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2020 | Book

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Afterlives of the Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat

Author: Ann F. Howey

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Arthurian and Courtly Cultures

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book investigates adaptations of The Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat in Victorian and post-Victorian popular culture to explore their engagement with medievalism, social constructions of gender, and representations of the role of art in society. Although the figure of Elaine first appeared in medieval texts, including Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, Tennyson’s poems about the Lady and Elaine drew unprecedented response from musicians, artists, and other authors, whose adaptations in some cases inspired further adaptations. With chapters on music, art, and literature (including parody, young people’s literature, and historical fiction and fantasy), this book seeks to trace the evolution of these characters and the ways in which they reinforce or challenge conventional gender roles, represent the present’s relationship to the past, and highlight the power of art.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
This chapter introduces the figures to be studied (the Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat) and the theoretical perspectives that shape this book: feminist theories of death and representation, agency, the historical development of Arthurian legend, medievalism and neo-Victorianism, and adaptation theory. Table 1.1 is a Timeline of Lady/Elaine texts, from the nineteenth century to the present. The chapter ends with a consideration of trends in the production of Lady/Elaine texts and outlines the book’s chapters.
Ann F. Howey
Chapter 2. The Lady and Elaine: Medieval Literature and Victorian Adaptation
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the medieval Arthurian tradition as it pertains to the Lady and Elaine, examines Tennyson’s contribution to the development of that tradition in the nineteenth century, and briefly surveys some of his contemporaries’ responses. By analyzing the medieval pre-texts and Tennyson’s poetry, and outlining relevant scholarly debates about them, this chapter establishes the literary context with which later adaptations engage.
Ann F. Howey
Chapter 3. Singing Her Own Song: The Lady/Elaine in Music
Abstract
This chapter illustrates Lady/Elaine music’s possibilities for resisting gender ideologies as they affect expression of agency and desire. It reviews music’s role in disseminating Tennyson’s poetry and examines the material conditions surrounding the production and performance of music. It analyzes Victorian parlor songs based on Elaine’s “Song of Love and Death,” two late twentieth-century versions of “The Lady of Shalott” by Loreena McKennitt and by David Kronemyer and Krysia Kristianne, and then two twentieth-century musical versions of Elaine’s letter to Lancelot by A. Favara and by Heather Dale. The chapter thus demonstrates the way technological, social, and aesthetic changes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have affected the adaptation of Tennyson’s poetry into song, and it explores the extent to which musical compositions celebrate Elaine’s agency, desire, and voice.
Ann F. Howey
Chapter 4. “She Hath a Lovely Face”: The Lady/Elaine in Art
Abstract
This chapter provides context for the proliferation of Victorian Lady/Elaine artworks and analyzes illustrations (by Gustave Doré, Julia Margaret Cameron, and George Wooliscroft Rhead) and paintings (by Toby Edward Rosenthal, William Holman Hunt, and J. W. Waterhouse) before considering the role of new technologies in the dissemination and creation of Lady/Elaine images in the twenty-first century, including online artworks and a cross-stitch design by Teresa Wentzler. The chapter addresses the relationships made possible between the viewer and the Lady/Elaine, which are illuminated by theories of the gaze, and the relationships among texts, for Lady/Elaine adaptations move from text to art and back again, a process that both multiplies and reinforces interpretations of Tennyson’s poems.
Ann F. Howey
Chapter 5. Patterns and Parody: The Lady/Elaine in Literature
Abstract
This chapter outlines key patterns of adaptation strategies in Lady/Elaine literature including intertextuality, narrative gaps, focalization, and common images. The chapter then analyzes examples of parody in various short poems, C. J. Williams’ silent film, Elizabeth Stuart Phelp’s “The Lady of Shalott” and David Benedictus’ Floating Down to Camelot to illustrate the ways parody critiques Tennyson’s medievalism.
Ann F. Howey
Chapter 6. Reading and Resisting: The Lady/Elaine in Young People’s Literature
Abstract
This chapter begins by comparing retellings for young people from early and late in the twentieth century to demonstrate the influence of patriarchal vs feminist metanarratives on the Lady/Elaine story. The latter part of the chapter analyzes Marjorie Richardson’s “Launcelot’s Tower,” L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, Felicity Pulman’s Shalott series, and Meg Cabot’s Avalon High. These texts depict young women reading the Lady/Elaine to model ways to engage with cultural and social constructions of femininity, providing textual moments that are sites of resistance to cultural norms.
Ann F. Howey
Chapter 7. Desire and Art: The Lady/Elaine in Historical Fiction and Fantasy
Abstract
This chapter investigates historical fiction and fantasy, using texts whose focalization or narration includes Lady/Elaine figures in a medieval-like setting. Lisa Ann Sandell’s Song of the Sparrow, Gwen Rowley’s Knights of the Round Table: Lancelot, Phyllis Ann Karr’s “Two Bits of Embroidery,” and Patricia A. McKillip’s The Tower at Stony Wood demonstrate the ways medievalism and genre conventions intersect to facilitate representations of the Lady/Elaine as agents of desire and of artistic production.
Ann F. Howey
Chapter 8. Postscript
Abstract
This chapter provides a brief conclusion that uses analysis of C. J. Cherryh’s Port Eternity to consider narratives, programming, and the Lady/Elaine. Adaptations of and allusions to the Lady/Elaine need to be understood for their contributions to cultural models and scripts. Whatever their stance on their pre-text(s), Lady/Elaine adaptations and allusions reiterate the importance of this figure as a way of imagining our options, whether to negotiate our relationship with the past, our relationship with social expectations of gender, or our expectations of art and the role of artists in our society.
Ann F. Howey
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Afterlives of the Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat
Author
Ann F. Howey
Copyright Year
2020
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-47690-8
Print ISBN
978-3-030-47689-2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47690-8