'A Kind of Vessel to Carry on the Idea': Frustrated Taxonomies of Adaptation in T.H. White's The Once and Future King

Abstract

The complex intertextuality of T.H. White's The Once and Future King problematizes definitions of source and adaptation in medievalism. Positioned as a footnote to, a preface to, and a commentary upon Malory's Morte Darthur, White's work demonstrates the productive possibilities of adaptive relationships that frustrate our attempts to 'taxonomize' them.