URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Fall_2015_Melissa-McCarthy

“What is Star Wars but the retelling of old myths, heroes, quests, adventure, love and magic,” Koster says. “There is no big difference between King Arthur and Luke, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Merlin.” It all plays into her teaching at URI, where she uses the past to illuminate the present here and now. “People don’t realize how much the medieval period influences our society,” says the Toulon-born Koster, in her strong French accent. Example: Go to the movies. You always see a beautiful champion male hero. Violence and virtue are paralleled. Often being ‘good’ means being extremely violent, the end justifies the means. Any action movie will tell you that.

The same message was passed though crusaders’ tales. The violence of medieval knights was sublimated into violence for God; a glorification of violence in the name of a perceived ‘good.’ Many modern films translate the medieval mind directly. “The knight in shining armor is virtuous, he represented Christian ideology,” she says enthusiastically. “I go and fight for ideology, and my virtue is equal to my prowess!” Koster is not one to pull punches, in class or in stating her beliefs. “Movies today are based on that same medieval principle,” says Koster, known around campus as a no- nonsense, straightforward and fair professor.

It all plays into her teaching at URI, where she uses the past to illuminate the present here and now.

Joëlle Rollo-Koster Professor, History

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