Document Type
Article
Peer Reviewed
1
DOI
10.17077/1536-8742.2215
Access Restrictions
Full text restricted to subscribers.
Abstract
In the Brut narratives of medieval historiography, male heroic success and specifically the birth of Arthur are predicated upon the rape of Igerna. A comparative approach to the Tintagel episode across several of these narratives reveals how the emphasis on romance, magic, and nation-building function to validate sexual assault and elide Igerna’s experience. Ultimately, the repetition entailed in translatio studii, specifically the transfer that takes place within history-writing, reinforces the silencing of the survivor’s voice. This repetition lends trauma to the reading experience or creates the risk that readers become inured to the rape.
Keywords
Romance; King Arthur; raptus; Tintagel; Igerna; Uther Pendragon; rape; trauma; historiography; genealogy; prophecy
Rights Information
Copyright © 2021 Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship
Recommended Citation
Adler, Gillian "“Writing History, Writing Trauma” : The Rape of Igerna in the Medieval Brut Narratives." Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality 56, No. 2 (2021) : 48-72.
Included in
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Medieval History Commons, Medieval Studies Commons
