Cory Rushton
Ph.D. English (University of Bristol)
M.A. English (University of Victoria)
B.A. with Distinction Medieval Studies/English (University of Victoria)
My main area of interest is medieval literature, the literary products of the millennium roughly between the fall of Rome in 476 and the European encounter with the Americas beginning in 1492. Within that area, I publish and teach on medieval romances and war literature, on the Arthurian legend, and on Chaucer and his contemporaries in the late Fourteenth Century. My other interests include biblical and mythological material in later adaptations, the graphic novel (particularly late modern manifestations of the hero, including the superhero), the zombie genre, and children’s literature. I would be happy to entertain thesis proposals in any of these areas.
Selected Publications:
Soon They Be Stronger Than You: Race, Oppression, and the Zombie, co-edited with Christopher M. Moreman. McFarland (2011). Includes my chapter, “Eating Ireland: Zombies, Snakes, and Missionaries in Boy Eats Girl.”
They’re Us: Zombies and Humanity, co-edited with Christopher M. Moreman. McFarland (2011).
The Medieval Quest for Arthur (with Robert Rouse). Tempus (2005).
“Sexual Variations,” in Ruth Evans, Sexuality in the Middle Ages. Berg Cultural History of Sexuality 2, Ruth Evans, ed. Berg (2010). Invited.
“The King’s Stupor: Dealing with Royal Paralysis in Late Medieval England,” in Wendy J. Turner, ed., Medieval Madness and Law, Brill (2010). 147-76. Invited.
“Canadian Grail,” in Amy S. Kaufman, ed., The Year’s Work in Medievalism 23 (2010): 16-25.
“Layde to the Colde Erthe: Death, Arthur’s Knights, and Narrative Closure,” in Karen Cherewatuk and Kevin Whetter, Death and Dying in the Arthurian World. Boydell & Brewer (2009). 151-66. Invited.
A Companion to Medieval Popular Romance, co-edited with Raluca Radulescu. Boydell & Brewer (2009). The collection contains an introduction written by the editors, and an article on the reception of popular romance by myself. It has been reviewed widely, including in the Times Literary Supplement.
“Malory’s Idea of the City ,” in Cora Dietl and Claudia Lauer, eds., Studies in the Role of Cities in Arthurian Literature and in the Value of Arthurian Literature for Civic Identity: When Arthuriana meets Civic Spheres. Edwin Mellen Press (2009). 95-116.
“Arthurian Britain,” with Robert Rouse, in Elizabeth Archibald and Ad Putter, The Cambridge Companion to Arthurian Romance. Cambridge University Press (2009). 218-34. Invited.
Historian’s Commentary for the 10th anniversary HD release of First Knight. Prod. Michael Gillis, Mogomedia Productions (2008).
“Malory’s Divided Wales,” in Ruth Kennedy and Simon Meecham-Jones, Medieval English Literary Culture and the Welsh Nation. Palgrave MacMillan (2008). 175-90. Invited.
The Erotic in Medieval British Literature, co-edited with Amanda Hopkins. Boydell & Brewer (2007). The collection contains 12 essays, and an introduction written by the editors. Includes my chapter,“The Lady’s Man: Gawain as Lover in Middle English Romance.” 27-37.
“Where the Falling Angel Meets the Rising Ape,” in Gwendolyn Morgan, ed., The Year’s Work in Medievalism 20-21 (2005-2006): 69-88.
“Of An Uncouthe Stede: The Scottish Knight in late Middle English romance,” in Rhiannon Purdie and Nicola Royan, eds., The Scots and the Medieval Arthurian Legend. Boydell & Brewer (2005). 109-20.
“Absent Fathers, Unexpected Sons: Paternity in Malory’s Morte Darthur,” Studies in Philology 101.2 (Spring, 2004): 136-52.
“Talk is Cheap: Political discourse in Malory’s Morte Darthur,” in Georgiana Donavin, Carol Poster and Richard Utz, eds., Disputatio 5, Medieval Forms of Argument: Disputation and Debate (2002): 67-85.
Theses Supervised: Student projects have included speech acts in Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur, Jane Austen and the legacy of the medieval courtly love tradition, and cinematic adaptations of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. I am currently supervising two projects on fantasy novels, one on Neil Gaiman’s children’s novel The Graveyard Book and one on George MacDonald’s 1858 novel Phantastes.
