Editing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (section)

===Postcolonial interpretations===

From 1350 to 1400—the period in which the poem is thought to have been written— there were several [[Welsh rebellions against English rule]], including one by [[Owain Lawgoch]] in 1372 and [[Glyndŵr rebellion|another]] by [[Owain Glyndŵr]] in 1400. The Gawain poet uses a [[West Midlands (region)|North West Midlands]] dialect common in the [[England–Wales border]], potentially placing him in the midst of such conflicts. Patricia Clare Ingham is credited with first viewing the poem through the lens of [[postcolonialism]], and since then a great deal of dispute has emerged over the extent to which colonial differences between the English and Welsh play a role in the poem. Most critics agree that gender plays a role but differ about whether it supports the poem's colonial ideals or supplants them as the English and Welsh cultures interact in the poem.<ref name = arner>{{cite journal| last1 = Arner| first1 = Lynn| date =Summer 2006| title = The Ends of Enchantment: Colonialism and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight| journal = Texas Studies in Literature and Language| volume = 48| issue = 2| pages = 79–101| doi=10.1353/tsl.2006.0006| s2cid = 162665486}}</ref>

A large amount of critical debate also surrounds the poem as it relates to the bi-cultural political landscape of the time. Some argue that Bertilak is an example of the hybrid Anglo-Welsh culture found on the England–Wales border. They therefore view the poem as a reflection of a hybrid culture that played the two cultures off one another to create a new set of cultural rules and traditions. Other scholars, however, argue that historically there was much violence between the Welsh and English into the 15th century, creating a situation far removed from the more friendly hybridisation suggested by Ingham. To support this argument further, it is suggested that the poem creates an "us versus them" scenario contrasting the knowledgeable and civilised English with the uncivilised borderlands home to Bertilak and the other monsters that Gawain encounters.<ref name="arner" />

In contrast to such postcolonial analyses, others argue that the land of Hautdesert, Bertilak's territory, has been misrepresented or ignored in modern criticism. They suggest that it is a land with its own moral agency, one that plays a central role in the story. Bonnie Lander, for example, argues that the denizens of Hautdesert are "intelligently immoral", choosing to follow certain codes and rejecting others, a position which creates a "distinction&nbsp;… of moral insight versus moral faith". Lander thinks that the border dwellers are more sophisticated because they do not unthinkingly embrace the chivalric codes but challenge them in a philosophical, and—in the case of Bertilak's appearance at Arthur's court—literal sense. Lander's argument about the superiority of the denizens of Hautdesert hinges on the lack of self-awareness present in Camelot, which leads to an unthinking populace that frowns on individualism. In this view, it is not Bertilak and his people, but Arthur and his court, who are the monsters.<ref name = lander>{{cite journal| last1 = Lander| first1 = Bonnie| year = 2007| title = The Convention of Innocence and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight's Literary Sophisticates| journal = Parergon| volume = 24| issue = 1| pages = 41–66| doi=10.1353/pgn.2007.0046| s2cid = 143667691}}</ref>