Neil M.R. Cartlidge 
Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Medieval Romance [PDF ebook] 

Investigations into the heroic – or not – behaviour of the protagonists of medieval romance.


Medieval romances so insistently celebrate the triumphs of heroes and the discomfiture of villains that they discourage recognition of just how morally ambiguous, antisocial or even downright sinister their protagonists can be, and, correspondingly, of just how admirable or impressive their defeated opponents often are. This tension between the heroic and the antiheroic makes a major contribution to the dramatic complexity of medieval romance, but it is not an aspect of the genre that has been frequently discussed up until now. Focusing on fourteen distinct characters and character-types in medieval narrative, this book illustrates the range of different ways in which the imaginative power and appeal of romance-texts often depend on contradictions implicit in the very ideal of heroism.


Dr Neil Cartlidge is Lecturer in English at the University of Durham.


Contributors: Neil Cartlidge, Penny Eley, David Ashurst, Meg Lamont, Laura Ashe, Judith Weiss, Gareth Griffith, Kate Mc Clune, Nancy Mason Bradbury, Ad Putter, Robert Rouse, Siobhain Bly Calkin, James Wade, Stephanie Vierick Gibbs Kamath

Tabela de Conteúdo

Introduction – Neil Cartlidge

Turnus – Penny Eley

Alexander the Great – David Ashurst

Hengist – Margaret Lamont

Harold Godwineson – Laura Ashe

Mordred – Judith Weiss

Merlin – Gareth Griffith

Gawain – Kate Mc Clune

Gamelyn – Nancy Mason Bradbury

Ralph the Collier – Ad Putter

The Anti-heroic Heart – Stephanie Kamath

Crusaders – Robert Rouse

Saracens – Siobhain Bly Calkin

Ungallant Knights – James Wade

Sons of Devils – Neil Cartlidge

Sobre o autor

ROBERT ROUSE Associate Professor, Department of English at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.