Description
Book SynopsisSex, blood, and gender have diverse associations in the Malorian tradition, yet their inter-relatedness and intersections are comparatively understudied. This present collection of essays is intended to go some way toward remedying the need for a sustained examination of blood ties, kinship, gender, and sexuality, and the prominence of these themes in Malory's work. They concentrate in particular upon the analyses of sexuality and sexual activity (and itslack or erasure) and the significance of blood (and blood-shedding) in the Morte Darthur, as well as the interconnections with gender (biological sex) and familial ("blood") relations in the Morte, its sources and its later reworkings. The result is a wide-ranging investigation into related but distinctive thematic preoccupations, including the national and kinship affiliations of Malorian knights, sibling relationships, deviant sexuality, and blood-spilling in martial and intimate contexts. Contributors: Christina Francis, Megan G. Leitch, Helen Phillips, Carolyne Larrington, Lydia A. Fletcher, Kate McClune, Sally Mapstone, Caitlyn Schwartz, Maria SachikoCecire, Anna Caughey, Catherine LaFarge
Trade ReviewOpen[s] up several new avenues for further research [and] succeeds in bringing to the forefront of Malory criticism a series of interesting, challenging, and fresh contributions, which will spark off new debates. * ANGLIA, 2013, 131 (1) *
[A] lively and coherent collection, in which any scholar of these topics is bound to find several articles of interest. * TLS *
[A]n interesting collection, in places corroborating recent scholarly work on the Morte Darthur [...], in places building on existing paradigms, and in a few places pointing us in new directions. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *
Table of ContentsPreface Reading Malory's Bloody Bedrooms - Christina Francis [Dis]Figuring Transgressive Desire: Blood, Sex, and Stained Sheets in Malory's Morte Darthur - Megan G. Leitch Bewmaynes: The Threat from the Kitchen - Helen Phillips Sibling Relations in Malory's Morte Darthur - Carolyne Larrington 'Traytoures' and 'Treson': the Language of Treason in the Works of Sir Thomas Malory - Lydia A. Fletcher 'The Vengeaunce of My Brethirne': Blood Ties in Malory's Morte Darthur - Kate McClune Malory and the Scots - Sally Mapstone Blood, Faith and Saracens in 'The Book of Sir Tristram' - Caitlyn Schwartz Barriers Unbroken: Sir Palomydes the Saracen in 'The Book of Sir Tristram' - Maria Sachiko Cecire Virginity, Sexuality, Repression and Return in the 'Tale of the Sankgreal' - Anna Caughey Launcelot in Compromising Positions: Fabliau in Malory's 'Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake' - Catherine La LaFarge
