Between Past(s) and Future(s): Translating the Space of Appearance in Middle English Arthurian Literature

Abstract

The genre of Arthurian literature is defined by its presentation of a noble society of knights and ladies, most often utilized in literary texts as a kind of medieval shorthand for acceptable social behavior, perhaps especially in aristocratic settings. Knighthood is configured most often in French-language literature of the “twelfth-century renaissance” as an aspirational masculine social identity, an office ordained by God for the elite class. When that literature was translated into Middle English in the following centuries, however, the different social functions and expectations of literary chivalry in England provided a distinct terroir in which it might grow, producing narratives with a courtly cast for a decidedly broader audience, an audience perhaps far removed from the literal offices of king and knight. Arthur’s knights in Middle English literature thus often embody a more generalized ethos, but the imaginary space of Arthurian Britain ensures that its specular capacity for social commentary and the stimulation of aspirational identity remains intact, even when the practicable nobility of Arthur’s court does not necessarily cohere across texts and traditions.