Constructing Race in Arthurian Romances

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, St. Louis Univ.

Organizer Name

Evelyn Meyer

Organizer Affiliation

St. Louis Univ.

Presider Name

Deva F. Kemmis

Presider Affiliation

Goethe-Institut Washington

Paper Title 1

Is He "a Vylayne Born"? Redefining Otherness in Malory's "Gareth"

Presenter 1 Name

Vanessa Jaeger

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Binghamton Univ.

Paper Title 2

Race and the Reconciliation of the Other in Middle English Arthurian Romance

Presenter 2 Name

Chera A. Cole

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Texas Woman's Univ.

Paper Title 3

Constructing the Racial and Oriental Other in Text and Illumination in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival

Presenter 3 Name

Evelyn Meyer

Start Date

11-5-2017 3:30 PM

Session Location

Bernhard 209

Description

For far too long, race in the medieval context has been understood to be binary, biological and in juxtaposition to the white, Christian West. Arthurian Romances offer us different insights into medieval people's rich and complex understandings of race, as the genre itself lent itself to push the envelope so to speak on social issues. Racial markers are not so much about biological difference as they are about status or religion, they are individualized and racial difference is often narrativized and found to destabilize commonly believed associations with race, such as heathen, black, hell. In this session, the three speakers explore more carefully how medieval authors constructed race in their chosen Arthurian Romance(s) to offer a better, richer and more nuanced understanding of medieval notions of race and otherness.
Evelyn Meyer