Abstract

1. 강지수   가웨인과 녹색기사의 지리적 상상력: 워럴의 숲   Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Volume 22 No. 2 (2014)    1 ~ 29   
   [Gang Ji-su: The Geographical Imagination in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: The Wilderness of Wirral]

This paper examines the significance in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight of the poem’s explicit choice of destination for Gawain’s adventure, “the wilderness of Wirral.” The wilderness in an Arthurian romance is a conventional space of adventure and growth. This particular space in this poem is created in the geographically specific Wirral which happens to be part of Cheshire where our poet most likely is from and where Richard II based his political and military support during his reign. This paper argues that the romantically charged space of wilderness is also an apt metaphor for Cheshire as the region as a whole was historically perceived as geographical, political and cultural periphery, dangerous but also beneficial. With its purely negative connotations, of its being remote and intractable, the wilderness may also be a reflection of the hostile and prejudicial view many Londoners bore against the region in the face of the king’s open favoritism and other criticism the king and his court were drawing. The poem, it shall be seen, explores the possibility of expanding courtliness through all kinds of wildness characterized by its spatial manifestation, wilderness. How this theme is played out against the implied Cheshire as wilderness in this Arthurian romance by a poet who is known for his celebrations of courtly values and splendor in his other works during the time of a king who so vigorously promoted courtly culture is the focus of this study.

Key words: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, courtliness, Richard II, Cheshire, Wirral, wilderness, wild man, geographical imagination