@article{article_1707011, title={WHAT MODERN WORLD REMEMBERS ABOUT MEDIEVAL HEROISM: T. H. WHITE’S ILL-MADE KNIGHT}, journal={Uluslararası Toplumsal Bilimler Dergisi}, volume={9}, pages={1–10}, year={2025}, author={Hay, Funda}, keywords={Lancelot, Yeniden Yazım, Orta Çağ Hafızası, T.H. White, the Ill-Made Knight}, abstract={Literature has always been regarded as a vehicle of memory since both oral and written products have reflected the cultural, social, and even historical background of communities. All literary works establish a bridge between past and present, which is significantly strengthened through the rewriting and adaptation of previous works in each epoch. In this regard, medieval heroes become figures who occupy a place in collective memory since they contribute to transferring of cultural heritage. This is exemplified in the Arthurian legends, which never go out of date. King Arthur and his Round Table Knights have become the ideal heroes in every period and symbols of national heroism. However, the stereotyped knights are recreated in a new adaptation to deconstruct the concept of the charming knight in the medieval memory. In the third book The Ill-Made Knight (1940), of his collection The Once and Future King (1958), the English author Terence Hanbury White twists the perception of Lancelot, one of the best knights of Arthur and the suitor of Guenever. Unlike Chrétien de Troyes, the first poet to introduce Lancelot, White portrays Lancelot as an ugly and untalented knight. After Chrétien, in the Vulgate cycles and Malory’s Morte d’Arthur (1485), Lancelot was overshadowed by Arthur. Yet he was still an attractive and skilful knight with whom Guenever fell in love; therefore, his fame grew because of the love triangle, and he became an essential figure of the Arthurian legends. Within this context, this paper aims to discuss how White deconstructs the understanding of the archetype of the irresistible knight while transmitting medieval chivalric code and knighthood, and to explore how medieval memory becomes part of contemporary communicative memory. Moreover, the criticism of totalitarian regimes by means of a medieval rewriting will be explored.}, number={2}, publisher={Sadık Hacı}