Artus de Bretagne est un roman du XIVe siècle conservé dans de nombreux manuscrits, ce qui établit son succès. Le fils d'un duc de Bretagne y gagne le royaume de Sorrolois, devenant ainsi le roi Artus. Il existe des continuations du roman au XVe siècle, conservées dans quatre manuscrits. Ils contiennent des textes proches qui constituent une version longue du roman. La thèse édite les 229 premiers folios du manuscrit BnF fr 19 163. Le texte est établi grâce aux trois autres manuscrits et au manuscrit BnF fr 761 qui contient la version courte. Le texte pose peu de problèmes de lecture et utilise le moyen français de manière régulière, avec un vocabulaire déjà connu par ailleurs, même si plusieurs copistes ont travaillé. L'analyse littéraire s'intéresse aux problèmes posés par l'écriture de continuation. Comment l'auteur de la version longue d'Artus de Bretagne les a-t-il résolus ? L'auteur commence son texte avant la fin de la version courte et en reprend la matière sans différence significative. Il faut penser qu'il y a là de quoi intéresser le lecteur médiéval, grand amateur de variations sur le même sujet. Pour autant comment ne pas lasser ? La thèse s'attache à étudier les solutions mises en oeuvre par l'auteur qui conduisent à s'interroger sur une nouvelle esthétique fondée sur le mélange des matières - antique, bretonne, française - et le mélange de l'épique, du merveilleux, du lyrisme. Le roman est aussi un roman favorable à la France et aux Français qu'il valorise, considérant le roi Artus comme un Français.. Le roman se révèle aussi porteur d'une vision du monde qui permet au XVe siècle de mieux se vivre et de préserver une image favorable de lui-même / Artus de Bretagne is a 14th century novel. Its presence in several manuscripts helped establish its popularity. The narrative follows Artus, the son of a duke from Brittany, winning the kingdom of Sorrolois and therefor becoming king Arthus. There are sequel to the novel dating from the 15th century disseminated in four manuscripts. They contain stories close that constitute a longer version of the original novel. This thesis edits the first 229 folios of the BnF fr 19 163 manuscript. This text is based on three other manuscript and the short version of the novel, contained in the BnF fr 761 manuscript. The BnF fr 19163 text is easily readable and uses moyen français throughout ; the vocabulary is known even though several copists worked on it. The literary analysis focuses on the problems surfacing from continuation writing. How did the author of the long version of Artus de Bretagne overcome them? The author starts the text before the end of the short version and uses the content without any significant differences. There is enough to interest medieval readers, fond of variations on the same subjects. However, this raises the question, how to keeo the audience engaged? This thesis aims at studying solutions used by the author and how they lead to a reflexion on new aesthetics based on merging genres: antiquity, breton, french - and styles, epic, fantasy and lyrism. The novel is also complimentary towards France and French people, valorised through Artus being considered French. The novel reveals itself as the bearer of a vision of the world allowing the 15th century to live better

Les XIIe et XIIIe siècles voient se développer les romans arthuriens, en vers puis en prose, qui connaissent encore un vif succès à la fin du Moyen Âge. Alors qu’une mode arthurienne croît dans certaines cours, le roman arthurien doit se renouveler et les auteurs sont pris entre deux exigences. La cohérence de la matière arthurienne reposant en particulier sur une onomastique (toponymes et anthroponymes) sans cesse reprise, les auteurs doivent à la fois conserver uneonomastique identifiable et renouveler personnages et lieux en introduisant de nouveaux noms propres. Nous étudierons ainsi les modalités et les enjeux de l'onomastique dans les romans arthuriens tardifs. Après avoir dressé un bilan des études onomastiques et mis en évidence l'articulation entre les enjeux anthropologiques, les pratiques attestées et la tradition littéraire, nous établirons une typologie des noms propres dans le corpus qui s'appuiera non seulement sur les éditions, mais prendra aussi en charge les variantes attestées par les manuscrits. Nous analyserons également les noms pour leur réalisme et leur pouvoir de suggestion chez le lecteur, et examinerons leur rôle dans la structure de l’intrigue. À partir de la typologie, de l'analyse sémantique et poétique et de l'étude des rapports à l'onomastique réelle, on situera lapratique des romans tardifs et on cernera la spécificité des noms propres dans le corpus choisi. / Arthurian romance develops during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in verse and prose, and still has an important success in the late Middle Ages. Despite an Arthurian fashion taking place in some courts, the Arthurian romance has to be renewed and authors are caught between two requirements. As the consistency of Arthurian romances partly remains in theproper names they share (place names and anthroponyms), authors have to both maintain famous and recognizable proper names, and renew characters and places by introducing new ones. We will study the modalities and the stakes in the proper names used in late Arthurian romances. After making an assessment of the onomastics studies, and highlighting the link between anthropological stakes, documented practices and literary tradition, we will establish a typology of the proper names in the corpus which will be based not only on the editions, but will also consider the actual variants in manuscripts. We will also analyze names for their historical dimension and for their power over the reader’s imagination, and examine the role they play in the plot’s structure. The typology, the semantic and poetic analysis, and the study of the associations with historic onomastics will lead us to situate late novels in the Middle Ages literature and identify the specificity of proper names in the selected corpus.

This thesis provides a reading of Chrétien de Troyes' Arthurian romances that reflects the cultural and intellectual context of twelfth-century Christianity. The impact of this context on Chrétien's romances is examined by identifying the influence that contemporaneous biblical expository texts, hagiography, and the material culture of the cult of saints had upon his work. Although scholars have devoted much attention to the study of Chrétien's romances, and some have examined the potential influences of various medieval Christian beliefs, practices, and symbols on his work, none have yet to produce a thorough study of these elements while focusing specifically on the female characters. Scholars have identified the influence of the cult of saints on the depiction of Guinevere in The Knight of the Cart, but have not examined this influence on the depictions of the ladies in the other four romances in detail. I look beyond Guinevere, examining all of the female protagonists in the Arthurian romances, comparing their attributes and actions to those of biblical women in contemporaneous biblical exposition and those of saints in hagiography. At the heart of this comparison is the relationship between the lady and her knight, a relationship that is described in similar terms to that between a biblical woman and God and that between saint and devotee.

When comparing Ywain and Gawain with its source, Chretien de Troyes' Yvain. many critics concentrate on the dramatic omissions and reductions made by the anonymous English adapter. However, the more subtle differences between the two Arthurian romances also deserve attention. Since the goal of medieval adapters of secular texts was to rethink and reinvent their sources, these changes could reveal further aspects of the originality of Ywain and Gawain. which is generally considered a sophisticated work in its own right. With this study, I hope to demonstrate that some of the differences in the Middle English adaptation may signify an effort on the part of the adapter to present his own vision of society and hierarchy. While it is not possible to situate all the characters on a social scale, the probable hierarchical relation between many of them can be established based on their lineage, tide or social position. The present analysis examines modifications in the interaction between some of these characters—due to the limits of this study, I treat only the cases where at least one female character is concerned—and the role of hierarchical submission. I explore examples from two perspectives: that of the characters of lower rank, whose subordination to social superiors is a basic element of social order, and that of the characters of higher rank, whose standing implies both their own authority and the submission of their inferiors. I found that the English poet diminished or omitted many examples that do not respect hierarchy in Yvain. creating the impression of a more hierarchical society in the adaptation. That overall impression is not changed by the fact that the adapter also introduced or amplified other exceptions to the hierarchy, for they are not of an extreme nature and occur only in a limited context. In fact, these additions seem to follow a logical pattern as well, presenting the image of a society in which rank and power are linked. Consequently, they too may be interpreted as part of a coherently modified version of society and hierarchy created by the author of Ywain and Gawain. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

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This thesis explores how both texts - The Da Vinci Code and The Mists of Avalon - write femininity onto the Holy Grail in seemingly problematic ways, and the way in which women's voices, through the feminization of the Grail, are often silenced.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Bochum, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [413]-427) and index.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Bochum, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [413]-427) and index.

In Marion Zimmer Bradley's retelling of the Arthurian legends, The Mists of Avalon, she creates two dystopic cultures: Avalon and Camelot. Contrasting Bradley's account of the legends with the traditional version, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, reveals that Bradley's sweeping revisions of the tradition do little to create a feminist ideal. A skeptical questioning of the text's plot and characters with the Women's Movement in mind opens an interpretation of the text as a critique of feminism itself.

Within late twentieth and early twenty-first century children’s literature there is a significant interest amongst authors and readers for material which recreates the Arthurian myth. Many of these draw on medieval texts, and the canonical texts of the English tradition have been particularly influential. Yet within this intertextual discourse the influence of the Victorian works is noticeable. This thesis explores the relationship between contemporary children’s Arthuriana and the gendered and national ideologies of these earlier works. Using feminist critical discourse analysis, it discusses the evolution of Arthuriana for the child reader, with a particular focus on four contemporary texts: Michael Morpurgo’s (1994) Arthur, High King of Britain, Mary Hoffman’s (2000) Women of Camelot: Queens and Enchantresses at the Court of King Arthur, Diana Wynne Jones’ (1993) Hexwood and the BBC series Merlin (2008-2012). Exploring the historicist and fantasy genres opens up a discourse surrounding the psychology of myth which within the context of Arthurian literature creates a sense of a universal ‘truth’. This work reveals that authorial intent, in both historicist and fantasy narratives, is often undercut by implicit ideologies which reveal unconscious cultural assumptions. The cultural context at the time of textual production and consumption affects the representations of both the ideologies of gender and nation and yet the authority of myth and history combine to create a regressive depiction more in keeping with literature from the Victorian and post-World War II eras. This is explored through a review of the literature for children available since the Age of Reason, and the didactic model which has been prevalent throughout the Arthurian genre. This thesis explores why a regressive representation is appealing within a twenty-first century discourse through an engagement with theories of feminism(s) and postfeminism. This thesis ascertains why the psychology of myth affects the reimagining of Arthuriana, and explores the retrospective nature of intertextuality in order to reflect on the trend for regressive representations in children’s Arthurian literature.