All tagged history

The image of the lady knight is an enduring and recurring romantic motif often found in fantasy literature. From The Cave of the Golden Rose (1991) to Game of Thrones (George RR Martin 1996-present; HBO 2011-2019), the lady knight has seized our imagination as a heroine, a female warrior filled with fighting prowess. Respected and feared by their peers, they stride confidently. They are often beautiful, gorgeous to behold, and they instill a sense of admiration because they are powerful knights, surpassing even their masculine counterparts.

However, the lady knight of the late medieval and Renaissance epics was the subject of contention…

If you ask any writer, I suspect they will most likely tell you that we as humans convey information by means of story. If you ask any moral philosopher, they will most likely tell you the same thing. Work on narrative extends even further to a host of academic disciplines.[1] A broad overview of theoretical physics will tell you the story of the universe. Modern psychology hinges on the notion of the ‘storied nature of human conduct.’[2] Current AI research finds much of its present work determined by narrative.[3] Indeed, there are few professions that cast aside the relevance of story—though finance brokers, corporate attorneys, and tech billionaires might tell a different… er… story. As important as ‘narrative’ has become both academically and professionally since the work of Paul Ricœur in the mid-20th century, that same century invoked a wave of focus on scientific reason where critical analysis superseded storytelling and narrative was viewed as both trivial and infantile in a way that continues well into the 21st. [4] Thus, despite story’s prevalence in the work of individual lives, society’s trajectory, and the conveyance of history and research, as a matter of societal importance it is swept aside. And like all things associated with children, no kind of story is swept aside more dismissively than the fairy tale.