Afro-arthurische Weltentwürfe Tracy Deonns ‚Legendborn‘-Reihe als Ausgangspunkt für rassismuskritische Lektüren höfischer Literatur

Abstract

Fantasy retellings utilising Arthurian motifs and topoi offer an opportunity to look at medieval texts from a new angle. This article aims to raise questions about race and the invisibility of whiteness based on Tracy Deonn’s ‘Legendborn’ cycle, as the contemporary fantasy series depicts the Order of the Round Table from the perspective of a young Black girl who is racially discriminated against by the elite society. Deonn’s young adult novels can help trace power imbalances and injustices in medieval courtly texts, although they may only be subtly present in Middle High German Arthurian romances like ‘Parzival’ by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Still, 21st-century fantasy can be useful in uncovering the elusive hierarchies that determine who gets to belong, who gets to tell stories, and who gets to be legendary, thereby creating access for anti-racist medieval studies.