M.A. (Margaret) Finlay

Gawain of England: Chivalry, Nationalism, and Geopolitics in Medieval Literature

This project analyses the Middle English Gawain romances produced c.1350-1475, that is, during the Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses. Although more romance texts were written in Middle English about Gawain than any other Arthurian figure, there has been no sustained study of the reasons for this, or of the cultural work these Gawain romances perform. Using a historicist approach to my study of Gawain, I consider the political context and worldview of writers and audiences during the period in which these romances were composed and circulated. I aim to show that, and analyse the ways in which, Gawain’s rise and fall as a hero of Arthur’s court during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is related to the contemporary political climate and cultural zeitgeist of England during its long war with France.

Supervisors:

Prof. Dr M. G. Leitch (Professor of Medieval English Literature and Culture)

Dr P. J. Outhwaite (Assistant Professor of Medieval English Literature and Culture)