Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the re-creation of female roles in twentieth-century Arthurian fiction written by women, examining the radical changes to the way the myth is rewritten in three versions of the legend: Daughter of Tintagel by Fay Sampson; the Pendragon series by Helen Hollick; and the Guenevere series by Rosalind Miles. The Introduction presents a brief background study of feminism and a review of the literary background to the Arthurian legend, focusing on two female archetypes employed by the key authors – the queen and the enchantress. Chapter One provides a literary survey exploring the existing Arthurian novels written by women spanning the years between 1900 to 2001. It offers an analysis of twentieth-century novels written from a woman’s viewpoint, exploring how these authors diverged from the accepted Arthurian traditions. The chapter is divided into two sections, investigating the literary boundaries to women’s writing, and focusing on the literary techniques used to expand these limitations. Chapter Two explores Fay Sampson’s use of metafiction and first-person narrators to tell Morgan’s story and how the author undercuts her narrators’ accounts of the legend through her implication that all speakers are unreliable. Chapter Three examines Helen Hollick’s use of historical fiction and her creation of complex female characters who reject traditional passive stereotypes, aspiring to acquire personal power as well as the inherent associations with violence while seeking power. Chapter Four reviews the use paratext and the inversion of the historical romance genre by Rosalind Miles to support her vision of female empowerment through the Arthurian narrative. The Conclusion gathers up the various threads drawn in the different chapters, revealing how the selected three women novelists re-create Arthurian female identity in their novels and how their versions play a significant role in altering the conventionally-accepted stereotypes of Arthurian women.