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The Aging Female Body, Social Monstrosity, and the Power Of “THAT PRATY, FOWLLE DAMESELLE:” THE AGING FEMALE BODY, SOCIAL MONSTROSITY, AND THE POWER OF CHIVALRY IN THE WEDDING OF SIR GAWAIN AND DAME RAGNELLE. by Natalie Williams-Munger A thesis submitted to Sonoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in English --------------------------------------------- Sherril Jaffe, Chair --------------------------------------------- Dr. Brantley L. Bryant --------------------------------------------- Dr. Anne Goldman --------------------------------------------- Date Copyright 2011 by Natalie Williams-Munger AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER'S THESIS/PROJECT I grant permission for the reproduction of parts of this thesis without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorb the cost and provide proper acknowledgment of authorship. Permission to reproduce this thesis in its entirety must be obtained from me. I do not approve the reproduction of this thesis [project], either in part or in its entirety. DATE: ------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- - Signature "THAT PRATY, FOWLLE DAMSELLE:" THE AGING FEMALE BODY, SOCIAL MONSTROSITY, AND THE POWER OF CHNALRY IN THE WEDDING OFSIR GAWAIN AND DAME RAGNELLE. Thesis by Natalie Williams-Munger ABSTRACT The genre ofmedieval romance has often been written-off as "escapist" by scholars, who argue that these texts which are fantastical, humorous, and imaginative are not reflections ofactual medieval life. However, this thesis asserts that romances are accurate representations ofmedieval culture, as they explore and contest the social boundaries and forces which construct their world, albeit in a playful and creative manner. One such exploration can be seen in the figure ofthe loathly lady, who has long since permeated the mind of the scholar; she is elusive, changeable, and subversive, often hijacking the narrative energy ofthe text in which she resides. And while she has long been regarded as an important literary figure by medieval scholars, this thesis examines the extent to which the loathly lady is made monstrous in the romance The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. This paper suggests that Dame Ragnelle is the embodiment of what can be called "the social monster," a figure marked by two things: the appearance ofan "other" and culturally subversive behavior. Ragnelle's monstrosity results from her socially transgressive actions in a patriarchally-dominated court, and by her magically-imposed aging body, which is made into something ofmarvel and derision by the text. At times, Ragnelle's appearance is in itself an act oftransgression, which reveals the extent to which female roles were extremely limited within the world of romance: the more she contests societal norms, the more monstrous she becomes. By highlighting the principles of romance and medieval beliefs concerning the aging female body, and through a close-reading ofRagnelle's form, this paper argues that as a social monster Ragnelle defies categorization and exists outside the bounds of proper social and gender behavior. Through a discussion ofRagnelle's final narrative fate this paper also argues that as a social monster, Ragnelle reveals the guiding force behind the romance narrative: Chivalry. In this text chivalry is put forth as both a micro and macro force capable of righting great wrongs and suppressing figures who threaten its authority. Thus when we examine the loathly lady, we are really examining the great narrative and societal power ofchivalry, which continues to influence our culture today. Chair: Brantley Bryant Signature MA Program: English Date: ___~+-II--{_5/,--il____ Sonoma State University IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people I would like to thank for help in completing this thesis; without them this project would not have been possible. I have to first thank my thesis advisor and chair Dr. Brantley L. Bryant, whose class on Medieval Monsters sparked the idea for this thesis and led me into a world of research that I might never have come upon myself. I am truly grateful for all of Dr. Bryant’s helpful comments, suggestions for research, and hard work during all the various steps of this process. I also must thank my second reader Dr. Anne Goldman, who has provided much-needed prospective to my work and has supported my work during my last two years at Sonoma State. I would also like to thank my family and friends for all their encouragement and patience – especially in putting up with my discussions of medieval literature for so long. To those whom have lived with me during the thesis-writing process, I give an extra-large thanks. To my Mother, who has always understood what I was doing in grad school and why it was a worthy task, this is for you. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. Introduction: Bringing the loathly lady into monster studies 1 Recent Scholarship 8 II. The Genre of Romance: Principles and principals 12 Principles of Romance 17 Principals: Gawain as the embodiment of chivalry 20 Women in Romance 26 III. Dame Ragnelle, The Vetula 30 Ragnelle and Animal Imagery 34 Beliefs and Images of Old Age 38 Medieval Attitudes Towards the Aging Female Body 47 IV. The Lady is a Monster 57 Ragnelle and Society 62 Ragnelle’s Transformation 69 V. Conclusion: Endings 75 Pretty Woman? 78 Works Cited 82 Williams-Munger 1 Chapter I: Introduction: Bringing the loathly lady into monster studies One might begin to rationalize the pursuit of monster-studies by reiterating Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s compelling phrase, “We live in an age of monsters.” 1 However, contained in this phrase is a sense of contemporality, and while monster studies have gone in and out of vogue, humans have never lived in an age which did not contain monsters. The further one delves into history and literature, the more it seems that society has never existed, and perhaps could not exist without the uneasy companionship of its monstrous counterparts. Therefore through Cohen’s expressed desire to create a “new modus legendi: a method of reading cultures from the monsters they engender,” we may not only study these cultures, but also explore how the existence of the monsters did, in turn, “engender” the cultures around them. 2 When we expand our understanding of what monstrosity is and who monsters are, we are able to see how culture inevitably manifests monsters out of everyday occurrence and familiarity. Therefore we may also expand our examination of texts to include those which do not contain monsters in the traditional sense – though that is in itself a contradiction, for the majority of texts contain monsters in one way or another, whether they are presented as fire-breathing dragons or treacherous villains. While each literary period has its own trend of monstrous exhibition (as today the romanticized vampire and werewolf are enjoying a particularly intense revival in the popular Twilight novels and in the series True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Being Human, and so on) when we turn to the study of medieval literature we come upon a textual world rich with archetypal and archetype- 1 Cohen 3. Cohen’s book Monster Theory is a key text of modern monster-studies, as it uses monsters to understand the culture which created them. Cohen argues that the monster’s body is a cultural body, thus bringing new light to what we might call medieval cultural studies. 2 Cohen 3. Williams-Munger 2 betraying characters. Though it is a common move in medieval scholarship to focus on creatures which are undeniably-monstrous, such as Beowulf’s Grendel, or Dante’s Cerberus,3 I would like to turn your attention to those characters which may not at first glance appear to be monsters, but are made thus by the texts in which they exist: specifically, the loathly lady (Ragnelle) as seen in The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, whose aging body fails to form proper corporeal boundaries. 4 The loathly lady has recently became a popular object of study, as more and more scholars recognize the unique position she holds within her text; a position that confronts not only medieval notions of culture, but of gender and power as well. While the simplest definition of a loathly lady would be a woman that is old and ugly, there are many variations on this theme: some are magical or under a spell, some are truly old or actually young, some have special knowledge or power, and some are well-known Arthurian figures in disguise. As S. Elizabeth Passmore and Susan Carter argue in the introduction to the recently-published The English “Loathly Lady” Tales, a book which is built around close examinations of different loathly lady tales, it is a worthwhile effort to promote the 3 J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” is an excellent example of this kind of scholarship which argues for the importance and significance of monsters and other fantastic elements within a work of fiction. 4 The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle survives in one manuscript: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS 11951 (formerly Rawlinson C.86). It is dated sixteenth-century and has been described by Madden in 1839 as being “very carelessly written.” It is unclear whether certain words are ended up a flourish or with an indication of an unstressed –e, and the i and y are often indistinguishable, which has made it difficult for different editions to choose the correct spellings. Capitalization and punctuation are also added by each editor. While The Wedding appears without stanza breaks in the manuscript, there is a clear tail-rhyme scheme similar to many other Middle English romances. However there are also a great number of individual lines in the original, therefore stanza divisions are irregular and often uneven. There is at least one missing leaf after line 628, but it does not impede with the movement of the plot (Hahn, TEAMS introduction) I have standardized the spelling here for clarity; the edition used is The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle (also called The Weddyne of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnelle for Helpyng Kyng Arthoure.
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