ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in this book. The book highlights the historicity of meaning-making, by first relating Walter Scott's accounts of the production of Ivanhoe as a form of popular translation, and then by describing the remediation of Ivanhoe as opera, comic book, study guide, and film. Beyond offering sketches of a history of literary reinvention that continues to the present, it discusses the reading practices and research trajectories available to those who take up the historical novel or other forms of print culture at the intersection of close reading, effective semiotics, book history, and new media. In the 1940s, the emergent comic book industry played an important role in placing Ivanhoe at the forefront of popular culture in twentieth-century America. The multimedia history of Ivanhoe points to a productive dilemma for contemporary scholars of historical fiction.
