Amy Blaney

Keele University · School of Humanities

Featured in The Byron Journal Jun 2020, Vol 48, Issue 1, pp. 84 - 86 KATIE GARNER, Romantic Women Writers and Arthurian Legend: The Quest for Knowledge (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). 311 pp. £71.50 ebook 978-1-137-59712-0. £89.99 hardback 978-1-137-59711-3. £89.99 softback 978-1-349-95566-4. Katie Garner’s Romantic Women Writers and Arthuri...

It is widely assumed that developing interest in the Middle Ages and reassessment of available historical records eroded faith in King Arthur’s historicity during the long eighteenth century. However, ongoing debates about Arthur’s historical status in the late eighteenth century provided the impetus for several mid-to-late-century works which atte...

In 1735, an unusual building appeared in the gardens at Richmond Palace. It was commissioned by Queen Caroline, built in Gothic style, and christened ‘Merlin’s Cave’. Visitors who ventured inside this strange construction were confronted by six life-sized wax figures taken from both English history and, more interestingly, Arthurian myth. Part of a...

Whilst it is recognised that the mid-eighteenth century saw a significant revival in the appreciation of ‘Gothic’ poetry and romance, the ways in which eighteenth-century writers reconceptualised the Middle Ages remains overlooked, and the century is still largely perceived as a period in which medievalism, if embraced at all, was done so only half...

In 1735, an unusual building appeared in the gardens at Richmond palace. Commissioned by Queen Caroline and built in Gothic style, the thatched cottage had an ogee-shaped doorway flanked by Gothic buttresses leading into a vaulted circular room, on either side of which were smaller octagonal pavilions. Inside, alongside a ‘choice collection of Engl...

What do we mean by ‘theory’? Why is it useful to engage with theory in academic work? How can we use theory to help us build our ideas? 🤔 In this episode, Amy Blaney chats with Aimee Merrydew (host) about all things theory and why it’s often misunderstood as an angry bull… Spoiler alert: it’s not an angry bull and this episode provides pathways t...

Postgraduates Teaching English in Higher Education In this panel, five doctoral researchers are going to discuss their experiences teaching in higher education at different institutions across the UK. The themes the panellists will draw on include: accessibility, continuing professional development, diversity and inclusion, mental health and well...

Whilst it is recognised that the mid-eighteenth century saw a significant revival in the appreciation of ‘Gothic’ poetry and romance, the ways in which the work of early eighteenth-century antiquarians and scholars bought about such a change has somewhat overlooked, and the ‘Age of Reason’ is still largely perceived as an era of Neo-Classical hegem...

Zack Snyder is a popular and well-known film director, having most recently worked on the "Justice League" film for DC. The announcement of his new project - which he has termed as "faithful retelling" of the Arthurian myth - has already garnered interest from comic, movie, and game websites and is developing buzz on Twitter and other social media...

It is recognised that the literary antiquarians of the mid-eighteenth century re-established bardic romances as poems of national pride yet the ways in which their reconsiderations created a new historiography of materials and enabled unique and distinctive eighteenth-century appropriations of the medieval past are often overlooked. This paper wi...

Scholars have largely accepted that interest in Arthurianism dwindled throughout the seventeenth century and that traditional Arthurian themes of kingship, monarchical power, and national unity had little relevance to Enlightenment audiences. What this narrative often fails to account for, however, are the ways in which the Arthurian tradition ad...

Richard Blackmore’s ten book ‘heroik’ poem Prince Arthur (1695) is generally noted for the derision with which it was received, most notably by Pope and Johnson. Yet the poem was popular with the reading public upon release, running to six editions or impressions by 1715. This paper reassesses Blackmore’s poem in its historical context, examining...

My paper examines the emergent scholarly reconsideration of Arthurian romance by eighteenth-century antiquarians, including Hurd’s Letters on Chivalry and Romance (1762), Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), and Warton’s The History of English Poetry (1774 - 81), as well as poems such as Warton’s ‘The Grave of Arthur’ (1777). The pa...

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789. First published 24 January 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38918] “The Grave of King Arthur” (1777) is a medievalist poem by the English literary historian, critic, and future poet lau...