Corruption of Manly Men in Late Medieval England
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM)
Organizer Name
Matthew O'Donnell
Organizer Affiliation
Indiana Univ.-Bloomington
Presider Name
Matthew O'Donnell
Paper Title 1
"He shall nat be hole longe afftir": Disabling Gawain in Le Morte Darthur
Presenter 1 Name
Kristin Bovaird-Abbo
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Northern Colorado
Paper Title 2
"Swiche Werk": Performing Masculinity in Sir Orfeo
Presenter 2 Name
Walter Wadiak
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Lafayette College
Paper Title 3
What Do Men Really Want? Desire in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Presenter 3 Name
Mickey Sweeney
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Dominican Univ.
Start Date
12-5-2018 1:30 PM
Session Location
Valley 2 Garneau Lounge
Description
Late Medieval England teems with stories of manly men doing manly things because chivalric excellence and homosocial worship was the cultural ideal; or was it? The titular characters of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight trade blows and kisses as pawns in a game masterminded by powerful women. Chaucer’s mercenary Knight brags about switching sides in battles to win extra fame and renown, while Malory’s knights tear the High Order of Knighthood apart in senseless blood feuds against one another. When even the greatest knights of late medieval legend are driven by their excessive humors and run wild into the forest, the pretense that these are paragons of excellence falls rather flat. This panel seeks papers to address these corruptions and aberrations in the behaviors of these seeming heroes and virtuous men. Papers should question the representations of masculinities in late medieval England: whether giants, eunuchs and dwarves, who represent physical alterations from a mean of bodily and moral perfection, or analysis of the behaviors of knights, heroes, and kings whose actions belie their said beliefs and corrupt their characters. How did medieval authors address the fracturing of a purportedly unified Self in late medieval England, where the ranks of aristocracy fell apart into civil war and the noble duty of chivalry descended into bastard feudal mercenary loyalties? With knighthood increasingly out of reach for the wider gentry and a burgeoning middle class of tradesmen upsetting the privilege of noble ownership of land and people after the Great Mortality, what were the consequences for images of masculinity in the popular imagination?
Alison (Ganze) Langdon
Corruption of Manly Men in Late Medieval England
Valley 2 Garneau Lounge
Late Medieval England teems with stories of manly men doing manly things because chivalric excellence and homosocial worship was the cultural ideal; or was it? The titular characters of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight trade blows and kisses as pawns in a game masterminded by powerful women. Chaucer’s mercenary Knight brags about switching sides in battles to win extra fame and renown, while Malory’s knights tear the High Order of Knighthood apart in senseless blood feuds against one another. When even the greatest knights of late medieval legend are driven by their excessive humors and run wild into the forest, the pretense that these are paragons of excellence falls rather flat. This panel seeks papers to address these corruptions and aberrations in the behaviors of these seeming heroes and virtuous men. Papers should question the representations of masculinities in late medieval England: whether giants, eunuchs and dwarves, who represent physical alterations from a mean of bodily and moral perfection, or analysis of the behaviors of knights, heroes, and kings whose actions belie their said beliefs and corrupt their characters. How did medieval authors address the fracturing of a purportedly unified Self in late medieval England, where the ranks of aristocracy fell apart into civil war and the noble duty of chivalry descended into bastard feudal mercenary loyalties? With knighthood increasingly out of reach for the wider gentry and a burgeoning middle class of tradesmen upsetting the privilege of noble ownership of land and people after the Great Mortality, what were the consequences for images of masculinity in the popular imagination?
Alison (Ganze) Langdon