Dr Mary Bateman

Background

Before returning to Bristol to take up my current position in 2023, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the DFG-funded project 'From Insular to European: The Medieval Bevis Tradition in Multi-Text Manuscript Contexts' based at Heinrich-Heine-Universität with Prof. Miriam Edlich-Muth (PI). The project sought to understand how the multi-text manuscript format -- that is, miscellanies, anthologies, composite manuscripts, and other such examples -- shaped the pan-European transmission, adaptation, and reception of one of the Middle Ages' most beloved heroes: Bevis of Hampton.

In my capacity as a researcher interested in space and place, folklore, and medieval manuscripts, I have previously worked in collaboration with various heritage organisations, including English Heritage, the Bishop's Palace in Wells, and Downside Abbey. In 2019, I worked on English Heritage's Map of English Myths, Legends, and Folklore as both a contributor and submissions editor: you can view the map here.

I received my PhD from the University of Bristol in 2020, where I also taught from 2017-2020.

Research

I specialise in the literature and culture of late medieval and early modern England, and especially on the continuities between the medieval and the early modern. In addition to cross-period work, I also take a transnational approach: I have previously published on Bevis of Hampton narratives in European manuscript contexts, and I am currently working on a project concerning the print reception of British foundation myth across early modern Europe.

My recent book, Local Places and the Arthurian Tradition in England and Wales, 1400-1700 (Boydell & Brewer, 2023), was awarded the Dhira B. Mahoney prize in 2023 for the best monograph in Arthurian studies. It represents the first attempt to trace the history of the important role played by local places in the development of the Arthurian tradition. Places are powerful: they have the potential to suspend disbelief or perhaps to "make belief" in even the most unbelievable subjects. This is especially true when it comes to the subject of King Arthur. This book provides the first in-depth study of Arthurian places in the late medieval and early modern periods. Beginning with on-site experiences of Arthur at locations such as Glastonbury, York, Dover, and Cirencester, I trace the impact that these places had, both directly on site visitors, and also indirectly, filtered through the medium of text. The local Arthur can be followed in and out of chronicles, stained glass windows, earthworks, display tablets, itinerant notebooks, published defences, and antiquarian works. By piecing together the material and textual evidence, a new history of Arthur begins to emerge: a local history.

I have published and taught in the following areas:

• Arthurian literature and culture
• National, regional, and transnational identities in the premodern period and its literatures
• Memory studies and perceptions of the past
• Heritage studies
• Early modern medievalisms
• Material culture, especially with regards to space and place
• Manuscript and book history
• Medieval masculinities