IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 729: Renewing and Reforming Chivalry in Arthurian Texts

Tuesday 7 July 2015, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	British Branch, International Arthurian Society
Organiser:	Sheri Chriqui, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London
Moderator/Chair:	Rebecca Lyons, Department of English, University of Bristol
Paper 729-a	Collective Chivalry: The Politics of Masculinity in 'Geraint fab Erbin' (Language: English) Kit Kapphahn, Adran y Gymraeg, Prifysgol Aberystwyth Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Celtic, Language and Literature - Middle English
Paper 729-b	The Affirmation of Chivalric Worth in the Death of Gawain (Language: English) Mary Michele Poellinger, Deparment of English, University of Leeds Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English
Paper 729-c	Heraldry, Henry VIII, and King Arthur: An Inquiry into Chivalric Self-Fashioning (Language: English) Sheri Chriqui, Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London Index terms: Gender Studies, Heraldry, Language and Literature - Middle English
Abstract	Knighthood's homosocial chivalric ideologies are often communicated in medieval texts within an Arthurian framework. An individual knight's prowess, his body, and the signifiers of his character displayed on his body reflect social attitudes towards the masculine ideal and the deliberate affirmation or reformation of a specific type of chivalric identity. This panel explores how the masculinities performed by Geraint, Gawain, and Arthur express broader social and political ambiguities, illuminating a need for reforming ideas of chivalry, for dealing with the changing status of chivalry, and for renewing chivalry as a connection to the past as well as a means of moving forward.