medieval literature, science fiction, fantasy, literature and the arts, children's literature
Amelia Rutledge earned her PhD from Yale University in Medieval Studies with a primary focus on Old French romance, and secondary studies in pre-Scholastic theology and Old Icelandic literature. Teaching interests include medieval literature (especially Arthurian legend) and intellectual history, science fiction, fantasy, literature and the arts, especially opera, and children's literature. She has published articles on the science fiction of Olaf Stapledon, on the figure of Merlin, on philosophy in the works of Italo Calvino, and on the use of Darwin in late nineteenth-century music criticism to discredit the theories of Richard Wagner. Current research centers on children's literature and on contemporary fantasy. She has published articles about McKinley's Deerskin and, others focusing on the construction of masculinities in two contemporary novel sequences based on Arthurian legend, and on configurations of nurture in Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials. Her most recent publication is a study of elements of Pauline theology in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.
"'Justice Is Not Healing': J. R. R. Tolkien’s Pauline Constructs in ’Finwë and Míriel.'" Tolkien Studies 9.1 (2012): 59–74.
"The Flowers of Love, Death, and Redemption: Wagnerian Motifs in Oscar Wilde's 'The Fisherman and His Soul' and 'The Nightingale and the Rose.'" The Oscholars: An Electronic Journal for the Exchange of Information on Current Research, Publications and Productions concerning Oscar Wilde and His Worlds (2009). Special "Fairy Tales" issue.
"Reconfiguring Nurture in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 33.2 (2008): 119-34.
"The Grunts' King Arthur: Civic Humanism, Masculinities, and Legend in the Novels of Jack Whyte and Bernard Cornwell." Medieval Paradigms: Essays in Honor of Jeremy duQuesnay Adams. Ed. Stephanie Hayes-Healy. 2 vols. New York: Palgrave, 2005. 2:239-50.
"Robin McKinley's Deerskin: Challenging Narcissisms." Marvels and Tales 15.2 (2001): 168-82.
ENGL 337: Myth and Literature
ENGL 345: Heroes, Traditional and Fantastic
ENGL 345/625: Arthurian Retellings
ENGL 360: The Modern Middle Ages (Medievalism)
ENGL 400: The Literature of Medieval England
ENGL 414: Honors Seminar: The Fantastic Mode
ENGL 414: Honors Seminar: Tolkien's Legendarium
ENGL 460: Children's Literature
ENGL 431/625: The Twelfth-Century Renaissance
ENGL 468: Tennyson's Narrative Poems
ENGL 495: Literary Modes: The Fantastic
ENGL 526: The "Golden Age" of Children's Literature, 1865-1918
ENGL 701: Research in English Studies