No abstract available / English / M.A. (English)

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the history in English literature of the relationship between King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot, in order to show how various authors have enriched the legend by developing the psychological potential of the chief characters, and by projecting the standards of their respective ages into their versions of the story. Special emphasis has been placed on the work of Sir Thomas Malory, Alfred Tennyson, E.A. Robinson, and T.H. White. The Arthurian legend is particularly appropriate for such a comparative study. It has received the attention of English writers for eight centuries, and, for the past hundred years, of writers in America as well. In the fifteenth century Malory used the legend to argue for a strong monarchy, and to remind his aristocratic countrymen of the neglected ideals of chivalry; in the nineteenth century Tennyson hoped that the re-telling of the story for its elements of moral and spiritual allegory would inspire the Victorians to rise above the materialism and sensuality which to him were signs of the times; early in the twentieth century Edwin Arlington Robinson suggested a comparison between the disintegration of Camelot and the disruption of European society after World War I, and he questioned the traditionally accepted greatness of Arthur and his kingdom; in the last decade Terence Hanbury White has seen that the problem facing King Arthur also confronts the strife-torn twentieth century how can the energies of men be harnessed for constructive rather than destructive action? The adultery between Guinevere and Lancelot has been made the focal point of this study because it involves the three best-known characters of the legend, and because it has attracted the interest of writers more than has any other element of the Arthuriad, particularly in the past one hundred years. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-09-19Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:47:12Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ciencia_acb_me_sjrp.pdf: 1010861 bytes, checksum: 5e1c680af94c8d0186e55a0797e9f7ce (MD5) / O problema da representação da mulher é um tema instigante, passando por esferas sociais, econômicas e políticas. Nosso foco, aqui, se volta para a literatura, mais especificamente para dois autores que acreditamos trabalhar com perfis do ideário medieval. O primeiro, Thomas Malory, viveu durante o século XV, e compôs a obra mais alta do ciclo arturiano na Idade Média inglesa. Já o segundo, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, é um autor do século XX; é trazido à luz devido à harmonia que, acreditamos, existe entre a caracterização de suas personagens femininas e alguns elementos medievais — alguns, inclusive, do próprio ciclo arturiano. Valendo-nos da teoria literária e de algumas teorias críticas feministas, investigamos a representação da mulher nas obras A morte de Artur, de Malory, e O senhor dos anéis, de Tolkien. Após contextualizarmos historicamente o papel da mulher na sociedade, identificamos as características das personagens femininas que condizem (ou não) com determinados perfis, propondo, também, uma análise comparativa entre as duas obras supracitadas. / The issue of woman representation is an instigating theme, related to social, economic and political spheres. Our focus, here, is directed to literature, more specifically to two authors we believe that deal with medieval ideary profiles. The first of them, Thomas Malory, lived during the 15th century, and wrote the masterpiece of the Arthurian Cycle in English Middle Ages. The second, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, is a 20th century author; he is brought in due to the harmony we believe there is between the characterization of his female characters and some medieval elements — some of them from the Arthurian Cycle itself. Based on literary theory and some feminist critical theories, we investigated women representation in the works Le Morte Darthur, by Thomas Malory, and The Lord of the Rings, by Tolkien. After contextualizing woman’s role historically in society, we identified female characters aspects that match (or not) with some profiles, proposing, also, a comparative analysis between the two works.

This dissertation pursues two distinct but parallel projects in relation to the work of Bernard of Clairvaux and Middle English imaginative literature. First, I argue for a Bernardine anagogical lens as a way to better understand the deepest theological commitments and most distinctive formal innovations of certain key Middle English literary texts, especially Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales. Second, I outline a more genealogical project, tracing the figure of Bernard as it is explicitly invoked in widely circulated Middle English works including Piers, The Parson’s Tale, and the Prick of Conscience. These two threads connect to suggest that the work of Bernard of Clairvaux can offer a new way to understand the relationship between theological and literary texts in the late Middle Ages. Because Bernard’s influence in the vernacular is as much as matter of style as of content, it requires a more capacious way of theorizing the theological implications and even motivations of literary form. The “figure of Bernard” acts as a cipher for later works to explore their deepest intellectual preoccupations, and makes it possible to trace the way they imagine the anagogical interval between the presence and absence of Christ, the over- and under-estimation of the presence of eternity in time. The Bernardine themes of “presumption” and “despair” serve as a useful shorthand for signaling this theorization, and help me to extend its application beyond texts in which Bernard is explicitly invoked—including to writers, like Chaucer and Thomas Malory, whose work is often assumed to be firmly secular.

Disempowered Women? A Feminist Response to female Characters in Malory, Tennyson and Bradley takes an in-depth look at Elayne, Gwenyvere and Morgan of the Arthurian legend. The characters are examined within their contemporary context and from our modem perspective as portrayed in Malory, Tennyson, and Marion Zimmer Bradley. Patriarchy, closely connected with the Christian doctrines, is singled out as the main means of propagating women's disempowerment. The inquiry considers different ways in which fictional texts have contributed to creating false perceptions amongst our contemporary audience, about the reality of women's lives in the Middle Ages. It further examines the validity of the assumption that literary women are not real, but mere representations of male ideals about women's role and place in society. Issues of gender equality are raised and the author concludes that the literature studied assigns definite, gender-specific roles to men and women. The work also debates the perceived misogyny of the male authors: is it a conscious act or a reflection of their contemporary society's concerns? / English Studies / M. A. (English)

Disempowered Women? A Feminist Response to female Characters in Malory, Tennyson and Bradley takes an in-depth look at Elayne, Gwenyvere and Morgan of the Arthurian legend. The characters are examined within their contemporary context and from our modem perspective as portrayed in Malory, Tennyson, and Marion Zimmer Bradley. Patriarchy, closely connected with the Christian doctrines, is singled out as the main means of propagating women's disempowerment. The inquiry considers different ways in which fictional texts have contributed to creating false perceptions amongst our contemporary audience, about the reality of women's lives in the Middle Ages. It further examines the validity of the assumption that literary women are not real, but mere representations of male ideals about women's role and place in society. Issues of gender equality are raised and the author concludes that the literature studied assigns definite, gender-specific roles to men and women. The work also debates the perceived misogyny of the male authors: is it a conscious act or a reflection of their contemporary society's concerns? / English Studies / M. A. (English)