The Silent Identity: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Convention in Le Roman de Silence and The Story of Silence

Author

Anita Farrell, Ursinus CollegeFollow

Submission Date

7-18-2025

Document Type

Paper

Department

English

Faculty Mentor

Kara McShane

Comments

Presented during the 27th Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 18, 2025 at Ursinus College.

Project Description

Le Roman de Silence is a 13th-century French romance about Silence, a woman raised as a man to protect their family’s inheritance. Heldris of Cornwall, the author, develops a rich inner world to help the audience connect with Silence, allowing them to experiment with gendered, sexual, and romantic boundaries. This romance intrigues modern scholars, especially feminist and queer researchers due to narrative pressure on conventions like gender and sex. In 2020, Alex Myers, a transgender author, updates Silence’s tale in The Story of Silence, where Silence explores their identity in greater detail. Silence eventually identifies themselves as non-binary and refuses marriage to the King, living instead as a knight with no romantic ties. This project builds upon Silence’s refusal to conform to gender, sexual, and romantic conventions. Ultimately, I argue for a reading of Silence that is both aromantic and asexual, despite some complications posed by Myers’ alterations to the original romance. While most readings acknowledge Silence’s transgender or non-binary identity, reading Silence as aromantic and asexual further highlights their desire to exist outside of social barriers and suggests a fluidity in all aspects of Silence’s character, not solely in reference to gender.

Recommended Citation

Farrell, Anita, "The Silent Identity: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Convention in Le Roman de Silence and The Story of Silence" (2025). English and Creative Writing Summer Fellows. 37.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/english_sum/37