This collection opens up a new field of academic and general interest:
Australian medievalism. That is, the heritage and continuing influence
of medieval and gothic themes, ideas and cultural practices.
Geographically removed from Europe, and distinguished by its
eighteenth-century colonial settlement, Australia is a fascinating
testing-ground on which to explore the cultural residues of medieval and
gothic tradition. These traditions take a distinctive form, once they
have been 'transported' to a different topographical setting, and a
cultural context whose relationship with Europe has always been dynamic
and troubled. Early colonists attempted to make the unfamiliar landscape
of Australia familiar by inscribing it with European traditions: since
then, a diverse range of responses and attitudes to the medieval and
gothic past have been played out in Australian culture, from traditional
forms of historical reconstruction through to playful postmodernist
pastiche. These essays examine the early narratives of Australian
'discovery' and the settlement of what was perceived as a hostile,
gothic environment; exercises of medieval revivalism and association
consonant with the British nineteenth-century rediscovery of chivalric
ideals and aesthetic, spiritual and architectural practices and models;
the conscious invocation and interrogation of medieval and gothic tropes
in Australian fiction and poetry, including children's literature; the
transformation of those tropes in fantasy, role-playing games and
subcultural groups; and finally, the implication of the medieval past
for discussions of Australian nationalism.
