CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Yankelevich, Kaila |
|---|---|
| Title | The Knight of the Bear, the Knight of the Lion: A Comparative Approach to Early Arthurian Romance |
| Summary | In medieval literature, animals could play different roles, often being an expression of a specific view on the world, or of the connection of humans with the otherness that nature represents. In Arthurian romance, a genre in which the search for the identity of the male hero is a central theme, animals appear as a tool for shaping the identity of both the main character and the antagonist. This thesis explores the use of lions and bears, two interrelated animals in both biblical and bestiary traditions, for the shaping of the identity of heroes and antagonists of early French Arthurian romance. I focus on them when they appear as companions to a knight, this is, specific cases in which nature is subordinated to a male character. For understanding the symbolism that these two animals carry into the romance and that they project onto the human characters, I examine other discourses that were in circulation in the same cultural context as the Arthurian texts, such as the Bible and the Bestiary. This study is, therefore, synchronic, since it compares the role of bears with that of lions, and diachronic, as it examines the differences between portrayals of animals in French romances from the twelfth to the thirteenth century. |
| Supervisor | Jaritz, Gerhard; Choyke, Alice |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/yankelevich_kaila.pdf |
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