Prophetic histories, portentous figures

Abstract

The terrain of political discourse in 2016 bore some surprising resemblances to medieval and early modern Europe. In the lead-up to the US presidential elections, many Americans trusted in the predictive abilities of polling and algorithms with as much faith as a medieval or early modern parishioner receiving end-time prophecies. Premised on ostensibly scientific protocols, the practice of polling and the language around it has become as rarefied – as impenetrable to the political laity – as the intricate Merlinic prophecies that once circulated in manuscript and cheap print. Nonetheless, communities formed around the data: the left took solace in the proleptic certainty of Hillary Clinton’s win; the right responded to the polling consensus by decrying the elitism of the media and heralding Donald Trump as a savior. The election results produced a crisis for not only US politics and civic life but also for the established discursive practices of what could be seen as prophetic polling.

postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies (2019) 10, 3–7.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-018-0110-6