The knight without the sword
Subtitle: a social landscape of Malorian chivalry
By: Hyonjin Kim.
Series: Arthurian studies,; 45
Publisher: D.S. Brewer
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 155
Subjects: Malory, Thomas, Sir, 15th cent.; Aristocracy (Social class) -- England -- History -- To 1500.; Literature and society -- England -- History -- To 1500.; Arthurian romances -- History and criticism.; Aristocracy (Social class) in literature.; Knights and knighthood in literature.; Chivalry in literature.
Description: "The question of how far the society in which Malory lived reflects that depicted in the Morte Darthur has always been hotly debated. While many critics have considered it a work of anachronistic escapism, more recently it has been argued that the romanticised world of chivalry and the reality of the gentry community revealed in contemporary letter collections represent complementary but irreconcilable aspects of fifteenth-century aristocratic life.

This book challenges both assumptions, arguing that behind the chivalric facade of Malory's work lie the anxieties and aspirations of the 'real' aristocracy: it presents three distinct pictures of the Malorian knight, as landowner, as an active member of political society, and as a representative of a social group earnestly preoccupied with its self-image and place in society.

These three pictures, the author suggests, set behind the archetypal knight-errant in the foreground of Malory's chivalric narrative, illuminate not only Malorian chivalry, but also the mentality of the late medieval aristocracy."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [141]-150) and index.
Enlargement of author's thesis (doctoral)--Texas A&M University.