WHITE KNIGHTS AND THE PENTECOSTAL OATH: THE LINEAGE OF ALT-RIGHT AND INCEL MASCULINITIES IN SIR THOMAS MALORY’S LE MORTE DARTHUR

Abstract

Addressing the lacuna in academic scholarship on the rhetoric used by the alt-right Incel subgroup, this thesis consider how (and perhaps why) the “Incel” movement has misappropriated medievalisms. Drawing on existing scholarship on both Incels and performed masculinities in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, this thesis aims to explain how Incels orient themselves in relation with medievalisms, using Le Morte as a touchstone for both its interest in masculinity and its popularity. By considering how Malory uses the Pentecostal Oath to push a normative performance of masculinity, this thesis asks how a 15th century work both contributes to and questions ideas of hegemonic gender binaries. This thesis advances discussions on how academia tends to study only a part of the wider alt-right community when looking at appropriated medievalisms, and that academics may need to broaden their gaze to fully understand the depth and width in which medievalisms are being abused for contemporary political discourse.