Date Approved

2010

Degree Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department or School

English Language and Literature

Committee Member

Christine Neufeld, PhD

Committee Member

Martin Shichtman, PhD

Abstract

French TV‘s M6 aired a ground-breaking television advance, known as Kaamelott, from 2005 to 2009, derived from a long tradition of Arthurian narrative form and a long tradition of that form‘s modernization. Spanning the split, therefore, between the Modern and the Medieval, Alexandre Astier‘s experimental Adventure-Comedy, adapting no single model, this Frankenstein, brought to life through canny theatrical bricolage, provokes the following concrete question: how have the dimensions of the exemplary human life of the King been updated by this installment of an eight centuries (and more) old tradition? Using the frame-work of Berne‘s Games People Play, I explore the respective fields of Childhood, Games, and Loves, in parallel to his Child, Adult, and Parent. To what extent, ultimately, has the self-retracting, pre-historical origin of ―Arthur‖ mutated? Does this literary but transmedia window of history perspicuously describe the internal dynamics of tradition‘s afterlife? And—is King Arthur really coming back?

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