Arthuriana最新文献

{"title":"Encyclopedia of the Holy Grail by Jeffrey John Dixon (review)","authors":"Phillip C. Boardman","doi":"10.1353/art.2024.a924603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2024.a924603","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Encyclopedia of the Holy Grail</em> by Jeffrey John Dixon <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Phillip C. Boardman </li> </ul> <small>jeffrey john dixon</small>, <em>Encyclopedia of the Holy Grail</em>. McFarland Myth and Legend Encyclopedias. McFarland: Jefferson, NC. 2023. Pp. iii, 328. <small>isbn</small>: 978–1–4766–8794-0. $39.95. <p>Arthurian scholars have been blessed in recent years with the steady release of major translation projects. At the same time, new reference works have often hidden their variety behind some agreed generic categories: handbook, glossary, guide, dictionary, casebook, companion, and others, including encyclopedia. Dixon’s new reference work, examining the rich but complicated traditions behind the many versions of the best known of the Grail stories, offers substantial summary retellings of the stories themselves. To that end, in fact, Dixon states that the retellings throughout the entries in his encyclopedia work to reveal and enable the ‘Enchantment’ that attends the discovery of the workings of contemporary Grail scholarship (p. 1).</p> <p>As with other successful reference works, Dixon’s makes its structure and materials quite clear: it is organized fully alphabetically and aims for contextual clarity rather than simple comprehensiveness. Dixon clearly wants his focus on retellings to encourage the reader’s engagement with the stories themselves, propelled by an energetic narrative style. To this end, Dixon reviews his endeavor through a summary essay that stands as a separate ‘Afterword’ entitled ‘Higher Mysteries: Grail Initiation as Twentieth Century Mythology.’ This essay is carefully linked to the larger Apparatus of the project and is a careful thirty-two-page exposition of the important period in the first third of the twentieth century when Arthurian scholars, fascinated by origin myths, occult symbolism, and initiation rituals, searched throughout the Grail narratives for clues connecting the occult elements.</p> <p>Dixon responds to his Afterword with three short appendices, all three first laying out a chronology of fictions, people, and historical events that he places beneath <strong>[End Page 101]</strong> the earliest fabric of the Grail stories, beginning with the birth of Jesus. The second appendix describes, in order beginning with <em>Diu Crône</em> (<em>The Crown)</em>, the importance and relationships of the developing early medieval Grail literature in the thirteenth century, a useful description and summary of some thirty versions of medieval works from both poetry and prose, including among many others Chrétien’s unfinished <em>Perceval</em>, several innovative continuations, and Malory’s <em>Le Morte Darthur</em>. The third appendix, ‘The Company of the Grail’ and subtitled ‘Some Twentieth Century Writers’ offers very brief introductions of ","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140589878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Invitation to Consider a Potential Arthur-figure Memorial Stone","authors":"Guye Pennington","doi":"10.1353/art.2024.a924599","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2024.a924599","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> An Invitation to Consider a Potential Arthur-figure Memorial Stone <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Guye Pennington </li> </ul> <p><strong>D</strong>id King Arthur exist? While many researchers who work in the field of Arthurian Studies today (particularly those who specialize in the many national literary traditions of the Middle Ages, or those who engage with retellings or reimaginings of the legend in modern media) might consider this query to be either unanswerable or indeed, irrelevant, it must be acknowledged that the ‘Arthur question’ continues to fascinate and preoccupy a significant number of scholars of both the academic/professional and the arm-chair/enthusiast type. Indeed, the debate and discussion about the historical Arthur arguably continues with as much (if not more) enthusiasm in 2024 as it did in 1824 or 1524.<sup>1</sup> A persistent difficulty in identifying Arthur is finding something that has survived from approximately the sixth century that names an Arthur-figure as king. The Glastonbury cross, now lost to history, is generally believed to be the sole inscription to identify a King Arthur, but controversy surrounds its authenticity.<sup>2</sup> Other objects that have been suggested to have an early Arthurian connection include the so-called ‘Slaughterbridge Stone’ in Camelford, Cornwall (attested at least as early as Richard Carew in the 17<sup>th</sup> century)<sup>3</sup> and the Artogonou Stone found in Tintagel.<sup>4</sup></p> <p>Today I would like to suggest that there is another ‘Arthur stone’ that <em>might</em> have some relevance to the debate over the ‘historicity’ of an ‘Arthur-type figure.’ At best, it may add some support to the theory of the existence of an historical King Arthur; at the very least, it may lend support to those who contend that many people in the medieval period (be they the monks at Glastonbury or elsewhere) were invested in ‘proving’ that King Arthur had once existed and that certain key locations were associated with him. Given the geologist’s analysis and report on this particular stone (see Appendix A) it seems almost certain that whatever may be the case, this stone is most likely <em>not</em> a modern forgery.</p> <p>The stone under discussion—which I have tentatively chosen to designate as the FILI MAVRICIVS Stone—was originally found in the 1980s and its presence was made known with some significant media fanfare.<sup>5</sup> However, <strong>[End Page 61]</strong> the legitimacy of the discovery was subsequently discounted as the modern finders—Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett—self-published a number of Arthur-oriented books that propose theories related to Arthur and early Britain that are significantly outside of the realm of conventional scholarship;<sup>6</sup> additionally, the authors’ proclivity towards self-isolation heightened speculation that their find","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"103 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140589880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Painful Pleasures: Sadomasochism in Medieval Cultures ed. by christopher vaccaro (review)","authors":"James C. Staples","doi":"10.1353/art.2024.a924608","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2024.a924608","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Painful Pleasures: Sadomasochism in Medieval Cultures</em> ed. by christopher vaccaro <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> James C. Staples </li> </ul> <small>christopher vaccaro</small>, ed., <em>Painful Pleasures: Sadomasochism in Medieval Cultures</em>. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022. Pp. xii, 388. <small>isbn</small>: 978–1–5261–5333–3. £90.00. <p><em>Painful Pleasures: Sadomasochism in Medieval Cultures</em> reveals how an erotics of pain in the present can open up a nuanced nexus of affects, and thus a much richer account of subjectivity and agency, in the medieval past. <em>Painful Pleasures</em> is ‘the only volume <strong>[End Page 108]</strong> dedicated to making the subject [of S/M in medieval cultures] its primary focus’ (p. 19); however, the authors frequently engage with scholarship on masochistic martyrdom, the sadomasochism of courtly love, and the violence inherent in medieval marriage, referencing Robert Mills, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Sarah Salih, and many others who have considered such topics. Christopher Vaccaro’s introduction provides a thorough genealogical theorization of BDSM, from Krafft-Ebing’s and Freud’s pathologizing accounts to feminist and queer theoretical engagements, but he and the other contributors also frequently incorporate personal experiences or reflections, including Vaccaro’s acknowledgments of the ‘Doms, Sirs, Masters, boys, slaves, and pups’ who provided inspiration (p. xi). Through its focus on connections (and differences) between the past and the present, <em>Painful Pleasures</em> reveals the ‘need’ for studying BDSM ‘to expose the libidinous nature of medieval iterations of power’ (p. 3). The vast approaches and subjects across the volume, united by this singular task, result in a generative approach to medieval pain and its pleasures.</p> <p>The volume is divided into two sections, focusing on ‘spiritual and penitential (con)texts’ and ‘courtly and secular (con)texts,’ respectively. The collection begins with an essay by Nicole Slipp that details how Margery Kempe’s excessive life ‘resonates’ with kink, revealing how Kempe discovers pleasure in a negotiated, consent-based power-relationship with God (p. 37). Tracing evidence across early Irish narratives, Phillip A. Bernhardt-House considers the ‘erotic possibilities’ of accounts of humiliating flagellation (p. 69), noting similarities between two heroic figures—Cú Chulainn and Saint Columba—who faced similar abuses by phallic divinities. Tina-Marie Ranalli masterfully reveals how Christine de Pizan thwarts the conventional sadistic titillation of hagiography—whereby a tyrant ruptures the sexualized bodies of virginal women—through a desexualized masochism that allows the women to remove themselves from the economy of male desire. Karmen MacKendrick revisits Jean Leclerq’s <em>The Love of","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140589756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Guenevere's Raptus-Sanctus Triumphs in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur","authors":"D. Thomas Hanks Jr.","doi":"10.1353/art.2023.a914636","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2023.a914636","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Generally speaking, scholars of Malory's <i>Morte Darthur</i> have given Guenevere bad press. Terms like 'shrew' and 'virago' have been often applied, while her agency has been largely ignored or minimized. Recently, however, scholars have begun to reconsider her characterization and even her agency. Analysis of her response to Meleagant's attempted <i>raptus</i>, however, has been minimal; likewise minimal has been discussion of her response to Lancelot both with respect to Meleagant and to Lancelot's late and apparently marital desire. Both men become wholly subject to Guenevere's subtle but masterful agency.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138629667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"English Begins at Jamestown by Tim William Machan (review)","authors":"Kevin J. Harty","doi":"10.1353/art.2023.a915341","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2023.a915341","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;In lieu of&lt;/span&gt; an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:&lt;/span&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt; &lt;span&gt;Reviewed by:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;!-- html_title --&gt; &lt;em&gt;English Begins at Jamestown&lt;/em&gt; by Tim William Machan &lt;!-- /html_title --&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; Kevin J. Harty &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;small&gt;tim william machan&lt;/small&gt;, &lt;em&gt;English Begins at Jamestown&lt;/em&gt;. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. xi, 259. &lt;small&gt;isbn&lt;/small&gt;: 978–0–19–884636–9. $35. &lt;p&gt;The course in the History of the English Language—often assigned to medievalists like myself to teach—has long been a requirement for majors in English and English Education, and one of the foundational textbooks for the course, Albert C. Baugh's 1935 &lt;em&gt;A History of the English Language&lt;/em&gt;, is still in print in a sixth edition, revised by Thomas Cable in 2012. Baugh and other standard textbooks seek to answer a basic question: what is English? Tim Machan thinks that this question is indeed an important question, but that it needs to be linked to a second equally important question: who speaks English?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;English Begins at Jamestown&lt;/em&gt; is a fascinating, but challenging, reflection on the various ways that we have traditionally thought about and taught the history of the English Language. Machan acknowledges that there is no one way to teach the course, and that saying that one approach is wrong and that another is right leads us nowhere. As he notes, the standard pedagogical approach to the course, regardless of textbook used, invariably follows a common chronology of cause and effect—external history influences the internal history of English. Thus, the Saxons conquer the Celtic peoples of England, and Celtic languages are suppressed in favor of what we call Old English. Invading Vikings have an impact on Old English, which eventually loses pride of place in 1066. By Chaucer's time, what we call Middle English is more or less firmly in place, though language as always changes. So, there is the Great Vowel Shift, and &lt;strong&gt;[End Page 72]&lt;/strong&gt; the development of early Modern English, coincidental with the introduction of the printing press, and so on.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Instead of this multi-stage generative approach to the history of the English language, Machan offers a user-based narrative, the key event in which occurs in May of 1607 when 104 boys and men in three ships arrived in what is now Virginia and established a settlement called Jamestown on what they would name the James River. Prior to 1607, no permanent settlement of Anglophone speakers existed outside of the British Isles. Significantly for the subsequent development of English, the Jamestown speech community was regionally and socially diverse. The community also had linguistic contact with speakers of European, African, and Indigenous languages, all of whom in turn had contact with both L1 and L2 English speakers. The descendants of these speakers of contact languages would over time themselves switch to using English. 'In the process, these","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138629484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Historical Arthur and The Gawain Poet: Studies on Arthurian and Other Traditions by Andrew Breeze (review)","authors":"Richard Firth Green","doi":"10.1353/art.2023.a915338","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2023.a915338","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;In lieu of&lt;/span&gt; an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:&lt;/span&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt; &lt;span&gt;Reviewed by:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;!-- html_title --&gt; &lt;em&gt;The Historical Arthur and The Gawain Poet: Studies on Arthurian and Other Traditions&lt;/em&gt; by Andrew Breeze &lt;!-- /html_title --&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; Richard Firth Green &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;small&gt;andrew breeze&lt;/small&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Historical Arthur and The Gawain Poet: Studies on Arthurian and Other Traditions&lt;/em&gt;. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023. Pp. x, 153. &lt;small&gt;isbn&lt;/small&gt;: 978–1–66692–954–6. $95. &lt;p&gt;Andrew Breeze's &lt;em&gt;The Historical Arthur and the Gawain Poet&lt;/em&gt; is really two discrete studies in one volume, each of them amplifications of Breeze's earlier published work. In the first (pp. 3–37), he makes the case for Geoffrey of Monmouth's epithet, &lt;em&gt;dux bellorum&lt;/em&gt;, being the equivalent of the Welsh term &lt;em&gt;pentuleu&lt;/em&gt;, 'captain of the bodyguard, chief of the royal host,' and referring to a historical Arthur who operated in the Strathclyde area in the 530s. Since I'm not qualified to judge these claims, this review will concern itself only with the second, and longer, section (pp. 41–136), which deals mainly with the authorship and date of the Middle English poem, &lt;em&gt;Sir Gawain and the Green Knight&lt;/em&gt;, and with three poems in the same tradition.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Many years ago, Morton W. Bloomfield wrote of the implications of the single-author theory of the poems in the MS Cotton Nero A.x that 'the mathematical probability of an hypothesis based on an hypothesis is very slight' ['&lt;em&gt;Sir Gawain and the Green Knight&lt;/em&gt;: An Appraisal,' &lt;em&gt;PMLA&lt;/em&gt;, 76 (1961): 9–10], and while Breeze is certainly not the first scholar of the poem lured into such hypothesizing, his central argument makes it particularly prominent. Since Breeze's dating of &lt;em&gt;Sir Gawain and the Green Knight&lt;/em&gt; depends in part on his identification of its author, his first hypothetical claim must make his second doubly so. What, then, is the evidence for Breeze's first hypothesis: that the author of &lt;em&gt;Sir Gawain and the Green Knight&lt;/em&gt; was Sir John Stanley of Storeton in Cheshire?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Breeze offers us a convenient fourteen-point summary of his case (p. 62). Some of these points are evidently founded upon a rather naïve view of medieval society—'A chaplain would not know much about flirting or the chase' (p. 51); Stanley would not 'have been granted authority over forests if he had never felled a tree' (p. 58)—but far more serious are the logical flaws they display. Reduced to a syllogism, the main argument runs:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;blockquote&gt; &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Gawain&lt;/em&gt;-poet was a Cheshireman/layman/courtier/conservative/French-speaker.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sir John Stanley was a Cheshireman/layman /courtier /conservative/French-speaker.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Therefore, Sir John Stanley was the &lt;em&gt;Gawain&lt;/em&gt;-poet. QED.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;p&gt;Even those prepared to admit the validity of some, or all, of Breeze's series of major premises must concede that there are several possib","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"82 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138629660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enlistment: Lists in Medieval and Early Modern Literature ed. by Eva Von Contzen and James Simpson (review)","authors":"Michael Van Dussen","doi":"10.1353/art.2023.a915344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2023.a915344","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;In lieu of&lt;/span&gt; an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:&lt;/span&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt; &lt;span&gt;Reviewed by:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;!-- html_title --&gt; &lt;em&gt;Enlistment: Lists in Medieval and Early Modern Literature&lt;/em&gt; ed. by Eva Von Contzen and James Simpson &lt;!-- /html_title --&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; Michael Van Dussen &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;small&gt;eva von contzen&lt;/small&gt; and &lt;small&gt;james simpson&lt;/small&gt;, eds., &lt;em&gt;Enlistment: Lists in Medieval and Early Modern Literature&lt;/em&gt;. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2022. Pp. 232. &lt;small&gt;isbn&lt;/small&gt;: 978–0–8142–1522–7. $99.95. &lt;p&gt;Lists embedded in ancient, medieval, or early modern narratives are often regarded as the fly-over bits, artless filler, or unwelcome interruptions of narrative sequence. In other contexts—like indices or standalone groupings of disparate items—lists may be perused more for their practical function than for the logic of their arrangement or their hermeneutic possibilities. &lt;em&gt;Enlistment&lt;/em&gt; takes up the practice of listing to regard lists as 'form[s] or way[s] of thinking' (p. 8). Lists can include or exclude; they can give the sense that a knowledge set is complete and circumscribed, or (on the contrary) limitless and expansive; they may suggest dispassionate transparency while at the same time obscuring the politics of the compiler's project. As the chapters in this volume show, scrutiny of enumerative or sequential patterns (which is how the term 'list' is regarded in its broadest sense in this collection) reveals how lists &lt;em&gt;en&lt;/em&gt;list readers in the process of making sense of them.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the Introduction, the editors briefly survey prior scholarship on lists, with emphasis on medieval English literary contexts, and deploy theoretical models from other contexts to suggest how lists can be studied in terms of their 'affordances' and as &lt;em&gt;Denkformen&lt;/em&gt; (forms or ways of thinking). The following chapters are then introduced according to how they participate in four conceptual (and not strictly binary) pairings: in/completeness, dis/ordering knowledge, un/familiarity, and boredom/play. &lt;strong&gt;[End Page 77]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Alexis Kellner Becker studies the extensive list of things a reeve should know in the Old English &lt;em&gt;Gerefa&lt;/em&gt;, a guide for a reeve of an estate. &lt;em&gt;Gerefa&lt;/em&gt;, 'a pre-Conquest text, imagining and preserving a pre-feudal reeve, redacted into and preserved in a post-Conquest legal manuscript' (p. 17), is self-consciously framed by an author who admits ignorance of the reeve's body of knowledge but who nevertheless presents it to his post-Conquest reader. Andrew James Johnston (Chapter Two) then discusses the presentation of the Old English &lt;em&gt;Widsith&lt;/em&gt; as three consecutive lists of rulers and peoples. Johnston finds the concept of 'global modernism' to be a fruitful way to understand how the poet-narrator brings disparate temporalities, cultures, and 'antiquities' into conversation or even competition.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In Chapter Three, Kathryn Mogk Wagner exam","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138629680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature by Charlie Samuelson (review)","authors":"Megan Moore","doi":"10.1353/art.2023.a915343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2023.a915343","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;In lieu of&lt;/span&gt; an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:&lt;/span&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt; &lt;span&gt;Reviewed by:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;!-- html_title --&gt; &lt;em&gt;Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature&lt;/em&gt; by Charlie Samuelson &lt;!-- /html_title --&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; Megan Moore &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;small&gt;charlie samuelson&lt;/small&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature&lt;/em&gt;. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2022. Pp. 240. &lt;small&gt;isbn&lt;/small&gt;: 978–0–8142–1498–5. $99.95. &lt;p&gt;Charlie Samuelson's monograph &lt;em&gt;Courtly and Queer&lt;/em&gt; is a tremendous contribution to medieval French studies, to queer studies, and to narratological theory. In just over 200 pages, Samuelson challenges, productively collapses, and reanimates the spaces between courtly romance and the &lt;em&gt;dits&lt;/em&gt;, queering assumptions about generic separateness by penetrating interstitial spaces. The explicit project of the book is 1) to 'explor[e] how returning to a particular emphasis on language and poetics can mark not a turn away from careful analysis of medieval sexual politics but another radical way of engaging with—or returning to—them'; and 2) to 'emphasiz[e] an insufficiently articulated but unflagging queerness that is inseparable from poetic indeterminacy and inhabits—and infests—the core of a literary tradition that has generally … been understood as predominantly at the service of patriarchy' (p. 23). The implicit project of the book relates, I think, to Samuelson's initial observations about queerness, which he defines as 'all that resists the notion that courtly literature seeks to present gender and sexuality as coherent and/or normative' (p. 1). &lt;strong&gt;[End Page 75]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Samuelson's work puts medieval texts in dialogue with modern theory, sometimes in explicit conversation and sometimes leaving them merely adjacent. Sustained engagement with Judith Butler, Paul de Man, and Lee Edelman not only broadens the ken of theories to which medieval texts can make productive contributions, but also serves as an important reminder that modern theory must reconsider its askew orientation to the premodern. Throughout his study, Samuelson weaves conversation with other medievalists and almost every page offers citations not only of other scholars, but of textual passages, a richness that sometimes becomes a distraction.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After an introduction, there are four chapters which focus sequentially on subjectivity (Chapter One), metalepsis (Chapter Two), insertion (Chapter Three), and irony (Chapter Four). In Chapter One, Samuelson argues that texts by Chrétien de Troyes, Machaut, and Christine de Pizan 'probe the indeterminacy of—and incoherencies in—the notion of the subject' (p. 29). With sophisticated readings and an engaging scholarly voice, Samuelson hits his stride as he pairs Alain de Libera's &lt;em&gt;Archéologie du sujet&lt;/em&gt;, Judith Butler's &lt;em&gt;The Psychic Life of Power&lt;/em&gt;, and medieval texts to explore how ","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"169 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138629849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think by Carolyne Larrington (review)","authors":"Tim William Machan","doi":"10.1353/art.2023.a915340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2023.a915340","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;In lieu of&lt;/span&gt; an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:&lt;/span&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt; &lt;span&gt;Reviewed by:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;!-- html_title --&gt; &lt;em&gt;The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think&lt;/em&gt; by Carolyne Larrington &lt;!-- /html_title --&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; Tim William Machan &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;small&gt;carolyne larrington&lt;/small&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think&lt;/em&gt;. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2023. Pp. 304. &lt;small&gt;isbn&lt;/small&gt;: 978–0500252345. $34.95. &lt;p&gt;Near the beginning of this well-written, expansive, and inviting book, Carolyne Larrington observes, 'It might seem that, as journalists like to say, Old Norse myths are currently \"having a moment\"' (p. 8). But as the book shows, this moment has been happening almost since the Viking age itself, informing multiple media across the centuries with myths that assume context specific shapes and always suggest an intensity of response shared by no other mythic tradition. It may be, Larrington notes, that 'Old Norse myths and legends … offer ways of thinking about the world, about time, history and fate, that we do not find in the more culturally central Greek and Roman myths' (p. 8). And their continued moment also may be rooted in, as she stresses throughout the book, the intensity and familiarity of the human qualities they display: folly, wisdom, hatred, love, envy, vengeance, fallibility. Reasonably enough, Larrington focuses on the Anglophone tradition, but, perhaps because of these familiar qualities, the Norse moment has spanned continents, peoples, and language traditions, making the recent film &lt;em&gt;Thor: Love and Thunder&lt;/em&gt; a worldwide box office hit.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Two qualities distinguish &lt;em&gt;The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think&lt;/em&gt; and will make the book of interest to a wide audience, particularly one of non-specialists. The first is the clarity of its organization, which is no small accomplishment given the scope and discordant nature of primary Norse documents like poems, sagas, and rune stones. Put another way, there is not (and almost certainly never was) a coherent, synoptic mythos but rather scattered riffs on recurrent themes, stories, and characters. Accordingly, the book is arranged around what might be called umbrella topics that will be familiar to (say) viewers of recent medieval Norse film: &lt;em&gt;Valhöll, Óðinn, Þórr, Loki, Vikings and Bererkers, Sigurðr the Dragon-Slayer, Ragnarr Shaggy-Breeches, Vinland&lt;/em&gt;, and the &lt;em&gt;Ragna rök&lt;/em&gt;. Particular novels, poems, or films might appear in each chapter, but in this arrangement, they are treated not as free-standing works but as participants in larger traditions. The reader thus gets a sense of how Þórr and the rest have been reimagined across time—of the continuities as well as inconsistencies.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The book's second distinguishing quality is its breadth. Focusing on the past two centuries, &lt;em&gt;The Norse Myths&lt;/em&gt; explores a range of poems, musical adaptations, novels, and (of late) films that take their inspirat","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"86 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138630082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Great Book of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table: A New Morte D'Arthur by John Matthews (review)","authors":"Alan Lupack","doi":"10.1353/art.2023.a915342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2023.a915342","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;In lieu of&lt;/span&gt; an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:&lt;/span&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt; &lt;span&gt;Reviewed by:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;!-- html_title --&gt; &lt;em&gt;The Great Book of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table: A New Morte D'Arthur&lt;/em&gt; by John Matthews &lt;!-- /html_title --&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; Alan Lupack &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;small&gt;john matthews&lt;/small&gt;, &lt;em&gt;The Great Book of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table: A New Morte D'Arthur&lt;/em&gt;. Foreword by Neil Gaiman. Illustrated by John Howe. New York: Harper Design, 2022. Pp. xxi, 406. &lt;small&gt;isbn&lt;/small&gt;: 978–0–06–324312–5. $32.50. &lt;p&gt;The tales in John Matthews' &lt;em&gt;The Great Book of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table&lt;/em&gt; are retellings (based on pre-existing translations) of thirty-two Arthurian tales not found in Malory's &lt;em&gt;Morte&lt;/em&gt;. The collection, which Matthews calls 'A New &lt;em&gt;Morte D'Arthur&lt;/em&gt;,' tells the story of Camelot from a perspective different from Malory's. Some of these tales Matthews has made available before, several of them more than once, in his earlier collections of Arthurian stories. It is helpful that he offers a section of 'Notes and Sources' that indicates what translations and editions he has consulted in preparing his retellings (though, it should be noted, this section does not always include all the translations and editions, and sometimes not the most recent ones).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In his comments on 'The Adventures of Eagle-Boy,' Matthews writes that this is the first time the story has been 'retold for a popular audience.' This statement is the key to his intentions: he is retelling tales for general readers, not a scholarly audience, much as the numerous retellings of Malory's &lt;em&gt;Morte&lt;/em&gt; do. As a result, he changes his source texts to make his material more readable. Sometimes he merges two or more narratives into one. He tells us, for example, that 'The Tale of Palomides and the Questing Beast' combines elements from five different sources. He tells some tales in full; others he abbreviates, as when he retells only the first half of Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's &lt;em&gt;Lanzelet&lt;/em&gt;. He 'slightly' amends (p. 377) the ending of 'The Adventure of Meriadoc' and adds a coda to 'The Adventures of Melora and Orlando,' a story about Arthur's daughter Melora, to suggest that 'Merlin's part in the story was less negative than it appeared' (p. 382). He also occasionally assigns names to characters unnamed in his sources and adds authorial comments to his texts. All of this is fair game and often makes the stories even more appealing to his audience. The striking images by John Howe enhance the volume and the reader's experience.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Matthews tells the tales well, and the tales he has altered most can be the most enjoyable or interesting, as, for example, when he achieves the difficult task of blending the &lt;em&gt;Elucidation&lt;/em&gt; with the better known story of Perceval and the Grail. And readers will find stories that are not easily accessed elsewhere, including severa","PeriodicalId":43123,"journal":{"name":"Arthuriana","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138629670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}