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Medieval Romance, Fanfiction, and the Erotics of Shame

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Medieval Romance, Fanfiction, and the Erotics of Shame MEDIEVAL ROMANCE, FANFICTION, AND THE EROTICS OF SHAME _______________________________ A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Of Doctor of Philosophy _________________________________________ By MEGAN B. ABRAHAMSON Dr. Lee Manion, Dissertation Supervisor MAY 2020 © Copyright by Megan B. Abrahamson 2020 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the Associate Vice Chancellor of the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, have examined the dissertation entitled MEDIEVAL ROMANCE, FANFICTION, AND THE EROTICS OF SHAME presented by Megan B. Abrahamson, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. ________________________________________________ Professor Lee Manion ________________________________________________ Professor Emma Lipton ________________________________________________ Professor Johanna Kramer ________________________________________________ Professor Lois Huneycutt ________________________________________________ Professor Robin Anne Reid, Texas A&M University – Commerce This dissertation is dedicated in memory of my parents, who would have been both embarrassed by and very proud of my work. Abrahamson ii Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been possible without the dedicated personal and scholarly investment of my committee, Professors Lee Manion, Emma Lipton, Johanna Kramer, Lois Huneycutt, and Robin Anne Reid. Their rigorous attention to several iterations of this project have been and continue to be invaluable. I would also like to thank the English Department chaired by Alexandra Socarides, the English Graduate Student Association, the Medieval and Renaissance Society, the Campus Writing Program, Graduate and Professional Council, and the Coalition of Graduate Workers for supporting and enriching my experience at the University of Missouri. Others at the University of Missouri I additionally want to thank by name are Anne Barker, Paula Fleming, Cheryl Hall, Becca Hayes, Steve Karian, Bill Kerwin, Amy Lanin, Kimberly Moeller, Megan Moore, Anne Myers, Vickie Thorp, Penny Smith-Paris, and Anne Stanton. I also want to extend gratitude to my Master’s and undergraduate university and faculty, including the Department of English Language and Literatures, the Honors College, the Medieval Studies Student Association and Hobbit Society at the University of New Mexico. I especially want to thank the faculty that were and continue to be so supportive there, both of me and their current students: Professors Leslie Donovan, Timothy Graham, and Anita Obermeier. A dissertation cannot be written without the support of friends, and I want to thank first my Columbia friends who became my family in less than five years: Heather and Benjamin Asbeck, Elise Broaddus, Connor Campbell, David Coon (and the Guardians of Greenest), Kate Harlin, Amanda Kenney, Travis Knapp, Ruth Knezevich, McKie Peck, Becky Pelky, Shelby Preston, Brittany Rancour, Eric Scott, and Nicole Songstad. Thank Abrahamson iii you also to my friends in fandom, who became “real” friends even before they let me know their real names: Maria-Elisabeth Bruckl, Amy Moore, Kjerstin Spark-Hall, Yvonne Stubbington, Max Sturtevant, and Kathryn Whitesel. Finally, I want to thank my “IRL” friends who loved me and believed in me: Rachel Briggs, Dusty Brooks, Lynne Darga, Caitlin Eubank, Nyssa Gilkey, Shannyn Jordan, Justin Larsen, Natascha Lühr, Cait Rottler, and Jamie Warren. This dissertation could not have been done without the backing of a loving family, so thanks to all the Abrahamsons and all the Gunns (and all offshoots)! Thanks especially to my brother Nate and sister Bethany for being nerdy, valuing education and intellectual pursuits, and sometimes (okay, always) literally supporting me through graduate school. Thanks for “getting” what I was doing, and thanks for feeding my rabbit while I was away! A final thank you goes out to my academic sister, “my dearest, Emilee Howland,” the Lancelot to my Gawain. Abrahamson iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... ii Table of Figures ................................................................................................................. vi Abstract ............................................................................................................................. vii Introduction: Medieval Romance and Fanfiction Sharing a Bed.........................................1 Chapter 1. Feminine Erotics: What Loathly Ladies Want in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale and The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle ........................................25 Loathly Lady Tales Fandom ............................................................................. 26 Female Fan Desire in Fan Studies and Medieval Studies ................................. 35 Alisoun and Ragnelle’s Tactics of Shame ........................................................ 47 Loathliness as Fandom Avatar .......................................................................... 62 Conclusion: The Transformative Potential of Fandom ..................................... 68 Chapter 2. Queer Erotics: Slash Fanfiction Practice in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Prose Lancelot .....................................................................................................70 Queer Theory and Slash Practice ...................................................................... 76 “The Company of Such an Excellent Knight” .................................................. 91 “Now I Know Well Your Kisses” ................................................................... 108 Conclusion: A Slashed Space ......................................................................... 127 Chapter 3. Masculine Erotics: Violence, Vulnerability, and “Hurt/Comfort” Fanfiction in the Stanzaic Guy of Warwick and the Alliterative Morte Arthure ...................................129 Abrahamson v Hurt/Comfort and the Reduction of Aesthetic Distance ................................. 134 Constructing Men and De-emphasizing Women: Fanfiction’s Homosociality ..................................................................................................................................... 148 “The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known”: Guy and Tirry ............................ 162 Gawain and the “Hurt” Body as Text ............................................................. 171 Conclusion: A Theory of Hurt/Comfort Hermeneutics .................................. 180 Chapter 4. Erotics of Kink: BDSM Fanfiction and the Rules of Fin Amor in Marie de France and Malory ...........................................................................................................184 Kinky Fantasy in Medieval Romance ............................................................. 194 The Rules of Courtly Love as BDSM Scene .................................................. 200 Sexy Only in a Fantasy Context...................................................................... 217 Conclusion: Humiliation Kink as Liberation from Shame ............................. 227 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................232 Figures..............................................................................................................................237 Works Cited .....................................................................................................................241 VITA ................................................................................................................................266 Abrahamson vi Table of Figures Figure 1. “Tags.” Screenshot. ..........................................................................................237 Figure 2. (this-too-too-sullied-flesh). Screenshot. ...........................................................237 Figure 3. Stitch. Screenshot. ............................................................................................238 Figure 4. “Aristotle Ridden by Phyllis.” ..........................................................................239 Figure 5. “Box with Aristotle and Phyllis.” .....................................................................240 Figure 6. “Box with Aristotle and Phyllis.” .....................................................................240 Abrahamson vii Abstract My dissertation uses fan studies theories of fanfiction to reframe later medieval romances as works that were not only reread and rewritten, but transformed through affective reading and rewriting strategies, especially through desire and shame. I explore the erotics of shame through fanfiction tropes seen in a variety of canonical and non- canonical medieval romances, both Arthurian and otherwise, from the twelfth century to the fifteenth. I use elements that function as major motifs in fanfiction, in spite or even because of their embarrassing nature, including fanfiction’s predominantly female authorship and its catering to queer desires, the prevalence of male/male romantic storylines (slash), the focus on rendering male bodies vulnerable through hurt and comfort, and fanfiction’s embrace of a variety of erotic kinks which may remain fantasy desires only.
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