Arthurian Romance and Gender: Selected Proceedings of the XVIIth International Arthurian Congress

Front Cover
Friedrich Wolfzettel
Rodopi, 1995 - 295 pages
These selected proceedings of the XVIIth International Arthurian Congress (21 to 30 July, 1993 at Bonn) are a major contribution to problems connected with the semiotics of sex, gender and gender roles in Arthurian romance and more generally in medieval narrative. With regard to this particular topic, the proceedings provide a first comprehensive discussion, covering virtually the whole range of medieval Arthurian romance from the Chronicles and the 'classical' period onto verse and prose romances in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth centuries, including Malory, and examining the most important works of the mainstreams of French, German, and English literatures. The variety of methods - philological, historical and sociological criticism, anthropological, psychoanalytical, semiotic and linguistic approaches - brought to bear on the texts indicate the growing importance of femininity in the narrative framework as well as a growing awareness of femininity as opposed to the chivalric, masculine set of values. In this perspective, Arthurian romance may be said to be due and revolve around the problem of the sexes or more precisely, genderstudies help to define genrestudies. Moreover, in pointing out - successful or thwarted - tendencies towards a reassessment of femininity, the studies of this volume may contribute to a better understanding of the civilizing process of the medieval world.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Postclassical Arthurian Verse Romances Les romans en vers postclassiques
3
Honor Shame and Gender
26
Arthurian Literature and the Rhetoric of Effeminacy
34
Sun and Moon Constellations of Character
50
A Comparative Study of Waces Guenevere
66
Balade des demoiselles du temps jadis
79
Discours féminin et discours masculin
104
Masculin Féminin dans le Conte du Graal
160
MännlichWeiblich Bilder des Scheiterns
176
Feminine Contre diction of the Masculine
183
The Rape of Ginover
196
Nature Culture and Gender
215
La diabolisation de la sexualité dans la littérature
238
La conversion des païennes dans lEstoire del Saint Graal
251
MasculinFéminin dans le Tristan en prose
265

Hommes amoureux et femmes raisonnables
119
Erec in the Mirror The Feminization of the Self
130
Die überlistete Laudine Korrektur eines
147
Gesture and Gender in Malorys Le Morte Darthur
285
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