The term ‘medievalism’ refers to how people have, since the fifteenth century, conceptualised the thousand years of history preceding that date. The study of medievalism is therefore not about the Middle Ages per se, but rather the ways in which the medieval period has been imagined in the centuries since it ended. Yet the field’s origins date from as recently as the 1970s. Medievalism Studies is thus still finding its feet and must consequently deal with some existential questions about its scope and remit, its methodological underpinnings, its implications for how history is periodised, and its relationship with more established disciplines. It also faces criticisms of Anglo-centricism as well as hostility from some historians thanks to the doubts its practitioners raise over established delineations between scholarly and creative depictions of the medieval period. Nonetheless, this new field offers a much-needed challenge to the calcified disciplinary boundaries that shape academia today.

中文翻译：

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中世纪：新学科还是学术无人区？

“中世纪主义”一词是指自15世纪以来人们如何概念化该日期之前的一千年历史。因此，对中世纪主义的研究本身并不是关于中世纪的，而是关于中世纪结束以来几个世纪以来人们所想象的中世纪时期的方式。然而，该领域的起源可追溯到1970年代。因此，中世纪主义研究仍在寻找自己的立足点，因此必须处理一些有关其范围和职权范围，其方法论基础，其对历史分期的影响及其与更成熟学科之间关系的存在性问题。由于其从业者对中世纪学术和创造性描绘之间的既定划界提出质疑，它也面临着以英语为中心的批评以及一些历史学家的敌视。尽管如此，这个新领域对当今塑造学术界的钙化学科界限提出了迫切的挑战。