The King Arthur we imagine did not exist in history. He is the result of stories told and retold, changed and added to by storytellers for centuries, each making the story reflect the storyteller's time and values.
The chapters in this book look at movies, manga, comic books, a television show, and traditional books released since 1960 to explore some of the ways King Arthur has been reimagined in the past 60 years. Interpreting 'Avalon High' and 'The Kind Who Would Be King', 'Camelot 3000' and 'King Arthur vs. Dracula', 'Fate/Zero', John Steinbeck's 'The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights', the influence of Arthurian legend on Harry Potter, Terry Gilliam's 'The Fisher King', John Boorman's 'Excalibur', Jerry Zucker's 'First Knight', Antoine Fuqua's 'King Arthur', Guy Ritchie's 'King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword', Matthew Vaughn's 'Kingsman: The Secret Service', Iris Murdoch's 'The Time of the Angels', and the BBC series 'Merlin', the authors find that while we are still interested in the idea of King Arthur, we may also want his story to be more racially and gender inclusive, less elitist, and in some cases, more secular.
Author(s): Susan L. Austin (ed.)
Series: Series in Cinema and Culture
Publisher: Vernon Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 182
City: Wilmington, Delaware
Introduction v
Chapter 1. Kids and kings: postmodern nostalgia and youthful Arthurian cinematic retellings / Sarah Gordon 1
Chapter 2. 'Camelot 3000' and 'Dracula vs. King Arthur': The uses of limited-run comics as updates of the Arthurian legend for contemporary readers / Carl Sell 25
Chapter 3. The fate of Artoria: contextually exploring gender, character, and conflict in 'Fate/Zero' / Tracey Thomas 35
Chapter 4. Gender and class in John Steinbeck’s 'The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights' / Susan L. Austin 53
Chapter 5. A kid wizard in King Arthur’s court / Zainah Usman 73
Chapter 6. Chivalry and ambition in Terry Gilliam’s 'The Fisher King' / Susan L. Austin 89
Chapter 7. Democratic dreams and the death of Arthur, king / Adrienne Major 103
Chapter 8. Killing Arthur: revising the Perceval myth in 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' / Erin Mullally 119
Chapter 9. The death of the Fisher King in Iris Murdoch’s 'The Time of the Angels' / Susan L. Austin 135
Chapter 10. When Arthurian heroes fall: adapting moral failure and Christian redemption in the BBC’s 'Merlin' / Leah Hamilton 149
Index 167
