Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

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It is textual content like this that seems to imply that the MedievalAge was anything but romantic. How, with texts like this governingthe feelings of mankind, would it ever be possible for friendshipsand loves involving dissimilar parties to be allowed and to prosper?With concepts of love so concretely grounded in the realm of sexualpleasure, it is no wonder that any other form of relationship wasat the very least scrutinized, never mind the utter disgust shownat relationships and attempts at friendship with a human beingconsidered abject from the dominant culture. The anonymousauthor of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight would have his/her workcut out for he/she if they wished to shed light on what they believedto be the true nature of love and it’s ability to include, rather thanexclude, any and all individuals regardless of difference.It was therefore very important that they go about the planting ofsuch subversive optimistic and compassionate ideals of love in a waywhich merely suggested, rather than broadcast. To state a completelyalternate reading of love, one which deviated from the normal ideasso radically, the author would have to deceive in order to show thetrue path to completely altruistic love, the kind which breaks downbarriers and builds relationships of understanding. S¿ren Kierkegaardpostulated upon a type of love which did just that: deceive. This sortof deceptive love involves “mystification to help the other recognizethe truth” (McCreary 43) which leaves the deceived better off thanbefore because they can now see that “love is not a being-for-itselfquality but a quality by which you are for others” (McCreary 27), aquality not ascribed to the greedy, satisfaction-based necessity of lovelaid out in the framework of the courtly code.It must be just outside of coincidence, then, that one can witnesssimilar behavior from Lord Bercilak, i.e. the Green Knight, whodeceives Sir Gawain into realizing what it truly means to love, thatit is a compassion for the individual in spite of obvious differences,which can put an end to the idea of monstrosity. In Sir Gawain andlauren apt 45
the Green Knight, Lord Bercilak must first remove the delusion of loveas expressed in the chivalric code by, using “indirect communication[because] direct communication will fail”(McCreary 30) given thatthe one being deceived through that method of communicationwould believe themselves to be acting morally and ethically rightwhen it is indeed false.Therefore, “in order to gain a hearing with this person and in orderto eventually lead him…toward seeing the falsity of what is believed,one must first begin by agreeing with this person” (McCreary 31),and Lord Bercilak does indeed do this within the text by encirclingSir Gawain within an environment in which chivalry and it’sconventions are still at the center, keeping social order, for knightsare praised thusly: “What lessons we will learn in noble speech/what marvelous words, what practiced methods/Of converse nowthat we welcome this model/ Of perfect breeding!/God has beengood,/truly, to grant us a guest like Gawain”(Raffel 84). Clearly, theknight is still the morally and ethically impressive one of society,thanks to his superior upbringing and ability to follow convention.These qualities of being able to converse politely according toaccepted conventions, and of being of a good family and class arethose qualities which make up a good and true human being, as faras Gawain knows, and he is therefore comfortable, unsuspecting ofhis own superficial conceptions of love and reality and the potentialthey have for excluding and denigrating others.Lord Bercilak, in providing for Gawain in such a way, also beginsto teach the reader an important part of what it means to truly carefor another human being. He suspends his own beliefs for the sakeof Sir Gawain, continuing a falsified reality which he does not reallybelieve in and the reader learns that love is not something whichis based on a selfish sexual desire for consummation, but in factmay require a “sacrifice…made out of love for the other and forthe sake of the other” (McCreary 35) and this is shown repetitively46 afternoons of alterity
Page 1 and 2: Afternoons of Alterity A Codex of t
Page 4 and 5: Table of ContentsFrom Medieval Mars
Page 6 and 7: From Medieval Marsh Monsters toFutu
Page 8 and 9: imagination, we must first attempt
Page 10 and 11: seed of monstrosity within themselv
Page 12 and 13: essence as a monster, it seems reas
Page 14 and 15: she bore two sons, one from the imp
Page 16 and 17: perhaps, anti-heroes) of the futuri
Page 18 and 19: to watch the murder and mutilation
Page 20 and 21: and modern audiences through their
Page 22 and 23: Works Cited“Bushwhacked.” Firef
Page 24 and 25: Projecting Otherness ontothe Disabl
Page 26 and 27: in any systematic structuration. An
Page 28 and 29: The idea of the monstrous’ vulner
Page 30 and 31: not us and are in the proximity of
Page 32: they want to be treated. The interv
Page 36: Monstrosity and theIrruption of Rea
Page 39 and 40: describing his fears of this place
Page 41 and 42: stained with sin” (Spearing 221).
Page 43: often and at will to show man somet
Page 46 and 47: What’s Love Got To Do With It?The
Page 48 and 49: story than as the beginning? What f
Page 52 and 53: through the story as the Green Knig
Page 54 and 55: the first advocating voices for end
Page 56 and 57: “capable of seeing things objecti
Page 58 and 59: Darkness: The True Monster ofLitera
Page 60 and 61: the way they can make us feel, but
Page 62 and 63: not only closes out, extinguishes,
Page 64 and 65: and temptation, most especially for
Page 66 and 67: hours “led to the term ‘night
Page 68 and 69: specifically his relationship to da
Page 70 and 71: humanization of Grendel draws the r
Page 72 and 73: subconscious the message may be. Th
Page 74 and 75: Serial MonstrosityEmily Mastrobatti
Page 76 and 77: is clear that they are monsters and
Page 78 and 79: murderer that he once was. He has b
Page 80 and 81: of the killing, “When investigato
Page 82 and 83: ook “contains recipes from the bo
Page 84 and 85: asks Charles Manson to marry her, t
Page 86 and 87: Monstrous Mothers andObjectified Da
Page 88 and 89: and her sisters plot to kill their
Page 90 and 91: easons for “otherness.” On top
Page 92 and 93: The original ideas are still intact
Page 94 and 95: objectified creature. “Cultures o
Page 96 and 97: Works CitedAcker, P. Horror and the
Page 98 and 99: Grendel: A Manifestation ofMedieval
Page 100 and 101:
ut never was his physicality hinted
Page 102 and 103:
to wander in the darkness and the c
Page 104 and 105:
Magic could not resurrect Grendel t
Page 106 and 107:
Works CitedBeowulf. Trans. RM Liuzz
Page 108 and 109:
The Monster Under the BedThe Creati
Page 110 and 111:
to procreate but the accepted manif
Page 112 and 113:
Cain had/killed his father’s son
Page 114 and 115:
can, without a doubt, be placed int
Page 116 and 117:
The vagina’s ability to function
Page 118:
Ed. Barbara K. Gold, et all. Albany
Page 121 and 122:
To understand precisely how states
Page 123 and 124:
a strict delineation between each g
Page 125 and 126:
monstrous and societal rules to fol
Page 127 and 128:
Gawain is willing to accept his mis
Page 129 and 130:
survive, challenge, and defeat. Esp
Page 131 and 132:
governmental standards, then are we
Page 134 and 135:
They Walk Among UsOccupational Viol
Page 136 and 137:
sports and regard our members of th
Page 138 and 139:
modern readers are not part of the
Page 140 and 141:
otherness and disdain for humanity.
Page 142 and 143:
are underpaid and for the most part
Page 144 and 145:
Home and Spatial IdentityPhysical t
Page 146 and 147:
closeness among the people that the
Page 148 and 149:
Into the dark gorge I ventured; the
Page 150 and 151:
the treasures that fill up their ho
Page 152 and 153:
threatened by the very existence of
Page 154 and 155:
and draped in damp, shaggy moss, an
Page 156 and 157:
individual. Home resides within the
Page 158:
Works CitedArmitage, Simon. Sir Gaw
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Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

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