The Liminality of Fairies Readings in Late Medieval English and Scottish Romance

Examining the fairies of medieval romance as liminal beings, this book draws on anthropological and philosophical studies of liminality to combine folkloristic insights into the nature of fairies with close readings of selected romance texts. Tracing different meanings and manifestations of liminality in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo, Sir Launfal, Thomas of Erceldoune and Robert Henryson’s Orpheus and Eurydice, the volume offers a comprehensive theory of liminality rooted in structuralist anthropology and poststructuralist theory. Arguing that romance fairies both embody and represent the liminal, The Liminality of Fairies posits and answers fundamental theoretical questions about the limits of representation and the relationship between romance hermeneutics and criticism. The interdisciplinary nature of the argument will appeal not just to medievalists and literary critics but also to anthropologists, folklorists as well as scholars working within the fields of cultural history and contemporary literary theory.

Introduction Chapter 1 Liminal Fairies: the Anthropological Paradigm Chapter 2 Modes of Liminality in Medieval Romance Chapter 3 The Philosophical Paradigm Chapter 4 The Khoratic Nature of Fairies Chapter 5 The Gift and the Promise: Ambiguity in Khoratic Contracts Chapter 6 Games, Gifts and Taboos: the Art of Rule-Bound Interactions Conclusion

Piotr Spyra is Assistant Professor in the Institute of English Studies, University of Lódz (Poland), where he teaches medieval and early modern English literature. He is the author of The Epistemological Perspective of the Pearl-Poet (2014) and a number of articles on medieval English poetry and Renaissance drama.