University Libraries to Host Book Talk on Animated Cartoons about King Arthur

News item published on: 2014-10-20 10:53:01

The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries will sponsor a book talk and signing on animated cartoons about King Arthur on Monday, November 3, 2014, 6-7 p.m. in the Cook Library Art Gallery (LIB 105A).

The lecture, “What’s Up, Duke?" Animated Cartoons about King Arthur” by Michael N. Salda, will focus on aspects of his 2013 book Arthurian Animation: A Study of Cartoon Camelots on Film and Television.

The book examines the potent blend of Arthurian legend, cartoon animation, and cultural and artistic trends from 1933 to the present day. In more than 170 theatrical and televised short cartoons, televised series and specials, and feature-length films from The Sword in the Stone to Shrek the Third, animators have repeatedly brought the Round Table to life on screens large and small.

Although these productions differ greatly in tone and intent--comic to sober, fantastic to realistic, and entertaining to edifying--they share in the proof of Camelot's continuing relevance in the modern world. Michael N. Salda is a Professor of Medieval Literature in the Department of English at the University of Southern Mississippi.

In addition to Arthurian Animation, Salda wrote La Bibliothèque de François I au Château de Blois, essays on topics from Chaucer to contemporary cinema in a variety of journals, the co-edited collection The Malory Debate: Essays on the Texts of Le Morte Darthur, and five co-edited volumes of Chaucer Yearbook. Prof. Salda also spearheaded a project in the mid-1990s to digitize and transcribe the texts of several fairy tales held in the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi.

These perennially popular online archives survey many different versions of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Jack the Giant-Killer. Following his talk, copies of Arthurian Animation will be available for purchase and signing. For more information about this book talk, contact Jennifer Brannock at or 601.266.4347.