Halfway done with a paper analyzing feminist criticism of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur. It's actually entertaining (for me, anyway). Arthurian legend is fascinating, and the readings that some of these critics give are particularly ingenius, considering that they're finding feminine subtexts in a work that is overarchingly masculine and also based on a legend that is the same in its primordial forms.

It's not that they want to supplant the work, or I wouldn't be able to support their efforts. It's a different way of looking at it. I already am able to appreciate Arthur's rise, reign, and fall as king, Lancelot's struggle to maintain chivalric virtue and monamorous love even as that love is gained from Guenevere, the wife of the King he swore his oaths to, Gawain's struggle to reign in his rebellious family and govern the split, even as he's driven mad by the loss of his two sons. There's Galahad, Percival, Kay, Pellinore, Mordred, and a host of others, and these studies shine more light (and grant more importance narratively) to Nyneve (the Lady of the Lake), Morgan le Fay (the enchantress that tries to thwart Arthur), Percival's sister (who acts as a guide and then sacrifices herself so the Grail quest can go on), Elaine (who mothers, by Lancelot, Galahad), Guenevere, Igrayne (Arthur's mother), and others.

It is a lot like looking at a picture for a long time, and you see a certain part and wonder, "Well, I see it, but I don't understand it." Or maybe you just don't understand it. And then maybe someone tells you, or if you're moving a certain way, you catch a glimpse of something new.