Sir Gawain and the Knight of the Green Chapel

by Norman Simms

Overview

Although the Middle English poem known as 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' is assumed to be a kind of comic or satirical romance deriving from the Christian courts of England in the fourteenth century, several strange features suggest a different origin and generic categorization. Renaming it Sir Gawain and the Knight of the Green Chapel initiates the defamiliarization process. This book argues that the poet and his or her milieu belong to the small and confused converso community left behind after the Jewish expulsions at the end of the thirteenth century and still wondering who they were and what their place in society might be. Such a perspective may help explain why the goal of the young Sir Gawain is not only not green or even a chapel, but also why he arrives in the Castle of Hautdesert and undergoes a totally unexpected series of ordeals and tests.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761821519
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/18/2002
Pages:	428
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.96(d)

About the Author

Norman Simms is Senior Lecturer at Waikato University, New Zealand.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Introduction
Chapter 3 From Judith to Grendel and Beyond the Pepuce: The Blood of Menstruation, Decapitation and Circumcision
Chapter 4 The Ungreen Chapel and a Bargain which is Unbinding
Chapter 5 From the Castle of Discourse to the Chapel of Repression
Chapter 6 Crypto-Jewish and Converso Contexts: The Unbearable Darkness of Being Nothing
Chapter 7 The Romance of Jewishness: Arthur, Order, and Oratia
Chapter 8 Yep, Slime, and the Green Girdle
Chapter 9 From Sanctification to Scarification of the Name: The Massacre of Innocence
Chapter 10 From Gawain's Circumcision to his Circumspection: Why this Knight is Different from All Other Knights
Chapter 11 Epilogue
Chapter 12 Index

Editorial Reviews

Simms has thought about the Middle English poem for over three decades, and laments that he has room to address only a few of its facets. Nevertheless, the reading he offers varies so radically from convention that he changes the title to alert readers. The narrator he finds is not comfortable with Christian identity, but has no wish to return to the Judaism of his or her family background. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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