Arthurian Literature XXVIII

Sex blood and gender have diverse associations in the Malorian tradition yet their inter-relatedness and intersections are comparatively understudied. This present collection of essays is intended to go some way toward remedying the need for a sustained examination of blood ties kinship gender and sexuality and the prominence of these themes in Malory's work. They concentrate in particular upon the analyses of sexuality and sexual activity (and its lack or erasure) and the significance of blood (and blood-shedding) in the 'Morte Darthur' as well as the interconnections with gender (biological sex) and familial (blood) relations in the 'Morte' its sources and its later reworkings. The result is a wide-ranging investigation into related but distinctive thematic preoccupations including the national and kinship affiliations of Malorian knights sibling relationships deviant sexuality and blood-spilling in martial and intimate contexts.