THOMAS MALORY AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF ARTHURIAN ROMANCE

Аннотация

This comprehensive academic thesis examines the definitive role of Sir Thomas Malory’s late fifteenth-century masterpiece, Le Morte d'Arthur, in constructing the unified structural, stylistic, and ideological foundations of Arthurian romance. Writing amidst the catastrophic socio-political fracture of the Wars of the Roses, Malory systematically compiled, translated, and radicalized disparate materials into a singular, cohesive prose epic. This study explores the socio-historical context governing Malory’s retrospective nostalgia, details the structural and ethical mechanisms of the Round Table via the Pentecostal Oath, evaluates the tragic triad of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere, and analyzes how Malory’s innovative English prose permanently shifted Arthurian myth from medieval episodic romance into an enduring pillar of Western secular literature.