Boydell Press Arthurian Literature XXVIII: Blood, Sex, Malory: Essays on the Morte Darthur

Sex, blood, and gender have diverse associations in the Malorian tradition, yet their inter-relatedness and intersections are comparatively understudied. This present collection of essays is intended to go some way toward remedying the need for a sustained examination of blood ties, kinship, gender, and sexuality, and the prominence of these themes in Malory's work. They concentrate in particular upon the analyses of sexuality and sexual activity (and its lack or erasure) and the significance of blood (and blood-shedding) in the Morte Darthur, as well as the interconnections with gender (biological sex) and familial ("blood") relations in the Morte, its sources and its later reworkings. The result is a wide-ranging investigation into related but distinctive thematic preoccupations, including the national and kinship affiliations of Malorian knights, sibling relationships, deviant sexuality, and blood-spilling in martial and intimate contexts. Contributors: Christina Francis, Megan G. Leitch, Helen Phillips, Carolyne Larrington, Lydia A. Fletcher, Kate McClune, Sally Mapstone, Caitlyn Schwartz, Maria Sachiko Cecire, Anna Caughey, Catherine LaFarge Review Open[s] up several new avenues for further research [and] succeeds in bringing to the forefront of Malory criticism a series of interesting, challenging, and fresh contributions, which will spark off new debates. ANGLIA, 2013, 131 (1) [A] lively and coherent collection, in which any scholar of these topics is bound to find several articles of interest. TLS [A]n interesting collection, in places corroborating recent scholarly work on the Morte Darthur [...], in places building on existing paradigms, and in a few places pointing us in new directions. THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW About the Author CAROLYNE LARRINGTON is Professor of Medieval European Literature at Oxford University and Official Fellow in Medieval English Literature at St John's College, Oxford. MEGAN G. LEITCH is is Reader in English Literature at Cardiff University, Wales.