A Review of Robin Hood Scholarship Published in 2017-2018

This article provides an overview of the Robin Hood scholarship published in 2017 and 2018. The material covered a wide range of topics and demonstrates the depth inherent in medieval studies, medievalism studies, and adaptation studies, as well as in examinations of publishing, reading, and performance practices from the medieval period to the twentieth century. While most of the scholarship considered the interaction between the Robin Hood legend and politics, the approaches to analysis and texts explored are quite diverse. As demonstrated by many scholars, revisiting and reexamining generally accepted claims often leads to a productive and enlightening discussion of the ever-engaging Robin Hood legend and materials.

“Forget History. Forget What You’ve Seen Before. Forget What You Think You Know”: Re/Establishing Space for People of Color in Otto Bathurst’s Robin Hood

This article discusses the representation of race in Otto Bathurst’s Robin Hood through an examination of Yahya, one of the pivotal figures of agitation for social reform in the film. It traces Yahya’s ancestry from his on-screen avatars to note a significant change that is displayed in the power dynamics between Yahya and Robin. Through this examination, the article will assert that dismissing the film’s commitment to diversity as “political correctness gone mad” not only fundamentally misunderstands what medievalism is and what it does, but also attempts to police Black bodies in a made-up past.

Reel Fury: White Fragility and the Backlash Against Bathurst’s Robin Hood

This article takes as its starting point the furious backlash against Otto Bathhurst’s 2018 remaking of the Robin Hood legend, noting the visceral disgust the film evoked in many viewers despite film critics’ generally favorable reviews. Taking a cue from Julia Kristeva’s work on the abject and Michael Kimmel’s work on white “aggrieved entitlement,” the essay teases out two interconnected threads that constitute sufficient threats to motivate these feelings of disgust and horror in the 2018 Robin Hood: the destruction of a reel racial hierarchy, and the threat to white supremacy posed by the movie’s call for the overthrow of neoliberalism by collective revolution.