New and fresh assessments of Malory's 'Morte Darthur'. The essays here are devoted to that seminal Arthurian work, Sir Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte Darthur'. Developments of papers first given at the 'Malory at 550: Old and New' conference, they emphasise here the second part of its remit. Accordingly, several contributors focus new attention on Malory's style, using his stock phrases, metaphors, characterization, or manipulation of sources to argue for a deeper appreciation of his merits as an author. If, as others illustrate, Malory is a much better artist than his twentieth-century reputation allowed, then there is a renewed need to re-assess the vexed question of the possible originality of his 'Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkeney'. Similarly fresh approaches underlie those essays re-examining Malory's attitude to time and the sacred in 'The Sankgreal', the manner in which the ghosts of Lot and his sons highlight potential failures in the Round Table Oath, or the pleasures and pitfalls of Arthurian hospitality. The remaining contributions argue for new approaches to Malory's narrative gaps, Launcelot's status as a victim of sexual violence, and the importance of rejecting Victorian moral attitudes towards Gwenyvere and Isode, moralizing that still informs much recent scholarship addressing Malory's female characters.
Author(s): Megan G. Leitch, Kevin S. Whetter (eds.)
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 250
City: Cambridge
List of Charts and Tables vii
General Editors’ Preface ix
List of Contributors xi
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction. The Tournament at Mapplemalleoré: Malory at 550 / Cory James Rushton 1
1. Malory and the Stock Phrase / Joyce Coleman 7
2. The Artistry of Malory’s Mercantile Metaphors: Goods, Generosity, and the Source of ‘The Tale of Sir Gareth’ / Megan G. Leitch 23
3. ‘A grete bourder and a passynge good knyght’: Sir Dinadan: ‘Gareth with a Twist’ / David F. Johnson 49
4. Moonlight in the Nocturnal Typology of Malory’s 'Morte Darthur' / Michael W. Twomey 67
5. ‘That shall nat ye know for me as at thys tyme’: Cognitive Narratology and Filling Malory’s Gaps / Cathy Hume 89
6. ‘On a tyme’: Action and Temporality in Malory’s ‘Sankgreal’ / Andrew Lynch 109
7. Hospitality in Malory / Elizabeth Edwards 135
8. The Haunting of the Orkneys and Malory’s Arthurian Project / Molly A. Martin 155
9. ‘I love nat to be constreyned to love’: Launcelot and Coerced Sex / Kristina Hildebrand 175
10. Eradicating Victorian Backreading: Re-reading Malory’s Gwenyvere through Gaynour and Isode / Fiona Tolhurst 193
