ABSTRACT
This collection provides an innovative and wide-ranging introduction to the world of Arthur by looking beyond the canonical texts and themes, taking instead a transversal perspective on the Arthurian narrative. Together, its thirty-four chapters explore the continuities that make the material recognizable from one century to another, as well as transformations specific to particular times and places, revealing the astonishing variety of adaptations that have made the Arthurian story popular in large parts of the world.
Divided into four parts—The World of Arthur in the British Isles, The European World of Arthur, The Material World of Arthur, and The Transversal World of Arthur — the volume tracks the legend’s movement across temporal, geographical, and material boundaries. Broadly chronological, each part views the unfolding Arthurian story through its own lens, while temporal and geographical overlaps between the sections underscore the proximity of these developments in the legend’s history.
Ranging from early Latin chronicles and Welsh poetry to twenty-first century anime and political conspiracies, this comprehensive and illuminating book will be of interest to anyone researching Arthurian literature or tracing the evolution of medievalism through literature, the visual arts, and popular culture.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|158 pages
The World of Arthur in the British Isles
chapter Chapter Two|14 pages
The Invention of Arthurian Britain
chapter Chapter Seven|17 pages
The Arthurian Legends in the Sixteenth Century
chapter Chapter Eight|18 pages
“What's Past is Prologue”
chapter Chapter Nine|15 pages
Victorian Medievalisms
chapter Chapter Ten|18 pages
Staging Guenevere's Maternity in Richard Hovey's The Marriage of Guenevere and The Birth of Galahad
part II|127 pages
The European World of Arthur
chapter Chapter Thirteen|16 pages
No Country for Young Men
chapter Chapter Fourteen|14 pages
A Not-So-Unique Text
chapter Chapter Sixteen|18 pages
No Knights, No England, No Arthur
chapter Chapter Seventeen|18 pages
Guiron Le Courtois Across Borders
chapter Chapter Eighteen|16 pages
Optical Illusion, Illusory Objects, and the Quest of the Holy Grail in the Vulgate Queste Del Saint Graal and Perlesvaus
part III|120 pages
The Material World of Arthur
chapter Chapter Twenty|22 pages
Sir Palamedes, the Indelibly “Saracen” Knight
chapter Chapter Twenty-One|15 pages
Minding the Gaps
chapter Chapter Twenty-Two|20 pages
Arthurian Imagination in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Art
chapter Chapter Twenty-Five|16 pages
A Grave Discovery?
part IV|135 pages
The Transversal World of Arthur