#the medieval

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a think a lot of people in the english-speaking fandom (can't speak for other parts of the fandom) are familiar with Revolutionary Girl Utena as a deconstruction or subversion of "fairy tales". can't really blame anyone for that, i mean its literally in the lead section of the show's wikipedia article

i mean what are even the elements of fairy tales being subverted here? concepts of princes, princesses, and castles? and happy endings? the former things are not even a necessary element of a fairy tale; only a very small subsection of fairy tales even has those things.

Given the actual content of the show, it seems much more fitting to me to think of it as a deconstruction/subversion of chivalric romance, where princes, princesses, and castles pretty much are required features. which fewer people are familiar with as a genre. i mean there are the obvious references like the whole rose motif being a reference to Le Roman de la Rose, and the french in the title cards. but also more general thematic elements. like rape is really an intrinsic part of the genre!!! and the genre is also considered by some to be the real origin of the concept of "romance" in general within western culture. not to mention that romances predate and sometimes are the origin of "fairy tales" we are familiar with today anyway

so i guess if youre someone who wants a deeper understanding of the themes of the show im pointing you in the medieval romance direction

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haraldur bernharðsson, 'scribal culture in thirteenth-century iceland' // revolutionary girl utena ep. 22 - 'nemuro memorial hall' // ikuhara and mari kotani, 'disturbing, traversing, borderless, shaking sexuality: the place where revolutionary girl utena was born' / / ep. 14 - 'the boys of the black rose' // six manicules in AM 76 8vo // ''the boys of the black rose' //mark d. jordan, 'the invention of sodomy in christian theology' //ep. 17 - 'the thorns of death' // 'the thorns of death' // 'nemuro memorial hall' // hand of god in the dalby gospel book // 'nemuro memorial hall' // 'the invention of sodomy in christian theology'.

Nemuro and the Monastic

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the world of rgu with its princes and princesses is in dialogue with ideas of chivalry and courtly love that generally originate from medieval romance. i've been reading De amore by Andreas Capellanus. one of its most central points is that husband and wife can't "love" each other (only show affection of the same type as a father would to a son!), and that love should be done in secret.

makes me think of akio and mrs. ohtori, and akio and tokiko. and yes of course we can read those scenes as akio being, like, an embodiment of temptation (i believe that's a common reading anyway). and of course, his position at the academy depends on his connection to the ohtori family, so that is a huge part of that. but i think it gives more context for his character to keep in mind this ideal of courtly love and the role that he is trying to play.

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when i was doing my BA i took a history class that was a general survey of the early middle ages, and in that class we read a lot of primary texts.

one of the earliest ones we read in the semester was augustine's confessions. and i remember a few people in the class being genuinely surprised that augustine had misogynistic views, and seemed to believe that he would have been the equivalent of cancelled for them, or that at least they were not really shared by anyone else at the time? my intention here is not to rag on anyone for being ignorant. but this really, really surprised me because i would have thought that it was obvious that people in the 4th century were misogynists. and these were otherwise smart young women who probably considered themselves feminists who were so shocked and surprised by this

and obviously i think about this even now. because i dont understand if they believed that misogyny is only a recent invention or what. maybe they had some sort of idealized vision of the past based on "feminist" retellings of greek myths or something. i guess if you have only been exposed to the past through contemporary fiction that has been molded to today's sensibilities or accounts of history that stress the agency of individual historical women the reality would be quite shocking.

but it really is worrying to me because without an understanding of the history of these ideas, how can you possibly have any sort of coherent understanding of the way they exist today?

i was posed the question recently whether it is worth people reading particularly misogynistic medieval texts. or whether they should just be left behind and forgotten. because you know. it is quite depressing and sometimes uncomfortable. but of course it is worth it. if you just handpick texts that are the best and most progressive examples of historical thought then youre going to end up with a completely backwards understanding, and youre also probably not going to understand how important feminism actually is