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University of Alberta Representations of Identity UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA REPRESENTATIONS OF IDENTITY IN THE MIDDLE ENGLISH ROMANCES A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial Mllment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Edmonton, Alberta Spring 1997 Acquisitions and Acquisitions et BibliOgraphic sentics . services bibliogmphiques The author has gramed a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive pennettant à la Natiod Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationaie du Canada de reproduce, loan, distn'bute or seii reprodwre,p&er, àïsûibuaou copies of hismer thesis by any means vendre des copies de sa thèse de and in any form or format, making quelqpe manière et sous quelque this thesis adable to interested forme que ce soit pour mettre des persons. exemplaires de cette thèse à la disposition des personnes intéressées. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in merthesis. Neither &oit d'auteur qui protège sa thèse. Ni the thesis nor substantial extracts la ihèse ni des extraits substantiels de fiom it may be printed or otherwike celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou reproduced wïth the author's autrement reproduits sans son permission- autorisation. For my parents, with gratitude Scholars have long recognid that identity is a crucial issue in the Middle English verse romances. Most studies of identity in the romances, however, have essumed a mode1 of identity based on an autonomous, psychologized, individualized self separate fiom and opposecl to an extdworld; the few recent studies to have posited other models for identity have tended to focus on single te-, such as sir GreenKniphtin this study 1explore representations of identity in a broad swey of the Middle English romances of the thirteenth ind fourteenth centuries, defining identity as a within larger ideological spaces, or "recognitionsystems," rather than as an extension of personality. The basic narrative pattern of these te- can then be understood as a displacement of a central character or characters fiom a position of identity, and the eventual recovery of that position. The three narrative structures of displacement, disguise, and recognition, while atnmiiag the identities constructed by the recognition systems of each te- also foreground the paradoxes, tensions, and discontinuities involved in these recognition systems. Fioally, the Middle English romances, foregrouding their fictionality, dso imply that narrative itself is a recognition system, and that the patterns and structures of the romances are involved not only in the identities of their characteis but also in the identities of their readers. 1 have always found the Department of Engiish at the University of Alberta-faculty, staff?feiiow graduate students-tremendously supportive. in particular, 1 wodd like to th& the members of my supmrisory wmmittee for theu help with this pject: Gle~ Burger, whose comments challengecl me to diinL both wm bmadly and more carefully; Jim Marino, who guided me thugh the ~oriaipro@ that inspireci this thesis; and especiaiiy my supervisor, Stephen Reimer, whose advice, encouragement, reliability, and patience dethe writing of this dissertation a pleasue. Less obviously, thÏs project owes a great deai to the kindness of the many nonacadernic friends and associates who fed me, rescued me kmobscure backcountry locations, allowed me to drive large decrepit vehicles, remembend me in their prayers, and generally helped me not to take myseiftoo seriously. They know who they are. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 The Voice in the Chapel: Issues ...................................... -1 Chapter 2 The Arming of the Knight: Definitions ................................ 3 1 Chapter 3 The Woman in the Boat: Structures .................................. -56 Chapter 4 The King on the Shore: Displacement. ............................... .74 Chapter 5 The Homed Horse: Disguise ........................................ 94 Chapter 6 The Man in Red Armour: Recognition ............................... 1 1 1 Chapter 7 The Knight of the Lion: Implications ................................. 130 Cbapter 1 Tbe Voice in the Chapel: Issues "But I1m a serpent, 1tell you!" said Alice. "I'm a- Pm a-" "Weii! are you?" said the Pigeon. "1 cmsee youlre trying to invent something !"' In the fourteenth-century Middle English verse romance Yw-d Gawathe knight Ywain, despairing and alone, enters a secluded chapel in the wildemess. There he is unexpectedly questioned: Als Sir Ywayn made his maw In be chapel ay was me And herd his murnyng hdy al1 Thorgh a crevice of be wall, And sone it said with simepel chere, "What ertoy bat murnes here?" "A man," he sayd, "sumtyme 1 was. What ertow? Tel me or 1 pas." "1am," it sayd, "pe sariest wight, bat ever Wed by &y or nyght." 'Way," he said, "by Saynt Martyne, bare es na sorow mete to myne, Ne no wight so wil of wane. 1 was a man, now am 1naw." (2103-1Q2 This little exchange is one of a number of interrogations in Ywain andthat revolve around the question "What ertow?" The impetus for Ywain's adventures cornes fiom a story told by Colgrevance-iike Ywain, a knight of Arthur's court; Colgrevance ' Lewis Carroll, Alic_e's Adventures in Wonderm in The AmedAlice, ed. Martin Gardner, 2nd ed. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970) 76. Al1 quotations from YwudGawa are fiom YwabdGawaia ed. Albert B. Friedman and Norman T. Harrington, EETS 254 (London: Mord UP,1964). 2 describes his meeting with a huge and hideous churl, with whom he exchanges the question "What ertow?" Later, aAcr Ywain defeats the Knight of the Fountain, takes bis place, and defeats his compatriot Kay, mur asks Ywain the same question: "What man ertow?" (1341). Finaliy, when Ywain in disguise meets his fiiend Gawain in single combat, Gad,astonished by the fortitude of his anonymous adversary, pauses to ask "What man ertou?" (3655). The merto that question is of insistent importance in the world of -m the poem is full of mysterious threatening figures inched to fight first and ask-or answer-questions later. In Ywain's case, tw, the question "Matertow?" is sometimes difficult to mer: fbt a knight of Arthur's court, he becomes the Knight of the Fountain, returns to Arthur's court, goes mad, regains his sanity, and takes on the alias "the Knight of the Lion." Evidently identity, specifically Ywain's identity, is a fiindamentai concem of the narrative; evidently also, as Ywain's pecuiiar answer in the chapei shows, identity in Ywain ug~is not a predetennined quantity but is more oftm represented as ambiguous, indeterminate, hidden, or nonexistent. This study explores the ways in which the Middle English romances interrogate and represent identity. These te- contiaually foregromd matters of identity; aliases, disguises, recognitions, and misrecognitions form a Dgniscant portion of the apparatus of the romances. Indeeà, a preoccupation with "identity" is often cited as a primary characteristic of the medieval romances. Lee C. Ramsey's book on the Middle English romances claims that "their subject is the search for individual identity within an already established society." Edmund Reiss suggests that "the search for identity, the attempt to fhd one's self, may be what romance is actually about" Franco Carcüni disthe romance knight "a human type in search of an identity and ~e~awarenessthat elude hi~n."~These scholars, however, while insisting on the importance of "identity"to the medieval romances, nevertheless faii to explain what they mean by "identity," 0th- than connecting it with the terms "individuai" and "seif"-equaiiy problernatic terms that deserve closer scmtiny. A venerable scholarly tradition considers emphasis on "the individuai"- specifically, the pnvileging of the individual over the social-to be one of the demg characteristics of medievai romance. The mots of this tradition lie in the critical distinction between "Epic"and "Romance,"a distinction inauentidly articulated by W. P. Ker in his 1896 study Epic Rom.Epic, writes Ker, "implies some weight and solidity"; romance, on the other hand, involves "mystery and fanta~y."~Ker's association of "romance"with "mystery and fantasyN-an association perhaps more appropriate m Keats than to Malory-has been developed by later scholars to involve a distinction between epic as concerned with social, "objective"realities and romance as concemed with individual, "subjective"experience. Thus Erich Auerbach, in Mimesis. foiiows a chapter on Le Ch- de with a chapter on the chivairic romance Yvain by Chrétien de Troyes, arguing that the whist~rid-politicalelement" of the Old French epic . Lee C. Ramsey, (Bloomington: Indiana OP, 1983) 3; Edmund Reiss, "Romance," P- of &@val E- ed. Thomas J. Heffeman (Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1985) 119; Franco Cardini, "nieWarrior and the Knight," ed. Jacques Le Goff, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane condon: Collins, 1990) 9 1. W.P. Ker, wndRow (1896, rev. 1908; New York: Dover, 1957) 4. "is abandonecl by the courtly noveln and replaceci by "apersonal and absolute ideaY5 R. W. Southem follows Ker in associating this Jhift in literary sensibility with "the growth of seLf~onsciousness"and "the discovery ofthe individuai" in tweuth-century Europe; Southern surnmarizes changes in politicai thought, social organbtion, the structure of the Church, theology, education, and literature in the tweifb century in the last chapter of of the entitling that chapter "From Epic to Romance.'" . One extensive argument for this position is ROMW. Hanningts . Twm.Hanning's book concentrates on French romance, especiaiiy on the romances of Cbrétien de Troyes, and so has limited applicability to the English works; Hanning himseif takes care to note the specificity of the "cultural moment" oftwelflli-century French romance.' But his analysis is worth at least some consideration, for it articulates assumptions and categories that underlie much critical comment on subjectivity and identity in the Engiish romances. For Hanning, "chivalric romance, as it emerged in tweifth-century coiinly society, offered a literary form in which to work out the implications of individuality-implications which tweLAh-century Erich Auerbach, Mimesis.
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