Secession of Medieval Studies

Medieval studies during the preliminary phase in the academies seceded from the field of "literary studies" in general for two reasons - First, it was the passion and ambition of its inventors and founders to make it 'monolithic' in their perspectives (only the study of form and content by ignoring others aspects and by isolating it from other disciplines); and Second; in its academic status it was completely isolated from the 'field' as it was introduced as a 'self-sufficient' domain of studies.

Among the other disciplines in the field the uniqueness was dissolved for the sake of new alliance and interdisciplinarity but within medieval studies the deliberate selection of the canonical authors and their canonical texts and the overtly reductive methodology adopted in the interpretation and analysis of these texts promoted 'monolithic otherness' rather than the political and linguistic continuity which seceded medieval studies towards monolithic and exegetic academic enterprise. It remained chiefly associated with other fields those viewing any parts of the Middle Ages. Medieval studies refused to adopt the interdisciplinarity normatively existing in other fields and disciplines of literary studies. As a result it remained isolated in a double sense.

The professional identification of scholars of this field as medievalists and their practices as medieval studies was another crucial aspect that secede it. The rejection of the critical agendas raised by the young scholars during the early 1960s was another blockade in its interdisciplinarity.