| Abstract | Paper -a:
'Identity is all-important in the Malorian world', Dhira Mahoney writes. And yet anonymous damsels proliferate and shape the Morte just as much as named women like Guinevere and Morgan le Fay do. Geraldine Heng has noted that in Malory, because the female is read as adjunctive, 'a specifically feminine point of view in the work is never fully recovered, but remains only an inchoate potential' (836). While Geraldine Heng and other scholars have recovered a portion of the feminine subtext of Le Morte Darthur by exploring named Arthurian women, the many nameless females who inhabit Malory's text have not received the same extensive treatment. These anonymous women may sometimes seem to fade into the background or blend frustratingly together but they are not insignificant players. Their incessant repetition asserts their importance to the text as a whole. Yet their namelessness raises fundamental questions regarding the relation between those in the text who are named and those who are not. To be unnamed is frequently equated negatively with being unknown, undefined, de-individualized – powerless. And yet, despite their anonymous status, considered together, the nameless women in the Morte Darthur play an important role in shaping the affairs of their world, and are by no means powerless. Rather, they display unique powers, which named Arthurian women may never possess. Alongside the named women of the Arthurian realm, the presence of numerous nameless women contributes significantly to the feminine subtext that other scholars have already identified.
Paper -b:
The depiction of Gawain in Malory's Morte Darthur is commonly regarded as an ignoble and vicious character out of harmony with the virtue of Camelot. Rather than this simplistic evaluation, I propose that Gawain is in accord with the requirements of an alternative warrior code existing in parallel to the code of chivalry. This alternative heroic ideal is related to Gawain's position as Arthur's sister's son: a significant relationship that is commonly depicted in heroic verse. When the evidence is examined it becomes apparent that Gawain is operating within the demands of an alternative warrior code and is not the villain he first appears to be.
Paper-c:
Although the character of Lunet(te) has drawn plenty of scholarly attention, both in relation to the 14th century Middle English Ywain and Gawain and its French antecedent Le Chevalier au Lion, little scholarship has been devoted to the particular dynamics of Lunet's relationship with Ywain. This paper will argue that their friendship functions as a model of a heterosocial friendship which is neither amorous nor familial: Lunet is never construed as an eligible love object for Ywain, but they share common goals and a bond of reciprocal loyalty. Through comparisons to Chrétien de Troyes' original, I will argue that the Middle English redactor uses the relationship between Ywain and Lunet as a model of trawth, and sets this friendship up as a standard by which male homosociality and heterosexual bonds can be measured.
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