Wounded Masculinity: Injury and Gender in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur

Abstract

I N gender studies, critics frequently postulate masculine ideal of suave and potent invulnerability and then demonstrate how the male characters in question inevitably fall short of it. Bryce Traister has offered thorough critique of this tendency in American studies, arguing that the focus on transcendent masculinity obscures study of competent masculinity-ideas of manliness as they are actually practiced.' Unfortunately, the same tendency can be seen in medieval studies. While invulnerability and easy power may be fantasies for indi vidual men, these daydreams do not reflect the more realistic ideals of manhood expressed in work such as Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur. Even the best of Arthur's knights are frequently injured in battle, needing time, help, and protection as they recuperate. Malory does not treat these wounds as failures to achieve dream of inviolate masculinity; instead, injuries are integral to masculinity as it is prac ticed and celebrated. Wounds not only provide meaning to knightly combats but also educate young knights. They also provide part of the basis for community, as knights errant bond with their healers or return to their companions and courts for healing. Thus, although obviously not desirable in and of themselves, the wounds are necessary for the narrative and part of the chivalric ideal of manhood. To explain adequately the role that wounds play in constructing masculine identities and communities, we must abandon the idea that knighthood depends on a construct of masculinity as whole and invio