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Description
This text examines Catherine Fisher's adaptation of the Perceval Grail legend in her adolescent novel Corbenic. Specifically, this text examines how Fisher's representation of adolescence as identified through her protagonist and Perceval character, Cal; though correlating in several ways to the representation of adolescence in the medieval source material, Cal and Corbenic represent modern adolescent concerns of outward identity performance, dealing with a dysfunctional family, and the complicated process of coming to terms with one's internal self and desires. While the medieval Perceval is a figure who struggles through adolescence through a series of external, social conflicts, Fisher's Cal is a Perceval figure who struggles through internal, psychological conflicts. This paper focuses on Fisher's emphasis on internalized trauma, and in how Fisher creates a Perceval Grail quest that is at once individual and personal while being metaphoric for an individual's search for the self and the identity. Drawing from Karen Coats' Looking Glasses and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and the Subjectivity in Children's Literature, Roberta Seelinger Trites' Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature, and Margaret and Michael Rustin's Narratives of Love and Loss: Studies in Modern Children's Fiction, this text examines the protagonist's struggle to navigate his subjectivity against both the power structures of society and the inhibiting psychological trauma attained through his early relationship with his mother. The Grail quest is a quest of absolution; a quest to heal the broken and ailing lands; a quest to heal the Fisher King, the Maimed King. For Fisher and for Corbenic, the Grail represents the ability to forgive others and to forgive one's self— to heal through awareness, acceptance, and love. This speaks directly to the consequences of trauma on identity formation. In Fisher's Grail legend, the Grail quest is centered on the ability to both outlive and conquer the traumas that seek to psychologically cripple the protagonist, giving Cal the ability to traverse the complexities of pain and joy and to achieve the maturity and growth to know how to balance past fears with current desires. Ultimately, this paper examines how Fisher's Corbenic is a novel dedicated to personal growth, in how each individual must learn how to live in the world.
