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Queer Theories in Medieval Studies

A. Definition
Queer Studies developed in part from the feminism movement but came
into its own during the late 1980s and early 1990s especially with the works
of Judith Butler. It is still a growing school of thought in relation to mod-
ern literature, and therefore few theorists have applied much of this critical
approach to Medieval Studies. However, this is not to say Queer Studies has
not begun finding ground in its concern over identity formation and identity
politics during the Middle Ages. The aim is less about discerning an author’s
meaning or intention behind the manner that certain characters or situations
are represented, but instead, to show how these characters or situations
exemplify the social formation of identity and the interactions between the
different identity roles during that period. Identifying texts that demon-
strate how society molds and enforces these various identity roles and rela-
tionships therefore reinforces the argument of many queer theorists over
the artificiality of identity as opposed to any sort of natural or inherent
gender and sexuality. Because this is still a developing field, there are many
facets of Queer Studies still emerging, however, the primary focus of this
selection will be that of how it relates to identity formation and identity
politics.

B. Terminology
Queer Studies finds its roots in post-structuralism, and its primary purpose
is to open the discourse to the needs and interests of the lesbian, gay, bisex-
ual, and transgender communities. Because these needs and interests con-
tinue to change and grow, this field of studies is still in a state of self-deter-
mination. Michel Foucault (“Lecture 7 Jan 1976,” Michel Foucault: Society
Must Be Defended, 2003, 1–24) describes an “insurrection of the subjugated
knowledges,” and Queer Studies is certainly one example of where a margi-
nalized population has is made itself known (6–12). Queer Studies centers
itself in identity formation and attempts to explore the methods by which
individuals are labeled as men and women, masculine and feminine, as well
as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. It acts as a force of resistance
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Queer Theories in Medieval Studies 2

against essentialist views as it explores the ways socially constructed beings

interact with one another. Not surprisingly, Queer Studies has much in com-
mon with other forms of identity theory such as Feminism and Gender The-
ory from which it developed. The writings of feminists, gender theorists, and
pioneering Queer theorists Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler
provide much of Queer Studies’ understanding of identity formation.
Eve Sedgwick (“Epistomology of the Closet,” Epistomology of the Closet,
1990, 27–35) makes the distinction between “sex, gender, and sexuality […]
three terms whose usage relations and analytical relations are almost irre-
mediably slippery” (27). She contends these words are often equated when in
fact they possess distinct meanings. According to Sedgwick, each person
born has one of two biological possibilities for sex – male or female. She
refers to this binary option of sex as chromosomal sex, viewing it as “immut-
able, immanent in the individual, and biologically based” (28). Generally,
chromosomal sex is “the relatively minimal raw material on which is then
based the social construction of gender” (27). That is, society places the indi-
vidual into a given gender, masculine or feminine, based on an examination
of the individual’s physical body in Sedgwick’s account, correlated with
chromosomal sex, and not an examination that individual’s behaviors.
Having demonstrated that gender is not the same as biological sex,
Sedgwick next clarifies gender “as [being] culturally mutable and variable,
[and] highly relational” (28). The dominant culture is informed by the indi-
vidual’s chromosomal sex in determining that person’s gender. This same
culture is also responsible for constructing the codes of masculine and femi-
nine gender-behaviors the individual performs. In this sense, gender is not a
flexible aspect of one’s identity – one is either masculine or feminine. The in-
dividual achieves self-definition “primarily by its relations to the other” as
part of this binary relationship of the masculine male and feminine female
(28). Each member of society defines their conception of self based upon the
reactions of those around them. A man knows he is a masculine based on his
reception and acceptance by other men. This same man reinforces his self-
conception of manhood through the same validation by women through
their desire of him. Failure to achieve this validation can call the man’s
gender identity into question. This relational method of self-conceptualiz-
ation links gender and sexuality as influencing aspects of identity formation.
The groundwork for understanding the social construction of identity arises
from recognizing society’s inflexible method of gender identification forced
upon each individual from birth.
As difficult as it is to untangle our understanding of “sex” and “gender,”
sexuality “is virtually impossible to set on a map” (Sedgwick, 29). Never-
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3 Queer Theories in Medieval Studies

theless, Sedgwick still provides such preliminary boundaries as starting

with the procreative sexual act and those actions associated with it. The dif-
ference lies in sexuality having a far greater potential for rearrangement
when compared to chromosomal sex and gender. One could both be geneti-
cally male and demonstrate a masculine gender yet still possess a sexual de-
sire for a variety of other chromosomal and gender types. Sedgwick asserts
that while biology dictates one of two possible chromosomal sexes, and so-
ciety prescribes one of two possible genders, there is less basis for determin-
ing sexuality despite the procreative preliminaries she initially establishes.
For simplicity’s sake, however, we can narrow the conception of sexuality
down to three classifications: heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexual-
ity, which account for the multiple sexualities possible.
Judith Butler (“Subversive Bodily Acts,” Gender Trouble, 79–141) refines
this idea of gender identity performance when she describes those behaviors
that “produce the effect of an internal core or substance […] on the surface of
the body” (136). These behaviors constitute a performance as the body pro-
ducing these signs conveys a message to society about itself. Creating and act-
ing out these signs express particular facets of the body’s identity, highlight-
ing the performative aspects of identity. There is no natural or inherent self
the individual discovers through self-examination or any other means.
These actions inscribed upon the body serve as externalized signs of the self
that the individual wants to present publicly (136–38).
Butler continues to explore the meaning of gender by applying a simi-
lar argument that Sedgwick uses to describe the problem demarcating the
boundaries of sexuality. She argues the performance of gender, as one aspect
of the individual’s identity, also proves difficult to map. Because language
and physical actions allow individuals to represent themselves in ways they
want, there is room in this paradigm for the possibility of self-determi-
nation. For example, a person can possess the body of a male and yet desire to
represent himself in a feminine manner. It is possible through communicat-
ing (orally and physically) the learned language of feminine behaviors for any
person to perform a feminine gender script. In this way, neither chromoso-
mal sex or social determination dictates the individual’s gender; instead the
individual manufactures and enacts gender (Butler, 139–41).

C. History of Research, Schools of Thought, Approaches

Jacques Derrida’s post-structural writings from the 1970s (“Structure,
Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences,” Twentieth-Century Lit-
erary Theory, 1997, 115–20) provide a foundation for Queer Studies in the dec-
ades to follow. Thus, the deferment of meaning in language parallels Queer
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Queer Theories in Medieval Studies 4

Studies’ assertions that gender and sexuality are never fully present in the in-
dividual, but exist only in varying degrees at different times and therefore
cannot be fixed (Derrida, 112). In the same way a word’s meaning will in-
variably change with time and context, the concepts of gender and sexuality
are never wholly emblemized by any one individual, and here we see Derri-
da’s fingerprint on Queer Studies. During the 1980s, Foucault (“The Re-
pressive Hypothesis” The History of Sexuality, vol. 1, 1978, 15–50) also helped
set the stage for the development of Queer Studies in The History of Sexuality
with his notion of how institutions exercise power through individuals
thereby making them subjects to those establishments. The individual acted
in accordance to the rules and guidelines of their specific role, and he later ex-
plains how sodomites had only been temporary in nature until they were
broken down into various categories such as homosexuals clearly illustrating
identity as a preconceived notion and society fitting its members into rigid
and often fixed roles (Foucault, 15). Only in recent times were individuals
who performed acts of sodomy labeled as homosexuals, and it raises the
question of the artificiality and need for labels such as heterosexual and
homosexual.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, critical theorists such as Adrienne
Rich, Bonnie Zimmerman, Judith Butler, and Eve Sedgwick began
their work in Queer Studies branching out from the feminist movement, and
the rising awareness of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender commu-
nities resulting from the onset of the AIDS epidemic. The term “Queer
Studies” actually came about during this time period in the writings of
Teresa de Laurentis. During the early 1980s, there was a public miscon-
ception that this disease originated from within the homosexual commu-
nity, and critics from outside the community began crying out that homo-
sexuality was a leading source of the disease pointing to its supposed
fatalistic nature that lead one to eventually contract HIV/AIDS. These critics
failed to focus on the unsafe actions performed by individuals (including het-
erosexuals) as a cause for this disease, instead of labeling certain groups of in-
dividuals as being responsible for the epidemic. This further marginaliz-
ation and misunderstanding of the LGBT communities lead to the rise in
these individuals’ need to speak out against such unfair treatment especially
when it became clear that there were other behaviors responsible for the dis-
ease and that it was not limited only to the LGBT community.
In the 1990s, Judith Butler focused on this notion of self-realization as
key to understanding an individual’s identity. Like Sedgwick, she contends
that gender is mutable and not a fixed concept determined by genetics.
Butler initially concerns herself with challenging the accepted binary ap-
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5 Queer Theories in Medieval Studies

proach to gender, that is, the socially normative convention of being only
masculine or only feminine, along with the accompanying system of thought
that allows only these two gender choices (109–11). She argues against so-
ciety’s use of chromosomal sex in its determination of gender and sexuality
of the individual. The problem with this system can be seen for example,
when a male child slowly develops a sexual preference for other males (that
is, a manifestation of sexuality), demonstrates behaviors characteristic of
femininity (emblematic of his gender preference). This presents only one of
many possible variations in sexuality and gender. The individual possesses
the genetic makeup of a man, yet he displays gender and sexual preferences
outside the framework aligning male chromosomes with masculine gender
and heterosexual preference. In similar fashion, how does one label a woman
who does not adhere to feminine tastes and opts for more masculine beha-
viors? This illustrates the possibility for the rearrangement of gender and
sexuality not taken into account by the hegemonic construction of gender
identity.
Looking closely at cross-dresser, or drag queens, we can see begin to see
this rearrangement of gender and sexuality. Butler uses the example of Di-
vine (born Harris Glenn Milstead), a 300-pound cross-dresser who per-
formed in a number of John Waters’ movies, such as Hairspray (Butler,
X–XI). Butler makes a compelling argument when she posits the ways
“drag [is] the imitation of gender,” or it highlights the performative aspects
to those “signifying gestures through which gender itself is established” (X).
Drag queens demonstrate one of two possibilities: first, that they are simply
imitating the socially traditional understandings of gender, or secondly,
they illustrate the possibility that all methods of self-identification are per-
formances. If we believe the second claim, as Butler does, then we must ac-
cept that the idea of any sort of natural, inherent gender is a fantasy. Drag
replicates and mocks the gender role being performed, thereby exemplifying
the continued deconstruction of the binary system of gender. In revealing
the performative nature of gender, drag underscores the performative and
non-inherent aspects of identity as a whole (X–XI).
One of the significant problems of socially constructed identities lies at
the margins of the social group, with those individuals whose behaviors do
not fit in perfectly with the mainstream. Because we see “all social systems
are vulnerable at their margins, and that all margins are considered danger-
ous,” Butler (“Interiority to Gender Performatives,” The Norton Anthology of
Theory and Criticism) argues societies tend to label those individuals as margi-
nal and polluted since they no longer fit into the mainstream (Douglas
quoted in Butler, 2493). Taking Mary Douglas’ idea of the marginal
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Queer Theories in Medieval Studies 6

being, Butler links this socially polluted individual to homosexuality.

Anal and oral sex create “certain kinds of bodily permeabilities unsanctioned
by the hegemonic order” and which identifies individuals participating in
these marginal activities as dangerous and polluted (2493). Those homosex-
ual bodies found on the margins deviate from the sanctioned norm of male-
female sexual orientation. The appearance and behaviors of these marginal
members disqualifies them from the mainstream, and the majority of society
drives them from the social group to these outer boundaries.
Preceding Sedgwick and Butler, Monique Wittig (“One Is Not Born
A Woman,” The Straight Mind, 1992, 9–20) discusses the relationship between
identity construction and identity oppression. Although Wittig does not
specify gender as a qualifier of identity, she contextualizes her argument
with gender-specific arguments. For this reason, this specification has been
made when representing her arguments. Wittig argues that the lesbian
community should refuse to participate in the heterosexual construction of
gender. As she explains, the dominant paradigms construct women accord-
ing to a particular social relationship with a man, a relationship that “we
have previously called servitude,” citing marriage, child production, and
other domestic activities traditionally delegated to women (20). Accordingly,
when society labels individuals with certain gender roles, a form of oppres-
sion has taken place because those labels force the individuals into roles with
these expectations of performance. Thus, Wittig rejects the notion of a
natural gender identity, saying, “we have been compelled in our bodies and
in our minds to correspond feature by feature, with the idea of nature that has
been established for us. Distorted to such an extent that our deformed body
is what they call ‘natural’” (9). It can be inferred from Wittig that there is no
natural or original gender identity; “man” and “woman” are socially con-
structed identities pushed upon each person throughout history.
Recognizing oppression is important to Wittig, “for once one has ac-
knowledged oppression, one needs to know and experience the fact that one
can constitute oneself as a subject […] that one can become someone in spite
of oppression, that one has ones own identity” (15). Simple recognition of
this method of oppressing identity does not equate to freedom of self-con-
ceptualization. Individuals must actively cast aside those signs used in their
previous portrayals of self, through their actions and clothing, and must cre-
ate new signs to define themselves. Although Wittig calls for the outright
destruction of the masculine, heterosexually generated signs, her idea of
self-reinterpretations opens the door to Marvin Carlson’s notion of the
management of signs nearly twenty years later.
Additional insight into Queer Studies can be gained through an examin-
ation of how its understanding of identity performance relates to the theater
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7 Queer Theories in Medieval Studies

and the performing arts. In the late 1990s, Marvin Carlson (Performance:
A Critical Introduction, 1998) provided a three-part working definition of per-
formance that involves the public display of a “recognized and culturally
coded pattern of behaviors” where the “success of the activity” is judged in
view of “some standard of achievement” (4–5). An act taking place on stage
is considered performed and the same action off-stage is “merely done,” yet
both are presented to the public (4). Every performance is public requiring
recognition and validation of the performer by the audience. Carlson
diverges from most gender performance theorists, however, when he argues
that the “recognition that our lives are structured according to repeated and
socially sanctioned modes of behavior raises the possibility that human activ-
ity could potentially be considered ‘performance’” (4). He further clarifies
the focus of the argument by suggesting “at least all activity carried out with
a consciousness of itself […] when we think about them […] gives them the
quality of performance” (4). While most Queer theorists would not argue
against the first part of his argument, the concept of performance only taking
place when the individual is aware of it places him in opposition to many. He
does seem willing to commit to the conscious construction of identity, but
does not address how unconscious behaviors relate to performance. This fails
to take into account either those behaviors individuals may not be aware
of what they are doing or the reasons individuals act in ways that contribute
to the performance of identity. Carlson’s point is worth considering, how-
ever, because sometimes the individual makes a decision to carry out an act
and the performed behavior may eventually become an unconscious repeti-
tion. Carlson’s argument for the conscious decision to perform is still valid
despite appearing to overlook the unconscious aspects of performance.
There is an interesting addition to Butler’s dialogue about drag in
Carlson’s discussion of the 1970s “Roberta Breitmore” character. Actress
Lynn Hershman embodies Queer Studies’ notion of identity performance in
her portrayal of a female exploring various aspects of real life, from joining a
mundane Weight Watchers group to participation in a prostitution ring.
“Roberta” had her own bank account, a driver’s license, fictional back-
ground, as well as a therapist she regularly saw until her eventual “death”
when Hershman completed her experiment in 1978 (Carlson, 152). This
suggests that drag, as Butler discussed it, is simply an extension of the very
theatrical performance Carlson discusses. Hershman’s drag accomplishes
two things: first, it doesn’t necessarily mock those presented aspects of iden-
tity Butler asserted were characteristic of drag, but it does illustrate the
performative nature of identity. Secondly, it shows that individuals can con-
duct a drag performance of characters of the same sex with purpose of explor-
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Queer Theories in Medieval Studies 8

ing “many of the personal/ daily conflicts […] faced” in day-to-day experi-
ence (152).
There is also the issue of the individual’s deliberate manipulation of
these signs – those acts and behaviors indicative of a specific script – that il-
lustrate the performative aspect of identity. Some signs considered emblem-
atic of one stigmatized script can be associated with a second script of a dif-
ferent sort:

Those attempting to direct attention from their stigma may present the sign of
their stigmatized failing as the signs of another stigma […] [Oscar Wilde] man-
aged the stigma of homosexuality through claiming an identity built upon sec-
ondary signs (Carlson, 154).

Carlson draws the comparison of Oscar Wilde’s public claim to be a dandy –

the foppish socialite sharing some feminine characteristics – as a means to
avoid the stigma of homosexuality. There were certain signs of Wilde’s beha-
vior indicative of either a homosexual or a dandy. Individuals can demon-
strate both awareness of the public’s perception of themselves as well as their
ability to manipulate that public perception through the management of
their identity signs. Wilde illustrates this point as his awareness of how the
public perceived him allowed him to redirect this perception from the stig-
matized homosexual to that of the less stigmatized dandy.

D. Current Issues and Future Trends

Although Queer Studies originated at the end of the 20th century, one can
still apply this contemporary critical approach to older texts without falling
into anachronism. Robert Sturges (Chaucer’s Pardoner and Gender Theory:
Bodies of Discourse, 2001) uses identity performance theory to better analyze
medieval characters, such as the Pardoner from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Without going in significant detail, Sturges implements this notion of in-
dividuals behaving in ways both masculine and feminine. He points to the
Pardoner’s male and female bodily descriptions, masculine and feminine be-
haviors, and ambiguous sexual preferences in relation to his relationship
with the Summoner. These clues give credibility to the case for applying
Queer Studies to centuries-old texts to better understand identity formation.
In his examination of the problematic gender of Chaucer’s Pardoner,
Sturges reinforces Sedgwick’s notions of sex, gender, and sexuality argu-
ment in differentiating between what he calls “sex acts […] anatomical sex
[…] and gender performances” (27). Sturges agrees with Sedgwick’s
point of not addressing the individual’s gender by chromosomal sex as well
as ruling out the adherence to the binary choices of labeling someone as only
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9 Queer Theories in Medieval Studies

one gender or another. Borrowing heavily from Judith Butler, Sturges

advocates blending the two gender identities where the vehicle for this hy-
bridization of the genders is performance. No individual demonstrates
wholly masculine or wholly feminine behaviors, thereby making the binary
relationship Sedgwick questions even more problematic. The contempor-
ary example of the “metrosexual” illustrates this point. These individuals
are heterosexual males, and yet do not wholly demonstrate behaviors
commonly believed characteristic of the heterosexual male demographic in
contemporary America. This particular group of people display interests in
activities stereotypically seen as feminine, such as participating in spa treat-
ments, dressing in the latest fashions, and being overly attentive to personal.
This highlights the difficulty in mainstream America’s (and by extension,
contemporary culture) use of the binary concept of gender.
Susan Crane (The Performance of Self: Ritual, Clothing, and Identity During the
Hundred Years War, 2002) continues bridging the gap between this 20th- and
21st-century discussion of identity performance theory and 15th-century
England. Crane adds both to Butler’s concepts of identity performance
and inscriptions on the body as well as to the larger discussion of Queer
Studies. She explores the use of clothing and personal accessories as exten-
sions of the body in identity performance contemporary to Malory. Crane
defines performance in her work as “the heightened and deliberately com-
municative behaviors, public displays, that use visual as well as rhetorical
resources” (3). She continues to say that “public appearance and behavior are
thought not to falsify personal identity, but on the contrary, to establish and
maintain it,” thereby demonstrating the means by which clothing and other
accessories serve to aid in identity performance (3). This places Crane within
the same scope of thought as Butler in her understanding of the per-
formative construction and maintenance of identity. While Butler focuses
on more modern manifestations in her critical approach, Crane examines
the 15th century with her understanding of performance theory, paying par-
ticular attention to the role clothing played in the body’s presentation of self.
Performance-driven identity found its basis “in social performance,”
and was widely accepted as “the conviction of medieval elites” (Crane, 5).
Referring to the poem “Roman de Fauve” which makes use of the social per-
formance of self, Crane supports this argument by showing how “courtiers
wear masks of peasants, fools, and animals but also take care to remain recog-
nizable to one another. Rather than concealing a prior identity, they seek
a dynamic simultaneity, between that prior self and the supplementary iden-
tity of their costume” (6). The mask represents a desired signification or cos-
metic representation different from that of the noble’s physical body freeing
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Queer Theories in Medieval Studies 10

the body from social expectations otherwise placed on the unmasked body.
The body is the vehicle for communicating signs, but for Crane (and unlike
Butler) “clothing, not the skin, is the frontier of the self,” acting as the sign
that communicates the different meanings or characteristics of identity.
Crane supports her argument by stating that “clothing mark[s] social posi-
tion, age, gender, season, and even time of the day” (6). Only knights were
found wearing armor astride a horse, and nobility were easily identified by
the family coat of arms they wore. Both upper and lower classes lived under
“sumptuary legislation [that] assigned clothing significant social weight […]
[and] restricted various fabrics, furs, and ornaments to the use of specific
ranks and income levels” (11). These examples provide concrete evidence of
the significance of clothing in the social construction of identity in 15th-cen-
tury England. In this way, Crane demonstrates how Queer Studies’ contem-
porary understanding of identity performance applies to the late medieval
period in a relevant manner.
Dorsey Armstrong (Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory’s Morte
d’Arthur, 2003) breaks new ground in when she ties Queer Studies and iden-
tity performance to Le Morte d’Arthur – a text previously unexamined by other
Queer theorists. Taking Judith Butler’s understanding of drag as a per-
formance of self, Armstrong makes the argument that knighthood is itself
a form of drag. The individual puts on an identity through the adherence to a
rigid code of conduct and wearing such accoutrements such as armor and a
coat of arms (Armstrong, 68). Drag often serves as a disruptive force among
socially expected gender roles in modern society. Since Lancelot adopts the
script of the madman and causes a significant disruption wherever he goes,
Armstrong’s connection of this contemporary theory to Malory’s text ap-
pears to be a logical one.
One of the most clear-cut examples of identity’s social formation is seen
in “The Book of King Arthur” when the Knightly Code is established. Arm-
strong notes how Arthur helps create a society that imprints upon each in-
dividual an identity script dependent such factors as gender and the socio-
economic class. Once the individual is properly identified, there is a cultural
expectation that the individual performs this role to a satisfactory degree.
She points out Arthur’s establishment of Knight’s Code from “The Tale of
King Arthur” as an example of such societal identity formation:

“[…] than the kynge stablysshed all the knyghtes and gaff them rychesse and lon-
dys; and charged them never to do outerage nothir mourthir, and allwayes to
fle treson, and to gyff mercy unto hym that askith mercy, upon payne of forfiture
[or their] worship and lordship of kynge Arthure for evermore; and allwayes to do
ladyes, damsels, and jantilwomen and wydowes [socour:] strengthe hem in hir
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11 Queer Theories in Medieval Studies

ryghtes, and never to enforce them, upon payne of dethe. Also, that no man take
no batalyes in a wrongefull quarell for no love ne for no worldis goodis. So unto
thys were all knyghtis sworne of the Table Rounde, both olde and younge, and
every yere so were the[y] sworne at the hyghe feste of Pentecoste” (Malory 75–6).

This code serves as an excellent example of a society constructing and enfor-

cing the performance of identity – at least, the identity of those who would
claim knighthood. Arthur’s code clearly establishes the knight’s role and
identity. There is little ambiguity with Arthur’s expectations for the members
of his court as he defines his vision for the interactions between his knights
and ladies, damsels, gentlewomen, widows, and with each other. Arthur
classifies each of the different roles of men and women at this time in relation
to their class and specific to women, their marital status. This code provides
individual nobles with a clearly laid out set of social expectations to uphold.
Malory depicts a society where identity is both constructed and enforced.
Because failure on the part of a knight to adhere to this identity code would
call Arthur’s authority into question, it would directly violate the king’s
command. Likewise, failure to enforce this rule would call Arthur’s role as
king into question. To emphasize the significance of these sorts of crimes as-
sociated with the Knightly Code, the code prescribes penalties for violations
ranging from the loss of the king’s favor (to include the “rychesse and lon-
dys”) to death. Lancelot and the other knights affirm their identity through
“the repetition of the behavior itself” rather than a “masculine knightly be-
havior” indicating some sort of “inherent masculinity” (Armstrong, 73).
Malory clearly lays out the guidelines for the way he envisions how culture
shapes an individual’s identity.
In addition to Malory, other texts reinforce our sense that the efficacy of
identity performance was recognized during the Middle Ages. For instance,
many guidebooks or “speculum principis” detail the offices of knight-
hood and nobility during Malory’s day (Armstrong, 76). These guidebooks
served as a means for public discourse where writers commented on “the con-
cerns of the times” and the need for reinforcement of social behaviors and ex-
pectations (77). From the 15th century, Lull’s Libre laid out expectations that
all knights maintain and defend the holy catholic faith, and secondly, main-
tain and defend women, widows, orphans, and sick men (80). In the 14th cen-
tury, Geoffrey de Charney’s Livre de Chevalrie emphasized the knight’s
obligation to religious devotion, providing alms to those in need, as well as
bringing together the “concepts of courtesy, loyalty, and prowess with piety”
(80). What makes Malory unique from these didactic texts, according to
Armstrong, is that he presents these knightly scripts over an extended
period of time, so that their “sustained deployment and exploration […]
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Queer Theories in Medieval Studies 12

eventually makes clear the structured failings of the code” and by extension
the tensions within any socially imposed identity (78). While Malory is not
alone in depicting some of the ways society has acted in the creation of the
identity roles, the lasting endurance of Le Morte d’Arthur speaks to the level of
his contribution to the discourse of identity formation.
The last difference Armstrong makes between Malory and his prede-
cessors is his inclination to depict a culture of chivalry where the masculine is
completely subservient to the feminine: knights were tasked to aid all
women of every social station. This is a drastic change from Lull and de Char-
ney who both advocated courtly relationships of mutual benefit to both the
man and woman (84). Malory’s reinterpretation of courtly love carries an
underlying implication that all women need the aid of a man in all matters.
This implication suggests when the woman does not need the man’s aid, the
man’s identity is called into question. Armstrong states “the feminine rep-
resents the perpetual opportunity for positive construction and refinement
[…] [and] to admit the possibility that the feminine need not always be help-
less and vulnerable would be to admit to a potential threat to the idealized
stable gender system” (82). Men repeatedly performing masculine behaviors
reinforce both their roles as men and the women’s place in society. Women
who are able to help themselves leave little for men to accomplish. For this
reason, we see a further breakdown of Malory’s vision of the chivalric com-
munity when women act outside of their given roles.

E. Summary
Every individual has various identity scripts written on their bodies that help
determine whether the body can be identified as masculine or feminine, het-
erosexual or homosexual, aristocratic or peasant. The body performs these
signs through performing actions or clothing itself with accessories. Cul-
tures imprint these identity scripts on the body of every individual through
the ages, leading to the misconception that this established practice is a natu-
ral and real standard for the individual to meet. Queer Studies shows that
each person forms a composite of these various scripted identities, with the
end result the construction of an individual public persona. When individ-
uals act out these respective scripts be they male or female, masculine or
feminine, or some differing form of sexual orientation, they demonstrate
both a conscious and an unconscious performance. When the individual per-
forms consciously, this demonstrates the notion of performance and is as
close to self-representation as is possible.
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13 Queer Theories in Medieval Studies

Select Bibliography
Elizabeth Allen, “The Pardoner in the ‘Dogges Bour’: Early Reception of the Canter-
bury Tales,” False Fables and Exemplary Truth in Later Middle English Literature (New York:
MacMillan, 2005), 111–32; Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,”
The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 1993), 307–20; Teresa de
Lauretis, “Queer Studies: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities: An Introduction,” Differences
3.2 (1991): III–XVIII; Carolyn Dinshaw, “Got Medieval,” Journal of the History of Sexual-
ity 10.2 (2001): 202–12; Lisa Duggan, “The Discipline Problem: Queer Studies Meets
Lesbian and Gay History,” GLQ 2.3 (1995): 179–91; Tison Pugh, “Queering Harry
Bailey: Gendered Carnival, Social Ideologies, and Masculinity Under Duress in the
Canterbury Tales,” The Chaucer Review 41.1 (2006): 39–69; Adrienne Rich, “Compul-
sory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and
Society 5 (1980): 631–60; James Schultz, “Heterosexuality as a Threat to Medieval
Studies,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 15.1 (2006): 14–29.

Forrest C. Helvie