| This thesis examines heterotopic spaces in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo, The Book of the Duchess, and Pearl. The protagonists in each of these works perform -- knowingly or unknowingly---ritualized movements which lead them to interact with and acknowledge the heterotopias of which they are a part. Subsequent encounters with and experiences of the uncanny and the fantastic prove to be the trial stages of their rites of passage, and reveal that the 'normal' and 'other' worlds are not so different as they once seemed---in fact, they are one in the same. |
