New and fresh assessments of Malory'sMorte Darthur.

New and fresh assessments of Malory's Morte Darthur.

The essays here are devoted to that seminal Arthurian work, Sir Thomas Malory'sLe 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.

Contributors: Joyce Coleman, Elizabeth Edwards, Kristina Hildebrand, Cathy Hume, David F. Johnson, Megan Leitch, Andrew Lynch, Molly A. Martin, Cory James Rushton, † Fiona Tolhurst, Michael W. Twomey

Introduction: The Tournament at Mapplemalleoré: Malory at 550
Cory James Rushton
1. Malory and the Stock Phrase
Joyce Coleman
2. The Artistry of Malory's Mercantile Metaphors: Good, Generosity, and the Source of 'The Tale of Sir Gareth'
Megan G. Leitch
3. 'A grete bourder and a passynge good night': Sir Dinadan: 'Gareth with a Twist'
David F. Johnson
4. Moonlight in the Nocturnal Typology of Malory'sMorte Darthur
Michael W. Twomey
5. 'That shall nat ye know for me as at nighty': Cognitive Narratology and Filling Malory's Gaps
Cathy Hume
6. 'On a tyme': Action and Temporality in Malory's 'Sankgreal'
Andrew Lynch
7. Hospitality in Malory
Elizabeth Edwards
8. The Haunting of the Orkneys and Malory's Arthurian Project
Molly A. Martin
9. 'I love nat to be constreyned to love': Launcelot and Coerced Sex
Kristina Hildebrand
10. Eradicating Victorian Backreading: Re-reading Malory's Gwenyvere through Gaynour and Isode
Fiona Tolhurst