The Dead, the Monstrous and the Foreigner in Medieval Literature

Abstract

While they usually dwell outside of the culture's boundaries, some monsters in medieval literature are manifested in the center- in intimate spaces, inside the bounds of difference. Medieval monstrosity manifests the Other as its framework- whether it's bodily, culturally or socially, but what has been left out in the discourse is the monster as the Self. In Richard Coer de Lyon, I argue that Richard I is made monstrous as a cannibalizing Christian ruler, and whose acceptance and celebration in medieval imaginary and beyond raises questions on the culture that accepts him. Additionally, I examine The Awntyres off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne to argue that Guenevere's mother's ghost as the arbiter of morality questions the larger culture's relationship with Arthurian militarism. As historical figures and popular emblems of a Western European past, I argue that these figures in medieval literature invite a renegotiation of cultural outsiders as monsters, since as insiders, they embody the differences attributed to the Other.