Extended until 9 January! Call for Contributions: The Fascination of the Middle Ages

Whether in film, video games, or social media, strikingly “exotic” images of knights, castles, kings, crusades, and monasteries are omnipresent. The boundaries between popular formats that convey knowledge about the medieval past and fictional portrayals drawing on stereotypical images of the Middle Ages are often blurred. Yet, it is clear that these representations usually rely on a highly specific, predominantly Western European conception of the era. Eastern Europe, when it appears at all, is often depicted as a vague, stereotypically “backward” space. In this context, the new thematic focus of the Copernico portal sets out to explore how Eastern Europe’s medieval history has been represented and received.

Research on medieval reception and (neo-)medievalism is relatively young and has developed differently in the anglophone and German-speaking contexts. These fields continue to define their place within—or alongside—established medieval literary and historical scholarship. Despite fluid boundaries between the terms, we consider it useful to distinguish between medievalism (Mittelalter-Rezeption in German) and neo-medievalism. The former follows Leslie Workman’s now-classic definition of a “continuous process of the recreation of the Middle Ages.” Here, the historical epoch itself remains the focus. Neo-medievalism, in Umberto Eco’s sense, refers instead to a hybrid construct that merges historical, mythical, and fictional elements.

Examples of medievalisms range from Walter Scott’s works and English graphic novels to 19th-century art and architecture, and on to today’s popular images of the Middle Ages in films, video games, social media, and "re"-reenactments. Neo-medievalism, by contrast, encompasses pop-cultural phenomena such as HBO’s Game of Thrones—inspired by the Middle Ages, yet fundamentally fantastical. Such formats often reproduce a narrow, largely Western European image of “the” Middle Ages—this is true even for the Polish phenomenon of Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher series, created by Andrzej Sapkowski.

This upcoming thematic focus will center around the broad appropriation and reinterpretation of medieval motifs, events, and historical figures in and from Eastern Europe, from the 19th century to the present day. How is the medieval period represented and instrumentalized across different media? Which events, figures, and themes are given priority? What roles do exoticization, stereotyping, or orientalism play? In this thematic focus, we are seeking to explore both media and cultural productions from Eastern European countries and about the region in Western and global popular culture.

In recent years, the political instrumentalization of the medieval history of Eastern Europe has also gained new traction—whether in the Kremlin’s historical propaganda used to justify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, or in right-wing, illiberal movements that idealize a culturally and religiously homogeneous European past.

We invite contributions addressing, among others, the following topics:

We welcome proposals in a variety of formats and forms of content—from case studies or comparative analyses of individual media productions to more in-depth background essays on specific questions. The maximum text length is 12,000 characters (including spaces). Shorter contributions (4,000–6,000 characters) focusing on concrete examples (e.g. specific films, social media phenomena, historical figures, or events) are also welcome. Submissions that include substantial illustrative material (images, screenshots, etc.) are particularly encouraged.

All contributions will receive a DOI and are provided with citation recommendations, permalinks, and licensing information on the portal. All texts are published bilingually and translated into English (contributions may also be submitted in English and translated into German). Each contribution must include at least one high-quality image with a caption and cleared copyright. Submissions will be edited by means of an internal peer review process. Authors retain full rights to their own texts. Further information for contributors, including details on illustrations and keywords, can be found on the portal or upon request at copernico@herder-institut.de.

The principles of good academic practice apply.

Please submit an abstract (max. 300 words) with a short description of your proposed contribution by 09 January 2026 to copernico@herder-institut.de. You will be notified by 30 January 2026 whether your contribution has been accepted for the thematic focus. The deadline for final submissions is 15 May 2026.