A Glossing of Arthuriana

Haught, Leah. "Gender and Genre in The Awntyrs off Arthure." Arthuriana 20.1, 2010. 3-19.

The author is currently writing a dissertation on discourses of failure in late medieval Arthurian romance, a topic that intrigues me. The focus of this piece is on the first part of the poem, where Guenevere talks to the ghost of her mother. Gawain is also present. The ghost prophesies Arthur and Guenevere's fall, but the method of transmission (a female voice) gets silenced and subdued all the more easily because of what it is, as each figure chooses to live obliviously. The point is a little unclear - she does not seem to be completely sure what historical point is being inevitably affirmed here - that we see the fall coming but fall into it anyway?

Otherwise, well-written, takes note of the intertextuality linking it. Good fun.

(Also, Helen Cooper's article in the same volume is good, if brief. See p. 90-95-ish, where she explains and analyzes the differences between editions of Malory for the student and scholar. The Norton edition comes out as the most accessible overall, but Vinaver/Field is more comprehensive, and Armstrong's is perhaps more accessible to the introductory student.)

And in 20.2, a couple of interesting book reviews, including one for Sian Echard, Printing the Middle Ages, about the post-medieval trajectory of printed facsimiles of medieval text, and the desire to print these even when the audience seems otherwise obscure.