The Disclosure of Sodomy in Cleanness

Abstract

Cleanness, an alliterative Middle English poem attributed to the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, contains a graphic account of the destruction of Sodom. Elaborating the theme of cleanness, the poet advocates not only sexual purity but also right conduct and respect for God's will. Exhortations to clean behavior are conventional; less expected are the poem's bold censure of “unclean” sexual acts, especially sodomy, and insistence that the clergy maintain vigilant surveillance of sexual wrongdoing. A poem with a salacious cast, Cleanness takes unusual risks in describing sodomy while denouncing it. Using Foucault's “rule of the tactical polyvalence of discourses,” I analyze Cleanness in relation to contemporary manuals of confession, which avoid mentioning sodomy for fear that the word might encourage the act. The poem's description of Sodom concludes with a construction of the feminine that serves as a corrective to the sins of male lust.

Medieval multilingualism and the expression ofemotion:fearin theGawain-poet's texts

“…In his analysis of the portrayal of sodomy in the Sodom and Gomorrah episode of Cleanness , Frantzen (1996) discusses various inversions that the poet puts forward in order to highlight the moral depravity of the towns: what should be a heterosexual paradise ( Cleanness , ll. 697–704) has been turned into a pitch-filled pit ( Cleanness , ll.…”