Unit 5: Queer Studies

Explore: "Unclouding the Rainbow in History" (Part 1)

Description: "Some female saints passed as men."

Description: "For the sixth episode in their Medieval Beginnings series, Mary and Irina go full Romance with one of the most elaborate and surprising narrative poems in medieval literature, Le Roman de Silence, a complex, 13th-century Old French tale about gender, power and transformation."

Description: "What if, long ago, the most beautiful girl ever born was named Silence, and then raised as a boy who became the greatest minstrel and bravest knight in the land?   Silence:  A 13th Century Medieval Adventure, a filmed stage production, uses the text of the thirteenth-century French poem, translated by Sarah Roche-Mahdi from the original, written by Heldris of Cornwall (likely an Arthurian pseudonym) to bring Silence's gender-bending journey to life.  

Set in the time of knights, dragons, maidens and Merlin, the play tells the story of Silence, the most perfect woman in the world who is raised as a boy.  Although Silence must live in disguise—in order to inherit her parents’ lands and wealth—she goes on to become the greatest minstrel and the most valiant knight in England and France.  While fending off the advances of an amorous and deceitful queen, she must somehow capture Merlin, all while attempting to come to grips with her own identity.  

The manuscript was only discovered in 1911 at Wollatan Hall in Nottingham, England, resting in a box marked “old papers—no value.”  It has since become a text of interest to medievalists, gender studies, as well as readers interested in Arthuriana.  

Though filled with traditional Arthurian adventure, relayed in a comic style, the play also portrays the intricate nature of gender inequality and gender identity that resonates with modern discussions of sexual politics, non-binary identity, as well as social and scientific questions of nature vs. nurture.  

Audiences interested in medieval and fantasy literature, exciting and non-traditional staging, or a story and character that speaks to the importance of discovering one’s identity, purpose and calling should experience the sights and sounds of Silence."