Karen (Casey) Casebier is an Associate Professor of French at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Her principal area of research is the conflation of the sacred and the profane across different genres of thirteenth-century French literature, including saints’ lives, romance and the fabliaux. Her research interests include manuscript studies, bestiaries and the Arthurian graphic novel.
Journal of the International Arthurian Society, 2022
This essay will examine the characterisation of the principal characters and events in 'Le Cheval... more This essay will examine the characterisation of the principal characters and events in 'Le Chevalier et la Charrette', a contemporary graphic novel adaption of the Méléagant episode based on Chrétien de Troyes's Le Chevalier de la charrette, by applying Mieke Bal's classic study on narratology, in which legendary and 'deviant' characters evoke reactions of surprise or revulsion in the reader. The first section will address the limits of inventio in the portrayal of Lancelot, a legendary character whose behaviour and actions are somewhat limited by the reader's background knowledge of him, whereas the remainder of the essay will focus on the use of the Lady of the Lake as a deviant character in the Méléagant episode. In the graphic novella, the Lady of the Lake is reinvented as a representation of Ankou, the servant of Death in Breton folklore. This allows the author and illustrator of the graphic novella to take advantage of the lacunae in the reader's background knowledge to present a previously unknown facet of the Lady of the Lake's character that bridges the gap between literary adaptation and literary appropriation, thereby resulting in a new cultural product that links medieval Arthurian legend to traditional Breton mythology.
Lancelot is a graphic novel that reinvents this medieval legend to present contemporary social is... more Lancelot is a graphic novel that reinvents this medieval legend to present contemporary social issues to the reader whilst simultaneously respecting the traditional literary motifs of Arthurian romance. This work reinvigorates medieval courtly love by placing a transgendered knight at the center of a new love triangle, thereby encouraging a new reading of a well-known love story. This article will focus on the hero's identity crisis and the role of the female knight in the graphic novel as compared to the traditional narrative motifs and ethical concerns of Arthurian romance, paying particular attention to the notion of inventio in contemporary adaptations of medieval literature.
Journal of the International Arthurian Society, 2022
This essay will examine the characterisation of the principal characters and events in 'Le Cheval... more This essay will examine the characterisation of the principal characters and events in 'Le Chevalier et la Charrette', a contemporary graphic novel adaption of the Méléagant episode based on Chrétien de Troyes's Le Chevalier de la charrette, by applying Mieke Bal's classic study on narratology, in which legendary and 'deviant' characters evoke reactions of surprise or revulsion in the reader. The first section will address the limits of inventio in the portrayal of Lancelot, a legendary character whose behaviour and actions are somewhat limited by the reader's background knowledge of him, whereas the remainder of the essay will focus on the use of the Lady of the Lake as a deviant character in the Méléagant episode. In the graphic novella, the Lady of the Lake is reinvented as a representation of Ankou, the servant of Death in Breton folklore. This allows the author and illustrator of the graphic novella to take advantage of the lacunae in the reader's background knowledge to present a previously unknown facet of the Lady of the Lake's character that bridges the gap between literary adaptation and literary appropriation, thereby resulting in a new cultural product that links medieval Arthurian legend to traditional Breton mythology.
Lancelot is a graphic novel that reinvents this medieval legend to present contemporary social is... more Lancelot is a graphic novel that reinvents this medieval legend to present contemporary social issues to the reader whilst simultaneously respecting the traditional literary motifs of Arthurian romance. This work reinvigorates medieval courtly love by placing a transgendered knight at the center of a new love triangle, thereby encouraging a new reading of a well-known love story. This article will focus on the hero's identity crisis and the role of the female knight in the graphic novel as compared to the traditional narrative motifs and ethical concerns of Arthurian romance, paying particular attention to the notion of inventio in contemporary adaptations of medieval literature.
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Papers by Karen Casey Casebier