e.g., the interactivity of video and board games, are taken into account. In the transformation of academic knowledge about the Middle Ages, fantasy media generate a specific sample of knowledge which gradually dissolves traditional high-low discourse. As a more precise terminology has shown itself necessary, this workshop will therefore suggest a distinction between "popular knowledge" and "popularized knowledge" in contrast to "academic knowledge". Finally, the workshop intends to discuss the proposal of the "Neomedieval Grammar", which as a methodical tool provides systematic criteria for the analysis of worldbuilding in High Fantasy and its specific popularization strategies.

Programm

12.06.23

13:30

Get Together

12.06.23

14:00

Welcome and Intro­duc­tion

Angela Schwarz & Hans Rudolf Velten (Siegen)

12.06.23

14:30

“Witcher? It´s all about the Middle Ages” – Gamer‘s Perspec­tive on Neome­die­val Fantasy Games

Tom Pins­ker (Siegen)

12.06.23

15:30

Coffee Break

12.06.23

16:00

World­buil­ding in modern Board­ga­mes - Chris­tian Mytho­logy in Time of Legends: Joan of Arc

Lukas Boch (Müns­ter)

12.06.23

17:00

“It’s not a dandy candy dragon age”: Percep­ti­ons of the ‘Medie­val’ and the (Un-)Authen­ti­city of Gender and Queer­ness in Digi­tal Games

Aure­lia Bran­den­burg (Bern)

13.06.23

09:00

Popu­la­ri­zing Acade­mic Know­ledge of the Middle Ages

Theresa Specht (Siegen)

13.06.23

10:00

Coffee Break

13.06.23

10:30

Re-Imagi­ning Viking Voya­ges in Fantasy Worlds

Helen Young (Deakin, Melbourne)

13.06.23

11:30

World­buil­ding in Fantasy: A Neome­die­val Grammar

Hans Rudolf Velten (Siegen)