Hollywood Knights Arthurian Cinema and the Politics of Nostalgia [Hardcover]

Hollywood Knights examines Hollywood Arthuriana as political nostalgia offered to American viewers during times of cultural crisis: the red scare of the 1950s, the breakdown of traditional authority in the 1960s and 1970s, the turn to the right in the 1980s and the redemption of masculine and national authority in the 1990s. Its analysis of these films explores their proposal of an ideal past - an Americanized Camelot and a democratized chivalry - as the solution to the problems of a troubled present, a solution that will ensure prosperity in the homeland and a globally beneficial American authority abroad.Introduction Back to the Future: Modern Medievalism in England and America In the Days of King Arthur: Legend and Crisis The Knights of the Round Table: Camelot in Hollywood 'Once There Was a Spot': Camelot and the Crisis of the Sixties 'Let's Not Go to Camelot': Deconstructing Myth A New Myth: Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, and Recuperative Politics The Return of the King: Arthur and the Quest for True Manhood Revisiting the Round Table: Arthur's American Dream Epilogue: Excalibur Hotel, May 30, 2003Susan Aronstein is Professor of English at the University of Wyoming, USA.