The representations of the Saracen in medieval English romances have attracted a great deal of critical attention. Earlier interest concentrated on the (mis)perceptions of the nature of Islam and the behaviors of its adherents. For the last two decades, analysis of the imagery of the Saracens has been drawn in new directions. The Saracen is treated as ¡§the other,¡¨ which functions as everything opposed to Christian and the western world. Consequently, ¡§the other¡¨ is often linked to the formation of ¡§the self¡¨ in terms of race, culture, religion or nation. Previous studies implicitly or explicitly respond to the binary paradigm proclaimed by Roland in The Song of Roland that the ¡§Pagans are wrong and Christians are right¡¨ (1015) and prove the inappeasable enmity between the two peoples. Attached to this presumption are two shared supportive beliefs that make the stereotypical imagery and the binary paradigm sustainable. One is that the nature of romance is homogeneous and is constituted by literary conventions. The other is that medieval England was a world which was isolated from the actual encounter with the Saracens and thereby tended to adhere to the design of a propagandistic stereotype of the Continent (Metlitzki 167). This dissertation will attempt to explore the representation of the Saracens in Middle English romances, and at the same time to reshape the understanding of the binary paradigm as well as the two associated supportive beliefs. My approaches to studying the representations of the Saracens in Middle English romances are two: one is intratextual and the other is intertextual. The first is to take Middle English romances as a corpus, to investigate its homogeneity as well as its variants in the representations of the Saracens. The second is to draw the strands of theological, sociological and historical references to shed light on the contextual knowledge of Middle English romances in the representations of the Saracens. Chapter one introduces the binary paradigm and the supportive beliefs. Chapter two explores the representations of the Saracens mainly in Floris and Blancheflour and the medieval ideas regarding magic. Chapter three investigates mainly Josian, the Saracen Princess as the embodiment of the Saracenic intellectual culture in Bevis of Hampton and compares her with other Saracen females and Christian counterparts. Chapter four focuses on the representation of the Sultan of Babylon in the eponymous romance The Sultan of Babylon. He is represented as an offender of God on the one hand; on the other hand, he is a worthy conqueror, a competent leader and a kind father. The complex image modifies the rivalry paradigm. Chapter five concludes that alternative Saracen characters are not as rare as might be supposed and antagonism coexists with tolerance and inclusion in medieval English romances. In Middle English romances, the Saracens are not always evil, wrong and savage. English romancers express their understanding of the Saracens, the curiosity about the Saracenic culture, and give fair appraisals of the Saracens. They reflect ¡§real¡¨ encounters with the Saracens, they suggest the ambiguity of literary conventions and they indicate the possibility of toleration and inclusion. They reshape the paradigm proclaimed by Sir Roland, break down the myth of the unity and continuity of Western civilization and mark the particularity of English romances.