Morgan le Fay/Morgana Pendragon (Annotated Bibliography)

Genre:

Morgana Pendragon. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://merlin.fandom.com/wiki/Morgana_Pendragon.

                -This text is an extremely thorough database of Morgana from the loose BBC adaptation of Arthurian lore, Merlin. It contains deep and well-founded descriptions or her relationships with other character, her interactions, her progression as a character, and many memorable and character-defining quotes that she had over the seasons. This source remains generally objective, mostly stating what she did and how that impacts the story and setting, listing her traits, and describing details and trivia of her character. I plan to use this article as the basis for anything I say about Morgana/Morgana’s actions.

               

Morgan le Fay. (2019, September 29). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_le_Fay.

-This text provides a thorough database of the mythological figure, Morgan le Fay. It contains various descriptions of her character, actions, and overall lore. I plan to use this source for any discussion involving Morgan le Fay and will likely focus on its information on the descent of her portrayal from a sort of “superhero” savior figure to a deeply antagonistic role.

Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). Morgan le Fay in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Retrieved from https://www.shmoop.com/sir-gawain-green-knight/morgan-le-fay.html.

                                -This text provides information concerning one Arthurian legend in particular (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), and more specifically, provides an analysis of Morgan le Fay’s character and actions in this particular story. This text is brief but packs a lot of information. Given that I’m going to be focusing on the Arthurian genre, and within that, will be focusing on Morgan le Fay’s character, this seems like a helpful source.

Social History:

Katherine Allocco. (2016). Monstrous Morgana: Arthurian Women as Unnatural Amazons in Madame Xanadu (2008–2010), (3), 120. https://doi.org/10.1353/art.2016.0040

                                -Though it’s focusing on different modern(ish) portrayals of Morgan le Fay, this academic article is still relevant to me. It makes the point that Morgan’s actions are vilified based on gender in modern portrayals of her. For example, the author points out that male characters in the same setting behave similarly but are still the “good guys,” and Nimue is seen as good because she obeys men, is passive, gentle, and overall more attractive to men. I plan on discussing BBC’s vilification of Morgana, how she is put in a more understandable light but is still ultimately depicted as an irredeemable villain. This article has a lot of insight on femininity and the vilification of breaking gender roles that pertains specifically to Morgan le Fay, and thus, I feel could still help me in constructing my presentation.

Robeson, L. (1998). Pawns, Predators and Parasites: Teaching the Roles of Women in Arthurian Literature Courses. Medieval Feminist Newsletter, 25, 32–36. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2008300881&site=eds-live&scope=site

                                -This academic text discusses the roles of women in Arthurian myths and later interpretations of it. This source is interesting in that I feel like it’s doing something similar to what I’m trying to do. It has a lot of interesting information on the “idyllic” roles that Arthurian women play. I think that information like that is extremely relevant to my presentation, and I could gather some ideas from Robeson’s.

Kacelnik, C. (n.d.). Iconography: Morgan le Fay. Retrieved from https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/iconography-morgan-le-fay.

                                -Kacelnik discusses the changing role that Morgan le Fay has in Arthurian myths, as well as how some feminists have been reclaiming her character and identity in modern times. By the end of the Arthurian mythos, she has gone from being a superpowered ally of Arthur’s to a twisted, patriarchal depiction of a woman, obsessed only with beauty. This text offers some basic historical discussion which is helpful to me, and it also puts forth the idea that Morgana is a significant character to feminists, which I can work with.

GATEWAY TO DATABASES. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://bulldogs.tlu.edu:2160/article/8d46816c1557458e8d8d8da85d3e9404.

                                -This academic source discusses the roles of Christianity and Paganism in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Unfortunately, I am unable to access the full article. Having said that, I think that it’s possible to glean some important information just from the part I’m able to access. For one thing, it’s tied to a myth that has appeared in other sources, which will help with organization. Also, Morgan le Fay’s departure from beautiful and merciful magic-user to “ugly pagan who can only even do magic because she seduced Merlin, and that magic is evil,” was influenced by Christianity. I think that I could draw a parallel between this shift with Morgan le Fay in actual legend, and how Morgana is a good guy for the first half of the series and a bad guy (who’s still beautiful, but scarier looking, and not as “well-dressed”) later on. The latter text tries to make this shift sympathetic, but allow it to happen nonetheless.

Apparatus:

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://faculty.tlu.edu/svrooman/apparatus.html.

                                -This source discusses apparatus theory, and some various forms of media that it can appear in. One form that it discusses is television. The adaptation I’m comparing to Arthurian myth is a TV series, so this information/discussion will be especially useful to my presentation.

Raymond Williams Television Technology and cultural form. (n.d.). Retrieved October 3, 2019, from http://classes.dma.ucla.edu/Winter13/8/Williams_Televison_Flow.pdf.

                                -This text also discusses apparatus, specifically when it comes to television. It contains a large quantity of information on flow, which is also discussed in the previous text. I think that I can combine the information they have on flow.

GATEWAY TO DATABASES. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://bulldogs.tlu.edu:2067/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=9&sid=8c802a8c-11bf-4a00-ac7a-c37374786813@pdc-v-sessmgr04.

                                -This source further discusses television and apparatus, discussing television as a medium as well as “emancipatory television,” which the author describes as an awakening, transformative experience found in a show’s storytelling/development. I think that this could be an interesting point in my presentation, and this could tie in nicely with information from my other apparatus sources.