Reconstructing Camelot

by Michael Glencross

This book examines French Romantic medievalism through one of its many manifestations, the treatment of the Arthurian legends. Examining works of historiography and literary history, as well as literary texts proper, it assesses the place of the Arthurian material in French culture in the period up to 1860, the date of publication of Edgar Quinet's Merlin l'enchanteur. In so doing, it reveals key features of French Romanticism and traces the origins of some of the problems and contradictions which still affect the practice of medieval studies, the study of medieval literature, and the representation of the Middle Ages. The author argues that the depiction of Arthurian legends in French Romantic writing discloses some of the underlying ideological positions of the movement, such as the division between liberal and royalist views of the Middle Ages and the construction of a French national identity. He also explores the developing tensions between the interests of a general literary publ