The Myth of Morgan la Fey

The sister of King Arthur goes by many names: sorceress, kingmaker, death-wielder, mother, lover, goddess. The Myth of Morgan la Fey reveals her true identity through a comprehensive investigation of the famed enchantress' evolution - or devolution - over the past millennium and its implications for gender relations today. While Western culture consistently seeks to control female sexuality by categorizing a woman's identity into either a mother or a lover, i.e. a Madonna or a whore, Morgan offers a unique duality, a refusal to let her identity be fractured. Here, Kristina Pérez makes the connection between the tension between those two roles and Morgan la Fey's descent within Arthurian legend from goddess to witch.

Kristina Pérez holds a PhD in Medieval Literature from the University of Cambridge, UK. She was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University's Journalism and Media Studies Centre, Hong Kong. As a journalist, her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal Asia, Condé Nast Traveler, CNN, and the South China Morning Post, among others.

Introduction Final Girl: The Once and Future Goddess
1. How to Handle a Woman: Perversion or Psychosis?
2. Courtly Masochism
3. Monstrous Mothers: Morgan la Fey and Mélusine
4. Divine Mothers: Morgan, the Dame du Lac, and the Virgin Mary
5. What do Women Want? Gawain and Freud
6. Fals lustes: Malory's Mistresses
7. Follow Me: Beguiling the Victorians
8. If Ever I Would Leave You: Morgan in the Modern Era