English Language and Literature Commons^™

Gawain The Exile: Reading 'Sir Gawain And The Green Knight' In A Postcolonial Context, Hannah Vaughan

All Theses

In his essay 'Reflections on Exile,' Edward Said writes that the experience of the exile transcends definitions that seek to confine it to the traditionally defined post-colonial period, noting that 'in other ages, exiles have similar cross-cultural and transnational visions, suffered the same frustrations and miseries, [and] performed the same elucidating and critical tasks.' This principle, decisive in the articulation of post-colonial theory, nonetheless finds numerous points of resonance in pre-colonial periods. Many texts completed centuries before Said or even colonialism existed seem to demand to be read within postcolonial contexts. The state of exile that Said describes is one …