Lancelot incarnate: The symbolism of identity in “Le chevalier de la charrete”

Adrian J McClure, Purdue University

Abstract

This paper explores two dimensions of symbolism in Le Chevalier de la Charrete—one Christological and one psychosexual—which operate together to define Lancelot's strange, contradictory, fluid identity in this problematic text. I argue that this intersection is encoded in the central pun le char (cart) and la char (flesh), each term of which carries strong Christological associations while at the same time serving as a marker of feminization. Close readings of four marvelous scenes—the mounting of the cart, the Perilous Bed, the Sword Bridge, and Lancelot's imprisonment in the tower—are presented to support this interpretation of Lancelot as simultaneously a type of Christ and both deeply male and deeply female. This symbolic focus, I argue, has strong and unmistakable resonances with twelfth-century religious thought and practices, especially the Cistercian mystical theology of Bernard of Clairvaux. I also explore a very different set of modern resonances with Lacanian theory, arguing that the character of Lancelot embodies a unique process of identity formation that, in the end, eludes Lacanian formulations (bypassing, in effect, submission to The-Name-of-the-Father through recourse to The-Name-of-the-Son). In the final section of the paper, I claim that the alternative model of knighthood Lancelot represents relates suggestively to Bernard's concern to reform chivalry and subordinate knighthood to religious ends. The Charette will always remain an ambiguous and problematic text, one that delights in interrogating rather than establishing truths. What seems clear, however, is that religion, often given short shrift in criticism of the Charrete , is in fact a central concern.

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Armstrong, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Medieval literature

COinS