Camelot’s Failure to See Beyond in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

What seems overlooked by some critics is the fact that Camelot, represented by Gawain, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is strongly connected with doomed fate due to its limited vision. Camelot is a closed community by humanness, which provides the crucial clue for the understanding of the failure of both Gawain and Camelot members. The exclusiveness confined in human reason frequently comes to be vulnerable when challenged by inhuman or unnatural forces like the Green Knight. Besides the limited vision, Camelot is some sort of society which is an already fixed one with stable identity, hence, little possibility of development and adaptation. This results in Camelot’s possible vulnerability to the external forces as well. As a member of Camelot, Gawain’s limited vision, so much accustomed to closed Camelot society and its inflexible value judgment system, prevents him from acknowledging the values outside Camelot. Gawain is inadequate to deal with the complexity of his experience, because the absoluteness of Camelot community has built the extremely demanding and inflexible logic.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Bergner, H., "The Two Courts, Two Modes of Existence in ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" 67 (67): 401-416, 1986

2 Anderson, J. J., "The Three Judgments and the Ethos of Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" 24 : 337-355, 1990

3 Spearing, A. C., "The Gawain-Poet: A Critical Study" Cambridge UP 1970

4 Andrew, Malcolm, "The Fall of Troy in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Troilus and Criseyde in:The European Tragedy of Troilus" Clarendon P 1989

5 Burroff, Marie, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: the Passing of Judgment in:The Passing of Arthur: New Essays in Arthurian Tradition" Garland Publishing Inc. 1989

6 Friedman, Albert B., "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" 17 : 260-274, 1950

7 Tolkien, J. R. R., "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" Clarendon P 1967

8 Williams, Edith Whitehurst, "Morgan La Fee As Trickster in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" 96 (96): 38-56, 1985

9 Kamps, Iv., "Magic, Women, and Incest: the Real Challenge in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" 1 (1): 312-336, 1988

10 Heng, Geraldine, "Feminine Knots and the Other: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" 106 (106): 500-514, 1991

11 Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, "Decapitation and Coming of Age: Constructing Masculinity and the Monstrous in:The Arthurian Yearbook III" Garland Publishing Inc 1993