The rationale for this panel lies in the growing importance of adaptation and media studies in understanding literary history in the digital age. Arthurian legend offers a particularly productive case, as it has never existed in a single authoritative version but has developed through continuous rewriting and reinterpretation. This session asks how contemporary remediations—especially those shaped by digital technologies and current debates about authorship—both extend and challenge earlier traditions.
The panel builds on existing scholarship in Arthurian studies and medievalism, particularly the work of Patricia Clare Ingham, Jonathan Hsy, and Cord J. Whitaker, which foregrounds the plurality and political stakes of medieval afterlives. It also engages adaptation theory and media studies by focusing on remediation as a process that both reveals and reshapes its medium. In doing so, the session highlights the continuity between premodern textual instability and contemporary concerns about authorship in the age of algorithmic production.
The session is designed for 75 minutes, with four papers of approximately 12–13 minutes each, followed by at least 15 minutes of open discussion. This structure allows for concise presentations while ensuring substantial time for collective conversation and audience engagement.
José María Pérez Martinez’s paper, “From Legend to Machine: Arthurian Legend and Digital Reincarnation in Interactive Media,” examines how video games and digital environments transform Arthurian narrative into an interactive system. By foregrounding player participation and procedural logic, these media complicate traditional notions of authorship and recast the legend as a “playable archive.”
Jeddie Bristow’s “Carrot Ironfoundersson: King Arthur for the Anti-Monarchist” analyzes Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, focusing on a satirical reworking of the “true king” trope. Through the character of Carrot, the paper explores how adaptation can critique hierarchical and monarchical assumptions embedded in Arthurian tradition.
Eli Didier’s “Long Live The King: Adaptation and Appropriation in Donald Barthelme’s The King” considers Donald Barthelme’s postmodern relocation of Arthurian figures into World War II. The paper argues that this juxtaposition collapses distinctions between medieval and modern, revealing adaptation as an ongoing process of literary assemblage rather than departure from an “original.”
Logan Spencer’s “Once or Future?: New Arthurianist Arthurs” turns to contemporary works such as Legendborn and Sword, Stone, Table: Old Legends, New Voices to examine how modern retellings negotiate the tension between a hegemonic “once” Arthur and a plural, reimagined “future” Arthur. Drawing on postcolonial approaches, the paper highlights the political stakes of adaptation in the present.
Together, these papers demonstrate that Arthurian legend persists not as a stable narrative but as a site of ongoing negotiation shaped by media, culture, and critical perspective. The panel brings together scholars working across digital media, speculative fiction, postmodern literature, and contemporary multicultural retellings, incorporating a diversity of voices in terms of institutional affiliation, career stage, and methodological approach.