‘Thou wenest Ich be a beggere’: Borders and the Habitus in Middle English Romance
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Matthew Bradley
Abstract
This paper examines how borders in the landscapes of Middle English romance uncover the fragile and situational nature of their heroes’ identities and interrogates the ways in which they enforce new rules and expectations on those who dare to cross them. Utilising Pierre Bourdieu’s conception of the habitus, the paper identifies tests of ‘objective homogenizing’ in romances such as The Awntyrs off Arthur and Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle, and how crossings of borders challenge their heroes’ understanding of their own chivalric identities. The paper begins by examining how the codes of chivalry which define the knights are tested by their crossings of borders into both wilderness and unfamiliar courts. Secondly, attention is paid to texts such as The Geste of Kyng Horn and Sir Orfeo where, despite attempts to mask their social status by masquerading as beggars, the titular heroes’ habitus is in fact ever-present, and strategically revealed to prove their identities. Through examining the heightened chivalric identities of Middle English romance, this paper highlights the ways in which borders permit the imposition of new rules and mores upon a space, and the influence of these conventions in shaping conceptions of personhood, status, and power.
Abstract
This paper examines how borders in the landscapes of Middle English romance uncover the fragile and situational nature of their heroes’ identities and interrogates the ways in which they enforce new rules and expectations on those who dare to cross them. Utilising Pierre Bourdieu’s conception of the habitus, the paper identifies tests of ‘objective homogenizing’ in romances such as The Awntyrs off Arthur and Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle, and how crossings of borders challenge their heroes’ understanding of their own chivalric identities. The paper begins by examining how the codes of chivalry which define the knights are tested by their crossings of borders into both wilderness and unfamiliar courts. Secondly, attention is paid to texts such as The Geste of Kyng Horn and Sir Orfeo where, despite attempts to mask their social status by masquerading as beggars, the titular heroes’ habitus is in fact ever-present, and strategically revealed to prove their identities. Through examining the heightened chivalric identities of Middle English romance, this paper highlights the ways in which borders permit the imposition of new rules and mores upon a space, and the influence of these conventions in shaping conceptions of personhood, status, and power.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
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Part I
- Borders as Translation Spaces 1
- Border Narratives: Crossing Lines and Telling Tales 9
- Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics 21
- Borders and Neo-Nationalism: A Geophilosophical Approach 37
- We Fight for this Land 51
- Converting the Limit: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Infinite in the Act of Difference 63
- Liminal Places and Non-Places 77
- Border Brushstrokes: The Ulster Arts Club and the Post-Partition Nation 91
- Bordering as the Breaking Force of Border Subjects 101
- Frontiers of Sexual Difference: The Phantasm of Gender 115
- Borders and Language: Hermeneutic-Philosophical Issues 129
- ‘Thou wenest Ich be a beggere’: Borders and the Habitus in Middle English Romance 145
- Funes the Arboreous: Borderless Ecologies in Borges’s Ficciones 157
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Part II
- Borders and Barbed Wire: Cahir Healy’s Memoirs from the Argenta Prison Ship 171
- A Residue of Boundary Correspondence 183
- Two Years on an Ulster Prison Ship 189
- Contributors and Editors 307
- Index 311
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
-
Part I
- Borders as Translation Spaces 1
- Border Narratives: Crossing Lines and Telling Tales 9
- Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics 21
- Borders and Neo-Nationalism: A Geophilosophical Approach 37
- We Fight for this Land 51
- Converting the Limit: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Infinite in the Act of Difference 63
- Liminal Places and Non-Places 77
- Border Brushstrokes: The Ulster Arts Club and the Post-Partition Nation 91
- Bordering as the Breaking Force of Border Subjects 101
- Frontiers of Sexual Difference: The Phantasm of Gender 115
- Borders and Language: Hermeneutic-Philosophical Issues 129
- ‘Thou wenest Ich be a beggere’: Borders and the Habitus in Middle English Romance 145
- Funes the Arboreous: Borderless Ecologies in Borges’s Ficciones 157
-
Part II
- Borders and Barbed Wire: Cahir Healy’s Memoirs from the Argenta Prison Ship 171
- A Residue of Boundary Correspondence 183
- Two Years on an Ulster Prison Ship 189
- Contributors and Editors 307
- Index 311
