Sunday, November 22, 2009

New Book--The Arthurian Way of Death

Out now from D. S. Brewer:

The Arthurian Way of Death
The English Tradition
Edited by Karen Cherewatuk
Edited by K. S. Whetter

It is arguably the tragic end to Arthur's kingdom which gives the myth its exceptional resonance and power. The essays in this volume explore the presentation of death and dying in Arthurian literature and film produced in England and America from the middle ages to the modern day. Authors, texts and topics covered include Geoffrey of Monmouth, the chronicle tradition, and the alliterative Morte Arthure; Gawain and the Green Knight, Ywain and Gawain, the stanzaic Morte Arthur, and Malory's Morte Darthur; Tennyson's Idylls, Pyle's retelling of the myth for American children, David Jones, T.H. White, Donald Barthelme, Rosalind Miles and Parke Godwin. Featured films include Knight Rider, Excalibur, First Knight, and King Arthur.

CONTRIBUTORS: Sian Echard, Edward Donald Kennedy, Karen Cherewatuk, Michael W. Twomey, K. S. Whetter, Thomas Crofts, Michael Wenthe, Lisa Robeson, Cory James Rushton, Janina P. Traxler, James Noble, Julie Nelson Couch, Samantha Rayner, Kevin J. Harty.

Contents
Introduction
Karen Cherewatuk and Kevin S Whetter
1 'But here Geoffrey falls silent': Death, Arthur, and the Historia regum Britannie
Sian Echard
2 Mordred's Sons
Edward Donald Kennedy
3 Dying in Uncle Arthur's Arms and at His Hands
Karen Cherewatuk
4 'Hadet with an aluisch mon' and 'britned to noght': Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Death, and the Devil
Michael W. Twomey
5 Love and Death in Arthurian Romance
Kevin S Whetter
6 Death in the Margins: Dying and Scribal Performance in the Winchester Manuscript
Thomas Howard Crofts
7 The Legible Corpses of Le Morte Darthur
Michael Wenthe
8 Malory and the Death of Kings: The Politics of Regicide at Salisbury Plain
Lisa Robeson
9 Layde to the Colde Erthe: Death, Arthur's Knights, and Narrative Closure
Cory Rushton
10 Arthurian Exits: Alone, Together, or None of the Above
Janina P Traxler
11 Woman as Agent of Death in Tennyson's Idylls of the King
James Noble
12 Death as 'Neglect of Duty' in Howard Pyle's The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur
Julie Nelson Couch
13 Death and the 'grimly voice' in David Jones's In Parenthesis
Samantha J. Rayner
14 Roll the Final Credits: Some Notes on Cinematic Depictions of the Death of Arthur
Kevin J Harty