The New Middle Ages: Remaking Arthurian Tradition

Batt, C.

This study innovatively explores how Malory's Morte D'Arthur responds to available literary vernacular Arthurian traditions which the French defined as theoretical in impulse, the English as performative and experimental. Negotiating these influences, Malory transforms constructions of masculine heroism, especially in the presentation of Launcelot, and exposes the tensions and disillusions of the Arthurian project. The Morte poignantly conveys a desire for integrity in narrative and subject-matter, but at the same time tests literary conceptualizations of history, nationalism, gender and selfhood, and considers the failures of social and legal institutionalizations of violence, in a critique of literary form and of social order.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2002-05-30

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9781349627882

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-137-11183-8

Dimensions: 216cm x140cm

Pages: 264