Ithaca College

Michael Twomey (English / Dana Professor of Humanities and Arts, Emeritus) has published the lead article in the Spring 2019 issue of Arthuriana, the journal of the International Arthurian Society's North American branch.

Titled "Retraction and the Making of Arthurian Texts" (Arthuriana 29.1, pp. 10-23), the article presents a theory about how new texts narrating the legend of King Arthur have been composed.  Arthurian writers practiced four forms of retraction that opened up narrative space for innovation:  palinode, re-creation, adaptation, and supplementation.  Each new act of retraction left intact the existing canon of texts, together with the received plot and characters in the pseudo-history of Arthur, thus enabling the continued expansion and renewal of Arthurian literature to the present day. 

Twomey's article began as a paper presented at the International Arthurian Congress in Würzburg, Germany, in July of 2017, which he attended with support from the College.