Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Women of Words in Le Morte Darthur: The Autonomy of Speech in Malory's Female Characters

Women of Words in Le Morte Darthur: The Autonomy of Speech in Malory's Female Characters

Wyatt, Siobhán M.

Hardcover

Series: Arthurian and Courtly Cultures

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 3319342037
ISBN13: 9783319342030
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: Oct 13 2016
Pages: 203
Weight: 0.86
Height: 0.70 Width: 6.16 Depth: 8.72
Language: English
Offering a new reading of Malory's famed text, Le Morte Darthur, this book provides the first full-length survey of the alterations Malory made to female characters in his source texts. Through detailed comparisons with both Old French and Middle English material, Siobhán M. Wyatt discusses how Malory radically altered his French and English source texts to create a gendered pattern in the reliability of speech, depicting female discourse as valuable and truthful. Malory's authorial crafting indicates his preference for a certain type of female character: self-governing, opinionated, and strong. Simultaneously, the portrayal of this very readable type yields characterization. While late medieval court records indicate an increasingly negative attitude towards female speech and a tendency to punish vociferous women as scolds, Malory makes the words of chiding damsels constructive. While his contemporary writers suppress the powers of magical women, Malory empowers his enchantress characters; while the authors of his French source texts accentuate Guinevere's flaws, Malory portrays her with sympathy.

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