Of Saxons and spectres. Issue 2 (15th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vernon, Matthew
• Is Part Of: Journal of medieval history. Volume 48:Issue 2(2022)
• Page Start: 282
• Page End: 287
• Publication Date: 2022-03-15
• Subjects: Medieval studies -- race -- spectrality -- W. E. B. Du Bois -- guilt -- slavery; Middle Ages -- Periodicals; 909.0705
• DOI: 10.1080/03044181.2022.2060488
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0304-4181

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This note speculates on the possibility of re-assessing the form of medieval studies by seeing the discipline through the intersection of race and spectrality. I posit that for much of its history, medieval studies has been informed by race in ways that are spectral: visible, but fleeting. This analogy illustrates the uncanny hold medievalisms and medieval imaginaries have over Western psyches. I propose a counter-history as a move towards understanding and subverting the demands of this version of a medieval past. This note offers a brief critical reading of W. E. B. Du Bois' use of the language of the ghostly and the spectral in terms of national guilt about slavery. More importantly, I highlight the broader possibility of using the hard-won perspectives of Black authors to see past white innocence and white chivalry to construct a different epistemological apparatus around what the past might signify.