Postmodern (re)constructions of the Middle Ages in contemporary poetry ? Neomedievalism in Simon Armitage, Jacob Polley and Steve Ely

• Main Author: Claire Hélie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2018-03-01
• Series: Études Britanniques Contemporaines
• Subjects: postmodernism; neomedievalism; Middle Ages; Umberto Eco; poetry; Simon Armitage
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/4347
• ISSN: 1168-4917; 2271-5444

This article analyses how some contemporary poets reconstruct the medieval past in, or for the present. Simon Armitage translates Pearl for the 21st century reader : from philological investigation to poetic rejuvenation, Simon Armitage’s Pearl offers readers a playful translation they can relate to, while the preface shows a form of anxiety regarding human creation and condition. Jacob Polley’s aesthetic of havoc good-humouredly reconfigures the Exeter Book and yet shows the contemporary poet is part of a universal process of commodification. Steve Ely’s Englaland plays with hegemonic and counter-hegemonic versions of the la-la land of the Angles. These reconstructions sometimes seem more real than the Middle Ages, which is why the studies in neomedievalism from Umberto Eco’s seminal essays in the 1970s to recent research in the field provide the theoretical framework of the present analysis. The article therefore raises questions concerning poetic heritage, English identity and the contours of postmodernism.