I don't think that Merlin being a fantasy means that historical cues can be ignored, because they are a fabric of the narrative and have symbolic meaning as much as any other storytelling choice. If we imagine the show with the exact same storyline but set entirely in Sub-Roman Britain, we would interpret it differently, because we as 21st century viewers have particular preconceptions about each era.
After mulling over this I've changed my mind and I think it's most accurate to say that Merlin as a whole can't be dated, period, other than "generic fantasy Middle Ages." (Just as the creators said. *eyerolls at self*) What we can do is talk about the specific historical influences on specific aspects of the story, like High Middle Ages for the setting and the 6th century version(s) for the actual Arthurian elements. But I don't think one really discounts the other, because when you discount one you're as good as cutting out a chunk of the text. The exact meaning of those chunks can be interpreted in different ways, of course, even emphasized or de-emphasized, but they exist and need to be accounted for somehow.
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Re: praise! ... and pedantry
Date: 2009-10-22 09:22 pm (UTC)I don't think that Merlin being a fantasy means that historical cues can be ignored, because they are a fabric of the narrative and have symbolic meaning as much as any other storytelling choice. If we imagine the show with the exact same storyline but set entirely in Sub-Roman Britain, we would interpret it differently, because we as 21st century viewers have particular preconceptions about each era.
After mulling over this I've changed my mind and I think it's most accurate to say that Merlin as a whole can't be dated, period, other than "generic fantasy Middle Ages." (Just as the creators said. *eyerolls at self*) What we can do is talk about the specific historical influences on specific aspects of the story, like High Middle Ages for the setting and the 6th century version(s) for the actual Arthurian elements. But I don't think one really discounts the other, because when you discount one you're as good as cutting out a chunk of the text. The exact meaning of those chunks can be interpreted in different ways, of course, even emphasized or de-emphasized, but they exist and need to be accounted for somehow.
... Yeaaaah, can you tell I was an English major?