A case for a “medievalist historiophoty”? The Last Kingdom (BBC Two / Netflix)

Resumen

En palabras de Pierre Sorlin, “podríamos decir que el pasado se narra en tiempo presente, o que se reconstruye a partir de referencias contemporáneas” (The Film in History, 71). El siglo XXI ha sido testigo de un auge de narrativas ambientadas en la invasión vikinga de Inglaterra en el siglo IX. Una de las representaciones audiovisuales más conocidas es la adaptación de la saga literaria The Saxon Stories, de Bernard Cornwell, titulada como The Last Kingdom en su formato televisivo (2015–2023, BBC Two / Netflix). Pero ¿cuáles son las estrategias empleadas para representar este período en la pantalla? Para responder a esta cuestión, este artículo se apoyará en la definición de historiofotía. Según Hayden White, quien acuñó el término en su ensayo de 1988 “Historiography and Historiophoty”, la historiofotía es “la representación de la historia y de nuestro pensamiento sobre ella mediante imágenes visuales y discurso fílmico”. Avanzar hacia una definición más precisa, tratando de identificar qué aspectos de la historia son más susceptibles de ser representados, permitirá llevar a cabo un análisis cinematográfico de los modos en que estos se plasman. El examen de la historiofotía desde la perspectiva del medievalismo cinematográfico, incluyendo teorías políticas medievales como el concepto de cuerpo político, pondrá de manifiesto cómo estos elementos se entrelazan para dar lugar a una “historiofotía medieval”.

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