Authurian Rhetorical Tools

Mary Frances Zambreno's artictle Why Do Some Stories Keep Returning? Modern Authurian Fiction and the Narrative Structure of Romance she tells us why author's keep coming back to the age old story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Roundtable. She explains that the story is one that is easy to retell because of how it is, "organized and presented".  It also leaves a opportunity for later generations to make it into a story of there own. Zambreno defines the rhetorical tools that make Authurian narrative retellable time and time again. Through the use of mutability or plasticity, piecemeal, windows of opportunity, and open-ended closure.

First,Mutability or plasticity is the way the material can be reshaped for new audiences. The characters play a huge role in adaptibility. For example, some tales protray the story as more of a forbidden romance between Queen Gwenhwyfar and Lancelot. While others will protray war over romance. Second, piecemeal the nature of Authurian narrative, the way the story has been pieced to gether from different sources, that encouraged later adaptions. Third, windows of opportunity is the gap left by the very nature of Britain, that leaves windows open for other stories, and view points to enter in. The Arthurian legend gives later authors the opportunity to have space to work. Finally, we look at the open-ended closure. This where the author turns over the key. If the reader wants more they may have to do some research, or even write the continuation for themselves,.