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Sites about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

by Anonymous (British: Pre-1500)

Sir Gawain goes on a quest to fight a man he had already beheaded. Along the way, he is visits Sir Bercilak and is tempted by Bercilak's wife. Gawain discovers that Bercilak is in fact the enemy he is to fight, and though he survives the fight, he loses his honor by accepting a magical protection from Bercilak's wife.

Characters: Sir Gawain, Becilak, Bercilak's wife, Morgan le Fay, King Arthur
Keywords: honor, girdle, green man, Arthurian

Critical sites about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Controlling the Feminine Voice in Cleanness and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/inpar001_vitto.pdf

"For all the criticism devoted to Cleanness, its structure and purpose remain uncertain. "

Contains: Content Analysis

Author: Cindy L. Vitto

From: In parentheses: Papers in Medieval Studies Volume I: May 1999, page 3

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Notes on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

http://faculty.uca.edu/~jona/second/ggknotes.htm

Notes, commentary and criticism on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by a professor of English.

Contains: Bibliography, Plot Summary, Historical Context, Content Analysis, Character Analysis

Author: Jonathan Glenn

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Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawayne

http://www.bartleby.com/211/index.html#15

This lengthy analysis of several early anonymous English poems includes sections on "Sources and Metre of Pearl", "Cleanness and Patience", "Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight", and "Sources of Sir Gawayne."

Author: I. Gollancz

From: The Cambridge History of English and American Literature Volume I: English, From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance

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The Poem as Green Girdle: Commercium in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/rashoaf/gawain/masterng.htm

This series of essays by an English professor at the University of Florida examines the use of commercial, monetarily-oriented words in Gawain and the Green Knight. It asserts, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight's concern with mediation, relativity, relationships, and value is a response to one of the most pressing and complicated social issues of its day. Commercialism and chivalry, two value systems, were competing in a very uneven contest."

Contains: Historical Context, Character Analysis

Author: Shoaf, R. A. (Richard Allen), 1948-

From: Gainesville : University Presses of Florida, c1984

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A Psychoanalytic Approach to the Question of Masculinity in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/masculin.htm

This essay argues that Gawain maintains his masculinity despite his sexual abstinence. It concludes that "Gawain has been taught that in order to maintain a courtly masculine identity he needs to control his sexuality." Includes a bibliography.

Contains: Historical Context, Character Analysis, Content Analysis, Bibliography

Author: Fred Griffiths

From: Luminarium

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The Role of Women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/arkin.html

This undergraduate student essay argues that the women in Gawain"constitute a metaphor for other anti-social forces and dangers outside the control of feudalism and chivalry which a medieval world genders female because of a set of biblical and classical models which establish anything subversive as feminine. This essay was prepared under supervision of professor Grover Furr at Montclair State University. Includes an annotated bibliography.

Contains: Bibliography, Historical Context, Content Analysis

Author: Lili Arkin

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The "Syngne of Surfet" and the Surfeit of Signs in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/rashoaf/gawain/surfram.htm

"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight contains many words and terms that ask for more thana narrowly secular reading of the poem to account for them."

Contains: Content Analysis

Author: Shoaf, R. A. (Richard Allen), 1948-

From: The Passing of Arthur: New Essays in Arthurian Tradition ed. Christopher Baswell and William Sharpe (New York: Garland, 1988), pp. 152-69

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