The Disney Middle Ages ─ A Fairy-tale and Fantasy Past

The Middle Ages depicted in Walt Disney movies have come, for many, to figure as the Middle Ages, forming the earliest visions of the medieval past for much of the contemporary western (and increasingly eastern) imaginary. The essayists of The Disney Middle Ages explore Disney's mediation and re-creation of a fairy-tale and fantasy past, not to lament its exploitation of the Middle Ages for corporate ends, but to examine how and why these medieval visions prove so readily adaptable to themed entertainments many centuries after their creation.

Tison Pugh is Professor of English at the University of Central Florida, USA. He is the author of Chaucer's (Anti-)Eroticisms and the Queer Middle Ages and Innocence, Heterosexuality, and the Queerness of Children's Literature.
Susan Aronstein is Professor of English and Director of Honors at the University of Wyoming, USA. She is the author of Hollywood Knights: Arthurian Cinema and the Politics of Nostalgia and British Arthurian Narrative. Her articles on medieval Arthurian romance, medieval film, medievalism and popular culture have appeared in numerous books and journals, including Exemplaria, Prose Studies, Assays, Cinema Journal, Theatre Survey, Women's Studies, and Studies in Medievalism.