Modern Retellings of Chivalric Texts ed. by Gloria Allaire
Barbara Tepa Lupack
Reviews gloria Allaire, ed., Modern Retellings of Chivalric Texts. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 1999. Pp. viii, 176. isbn: 1-84014-612-5. $69.95. stories have not only been told and retold throughout the centuries; as Gloria Allaire notes, they also reinvented 'by new authors with voices for audiences.' Among those authors, Allaire's volume illustrates, are nineteenth- twentieth-century writers various nationalities (English, Danish, French, Italian, American) whose adaptations include a wide variety genres (poetry, novel, short story, film, oral performance, drama, popular theatre). And that tell some contributors to discuss—from modern versions ofthe legend ofRobert ofSicily retellings Carolingian cycle narratives; from modernist recastings well-known Renaissance poems Orfando furioso The Fairie Queene, themselves early reworkings ofstill older chivalric material, refigurations oftheTristan legend, Grail stories, other elements Arthurian myth— demonstrate broad in their scope enduring appeal. Of five essays volume, perhaps most interesting is Deborah Lesko Baker's study ofdesire mythic intertext Marguerite Duras's Moderato cantabile. Baker focuses on Bédier or Tristan sources but intertextual dimension writing hermeneutic implications novel its cinematic adaptation. According Baker, re-enactment, doubling, ofvarious tropes narrative elements—e.g., unattainability, love potion, metaphor sea—occurs literary level within physical psychological dimensions ofDuras's characters underlies novel's structure. Kathleen Coyne Kelly, her revisionist reading Lady Shalott, explores notions intertexuality doubling. Taking Bakhtinian approach, Kelly violates chronicity by 'great time' four texts contain figure— analogue—ofElaine works Malory, Tennyson, Zelazny, Pynchon. She concludes woman moves 'object subject position' 'comes into full powers,' 'the phallic explicitly engaged mirroring itself feminine... [and] obsessed, fix(at)ed bondage other-as-object,' autonomy affirmed. In contrast Kelly's exploration feminine, Lee Tobin McClain examines masculine, specifically deflation ofmasculine ideals Arthur Rex, argues Bergers reshaping Malory allows him show code an inadequate moral system. MaryLynn Saul number ARTHURIANA I0.2 (2OO0) 102ARTHURIANA (all one same collection) which recast quasireligious object powers ro corrupt destroy who possess it identifies ideologies anxieties—from Nietzchean Sartrean philosophies 'cold war fear ultimate destructive weapon'—behind refashioning what she terms 'Unholy Grail.' And, concluding essay, Myriam Swenncn Ruthenberg significance ofL'isola diArturo (1957) analyzing ways author, Elsa Morante, consciously revises prescribed neorealism postwar implicates reader romance. scholars readers always delighted learn about unfamiliar texts, here volume—which introduces such suggests approaches them—succeeds. however, less effective aspects: connections ate occasionally tenuous arguments thin few essays, jargon distracting others. suggestion Berger, 'unaware he about,' reveals 'hostility toward period claims admire' example, need 'equal surpass' formidable predecessors like Chrétien demonstrates his 'Bloomian/ Freudian anxiety' seems overstate case. Similarly, analysis ofunholy Grails appears incomplete without reference significant use ofthat theme major Percy's Lancelot Barthelme's King. Nonetheless, title suggests, ofChivalric Tales offers insights process retelling; confirms versatility both non...
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