Premodern Rulership and Contemporary Political Power: The King's Body Never Dies

In the medieval period, the monarch was seen as the embodiment of the community of his kingdom, the body politic. And while we've long since shed that view, it nonetheless continues to influence our understanding of contemporary politics. This book offers thirteen case studies from premodern and contemporary Europe that demonstrate the process through which political corporations-bodies politic-were and continue to be constructed and challenged. Drawing on history, archaeology, literary criticism, and art history, the contributors survey a wide geographical and chronological spectrum to offer a panoramic view of these dynamic political entities.

About the Author

Karolina Mroziewicz (Institute of Art History of the Jagiellonian University, Cracow) received her PhD in cultural studies from the University in Warsaw. Currently she works on the role of pre-modern images of kings in constituting national narratives in Central Europe. Aleksander Sroczynski (PhD candidate, University of Warsaw) researches Old-Polish and Old-Croatian cultures.