Le Morte d'Americana

Abstract

The timelessness of the Arthurian tradition lends itself to adaptability: hundreds of authors over the centuries have inherited the tales and adjusted them to his or her society’s needs. Sir Thomas Malory lived during the War of Roses, a period of upheaval and violence. While imprisoned, he wrote Le Morte d’Arthur, which was inspired from the French romances. He emphasized the ideals of chivalry, brotherhood, loyalty, and order, which had been eroded in contemporary society. From Malory’s stories, Tennyson created Idylls of the King, resurrecting a medieval world to edify Victorian society. Through Guinevere’s affair, Tennyson attempted to revive the idea of courtly love and the importance of pursuing the purest form of love, which he juxtaposed against King Arthur who was the model gentleman for Victorian society. My novel, Le Morte d'Americana carries on the tradition of taking the most important pieces of the Arthurian tradition and weaving them together with the most pressing issues of modern American society. I have mainly focused on Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, using characters and themes from these texts to craft Le Morte d’Americana. Arthur and his knights and the violence that surrounds them translate into the issues of police brutality, gun violence, and toxic masculinity. This novel is a bridge between the past and present.