No description available.

Thesis advisor: Robert Stanton / The timelessness of the Arthurian tradition lends itself to adaptability: hundreds of authors over the centuries have inherited the tales and adjusted them to his or her society’s needs. Sir Thomas Malory lived during the War of Roses, a period of upheaval and violence. While imprisoned, he wrote Le Morte d’Arthur, which was inspired from the French romances. He emphasized the ideals of chivalry, brotherhood, loyalty, and order, which had been eroded in contemporary society. From Malory’s stories, Tennyson created Idylls of the King, resurrecting a medieval world to edify Victorian society. Through Guinevere’s affair, Tennyson attempted to revive the idea of courtly love and the importance of pursuing the purest form of love, which he juxtaposed against King Arthur who was the model gentleman for Victorian society. My novel, Le Morte d'Americana carries on the tradition of taking the most important pieces of the Arthurian tradition and weaving them together with the most pressing issues of modern American society. I have mainly focused on Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, using characters and themes from these texts to craft Le Morte d’Americana. Arthur and his knights and the violence that surrounds them translate into the issues of police brutality, gun violence, and toxic masculinity. This novel is a bridge between the past and present. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: English.

In Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, King Arthur’s nephew, Sir Gawain, is presented as a troublesome figure whose vengefulness hastens the collapse of Camelot. This characterization is unsurprising in the light of traditional French depictions of Gawain, but it is distinctly at odds with a rival, Anglo-Scottish tradition that depicts him rather differently as a figure of moderation, wise counsel, and courtesy. Indeed, throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, this version of Gawain was used by a number of romance writers to explore themes of kingship, identity, and regionalism in England and Scotland. This thesis attempts to explain the complexities and contradictions of Gawain’s role in the Middle English and Middle Scots tradition. Chapter one establishes a “northern Gawain type”, drawing on thematic patterns in four northern Gawain romances: The Weddyng of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell, The Avowyng of Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle, and The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawain. Gawain’s popularity in the north, coupled with similarities in characterization and narrative focus, mark him as an important regional figure. This discussion continues in the second chapter, which examines The Awntyrs off Arthure, a poem specifically concerned with Arthurian kingship and imperialism. In Scotland, Gawain is used in romances to explore pertinent contemporary concerns with the recent loss of Scotland’s kings and attitudes towards English expansion. The third chapter considers Gawain’s role in two Scottish romances, particularly, The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawain and Lancelot of the Laik. The final two chapters examine Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur. By exploring these narratives in the context of the “northern Gawain type,” these chapters offer new insights into Gawain’s literary significance for late medieval writers. This thesis offers a reconsideration of Gawain’s reputation in late medieval Middle English and Middle Scots literature. It suggests both why he was such a useful figure for the authors of the northern and Scottish romances and why Malory ultimately chose to reject their reading of him and followed instead the more critical and dismissive French tradition. The lasting legacy of Malory’s Gawain has influenced his reputation and representation in post-medieval Arthurian literature. Yet, his popularity in the north of England and Scotland during the late Middle Ages, and his symbolic significance in discussions of governance, make him a character deserving of rehabilitation in the pantheon of Arthurian knighthood.

Denna uppsats rör den moral som presenteras för oss i amerikanska äventyrsfilmer. Tre filmer, King Arthur, Robin Hood och Gladiator, presenteras och analyseras. Hjältens handlingar är i fokus men även antagonisten och andra bikaraktärers handlingar är av vikt. Detta ställs mot den traditionella pliktetiken då vi får se om hjältens handlingar är förenliga eller strider mot den. En diskussion följer också kring filmernas upplägg och vad lockelsen med denna typ av film egentligen är.

After King William created the New Forest in the twelfth century, the English monarchy sought to define the vert, both legally and ideologically, as a site in which the king’s rights were vigorously enforced. In the romance literature of England, the forest was treated as an exclusive chivalric testing ground, as the site of the aristocracy’s self-validation. The folk reaction against the privatization of this common space and its resources finds a strong literary articulation in the first Robin Hood ballads centuries later. The outlaw reclaims the forest by inhabiting it, appropriating the symbols of its governance, and establishing within it a court that is both legal and social, decked out in the trappings and traditions of romance chivalry and the forest administration. This thesis examines the ideological impulses behind Robin’s occupation of the forest, discussing their relationship to the legal and literary history of the English forest.

This dissertation examines the approximately 700 anonymous female characters who appear in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, expanding the possibilities for how gender roles might be interpreted based on a wider range of female roles. Primary named female characters such as Guinevere and Morgan Le Fay perform more stereotypical functions in the text as created and limited by the Arthurian literary tradition, but a significant portion of the nameless female characters challenge these assumptions. Malory uses many of these anonymous women to perform actions which are often attributed to male characters in medieval literature, such as acting as a guide or helper on a quest, challenging gender roles by assigning more active roles to these secondary characters. However, the very anonymity of the women help negate examples of potentially dangerous female agency by downplaying their presence in the text, removing a sense of individuality by creating nameless, faceless female characters who more easily fade into the background by refusing to identify them. This helps reassert patriarchal concerns both by focusing the reader's attention on the male characters' actions and by partially glossing over the female characters' contributions to the text. In order to address such a significant number of characters, this dissertation is divided into two parts. The first section is an analysis of Malory's text, examining the implications of using the anonymous female characters as a more significant factor in examinations of Le Morte. While current scholarship does address gender concerns to some extent, this generally focuses on those primary female characters who align more readily with stereotypical gender roles. I examine how gender assumptions can be undermined when the anonymous women are included as part of an analysis, as well as how they can affect such concerns as threatening or preserving the masculinity of the male characters based on the functions the female characters perform. I also explore medieval naming customs, or onomastics, and how cultural practices might have influenced Malory's text. This includes analyzing how Malory uses various forms of anonymity. How he refers to individual characters, such as through a vocational reference, gives the reader some insight into the character's function and portrayal. The second section of this dissertation consists of indexing the approximately 700 female characters according to Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. Because the number of episodes these women are in comprise 44% of the total text , Thompson's Motif-Index offers a systematic approach for dealing with such a significant number of characters. It provides a method for classifying specific actions in Le Morte according to common themes, as well as identifying how these motifs are used by Malory in non-traditional ways. Since many of his anonymous female characters perform stereotypically male roles, the motifs offer a way to quickly identify areas of future interest for scholarship. My own Index sorts the motifs based on forms of anonymity Malory uses to identify his characters. This allows the reader to compare how he portrays women within the same category, such as female relatives or helpers. While this project is necessarily limited, my Index offers a starting point for future study by allowing for an easy identification and comparison of the anonymous female characters in Malory's text.

本論文はトマス・マロリーの『アーサー王の死』における「円卓」の役割を、三つの定義を通じて考察するものである。中世において「ラウンド・テーブル」は「(1)アーサー王の騎士組織(2)彼らの集う場である家具(3)アーサー王伝説を模倣して行われた見世物」を意味した。本研究では特に円卓の形状と意味の変化、模擬戦と誓約による理想の提示、円卓が騎士たちの間に生み出す友愛と敵対、誓いにより結ばれた義兄弟と実の兄弟の差異、偽証による円卓の崩壊を取り上げる。 / This dissertation presents a more comprehensive study of Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur from the three aspects of the Round Table. I focus on the following elements especially: the evolution of the shape and significance of the Round Table; visual and verbal representations of the Round-Table ideal by means of tournaments and the Pentecostal Oath; the conflicts the table creates between fellowship and rivalry; the chasm between brothers bound by oath and those tied by blood; and its fall due to the violation of the Pentecostal Oath. Through these perspectives, I would like to reveal the functions of the Round Table and capture the essence of Le Morte Darthur. / 博士(英文学) / Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University

The main intent of this thesis is to review the history and roots of the Cossack assembly, and to analyze its connection to western civilization. In terms of the roots of the Cossack assembly, this thesis will explore the Scytho-Sarmatian, the early Slavic, the Novgorodian, as well as the Turkic-Mongol influences that led to its creation. While the Zaporozhian Cossack assembly will be discussed, the primary focus of the history of the Cossack assembly section will deal with the Don Cossacks’ assembly, since the practices and traditions inherent in this structure are representative of most Cossack groups. In addition to reviewing the Sarmatian Hypothesis, this thesis will also examine the connections and parallels between the Arthurian legends, the ancient Iranian governing practices, and the Cossack assembly. It is thus hoped that this multileveled analysis will generate a comprehensive portrait of the Cossack assembly and, through its ancient Iranian predecessor’s connection to the Arthurian Round Table, prompt a reconsideration of analytical approaches to both the foundations of Cossack and western democracy. / text

Staging Medievalisms analyzes how twentieth- and twenty-first century performance constructs the Middle Ages. This work is in conversation with medievalism, the academic field concerned with the diverse ways post-medieval societies have re-imagined medieval narratives and tropes, often in service of their own values. As a result of centuries worth of re-definition, the term "medieval" is unstable, referring simultaneously to a fairytale prehistory and a dark age of oppression. I argue that performance, both in theatrical productions and in medieval-focused tourist spaces, allows an affective connection between the medieval past and the present, casting the Middle Ages as an inherently flexible backdrop for contemporary political and social concerns. In tourist spaces and plays about the Middle Ages, the performing body becomes the site where the medieval and the modern touch. I conduct close readings of six productions and three public spaces which stage the Middle Ages, examining which particular versions of the medieval they create, how they stage moments of historiographical contact, and how each uses the medieval to imagine their own historical contexts. Chapter one provides an overview of medievalism and its connection to performance studies, and subsequent chapters take up contemporary productions of medieval history, legend, and fantasy, respectively. Chapter two examines three recent stagings of Shakespeare's medieval history play Henry V, a work which stages two opposing versions of the medieval simultaneously. The Royal Shakespeare Company (1994), National Theatre (2003), and Austin, Texas (2009) productions offer commentary on modern warfare, using Henry's medieval battles as both evidence and setting. Chapter three analyses representations of the Holy Grail in Mort d'Arthur (2010), Spamalot (2005), and Proof (2001). Each re-imagines the Grail as a symbol of achievement and power, drawing different conclusions about contemporary society's need for the mystical. Chapter four takes up performances of the Middle Ages in the public sphere, examining how Disneyland, Medieval Times, and the Renaissance Faire offer visitors varying degrees of freedom to experience the medieval through their own bodies. Throughout, I argue that performance encourages affective connections to the medieval past as a reflection of contemporary desires. / text

Orientador: Yara Frateschi Vieira / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T19:03:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cesila_JulianaSylvestredaSilva_D.pdf: 1081694 bytes, checksum: 8a09a03f863f6d9a1a203a8507454c6a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A literatura arturiana tem início no século XII, mais precisamente com a Historia Regum Britanniae (1135-1138), em que o clérigo Geoffrey de Monmouth traça o perfil do principal personagem das lendas bretãs: o rei Artur. No entanto, a obra de Monmouth não foi aproveitada somente pelos autores que se valeram da Matéria de Bretanha para idealizar seus relatos de aventuras, caso dos romans de Chrétien de Troyes, por exemplo: ela também passou a ser utilizada como fonte histórica para relatos que foram ora lidos como livros de história ora classificados como ficção. A partir de textos arturianos dos séculos XII, XIII e XIV, este trabalho pretende determinar se é possível deduzir da sua análise uma clara distinção entre os conceitos de história e de ficção. Para tanto, examinou-se uma série de obras - das quais participam, em algum momento, Artur e seus cavaleiros -, a fim de realizar um levantamento e uma discussão das passagens em que os diversos autores refletem sobre os fatos passados e sua veracidade, levando-nos ao que poderíamos chamar uma melhor compreensão dos significados dos conceitos de ficção e de história na Idade Média. / Abstract: The beginnings of Arthurian literature can be found on the twelfth century, with the Historia Regum Britanniae (1135-1138), where the profile of the most important character of the British legends, King Arthur, was delineated by its author, the cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth. His text, however, was not used only for the purpose of creating adventures' narratives, such as, for example, Chrétien de Troyes' romans. The Historia Regum Britanniae was also a historical source for others texts which have thereafter been sometimes read as history, sometimes classified as fiction. Based on Arthurian texts written during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, this thesis seeks to determine whether it is possible to draw from their analysis a clear distinction between the concepts of history and fiction. A corpus of Arthurian texts was chosen and examined, in order to identify and discuss those passages where their authors comment on the past and its veracity, leading us, we hope, to a better understanding of the meanings of the concepts of history and fiction in the Middle Ages. / Doutorado / Historia e Historiografia Literaria / Doutor em Teoria e História Literária