Historical grand narratives of the Seven kingdoms of Westeros: from invention to deconstruction of a traditional medieval historiography
pdf

Keywords

George Martin, Westeros, Seven Kingdoms, historical imagination, narratives, feudalism, political rituals

How to Cite

1. Кирчанов М. Historical grand narratives of the Seven kingdoms of Westeros: from invention to deconstruction of a traditional medieval historiography // Journal of Frontier Studies. 2018. № 1. C. 17-46.

Abstract

The article is focused on the problems of medieval images in modern mass culture in the contexts of simulation and imitation of grand historical narratives. The author analyses the text of "The World of Ice and Fire: the Untold History of the Westeros and the Game of Thrones" in the contexts of historical and political imaginations and the inventions of alternative identities. The author believes that medievalism lost its academic isolation because modern mass culture uses various images of the Middle Ages actively. Representatives and creators of mass culture use the achievements of academic medieval studies. The imagined universe of George Martin has real medieval prototypes. The author of the article, on the one hand, analyses the historical narratives of "The World of Ice and Fire: the Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones" as an attempt to form historical and political memories. On the other hand, the problems of the features and type of Westeros feudalism are also analysed in this article.

https://doi.org/10.24411/2500-0225-2018-00002
pdf

References

Alexander, M. (2007). Medievalism: the Middle Ages in modern England. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. NY: Verso.

Attali, M. (2017). Religious Violence in Game of Thrones: An Historical Background from Antiquity to the European Wars of Religion. In B. A. Pavlac, Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood (pp. 185-194). NY: Wiley-Blackwell.

Attewell, S. (2014). Race for the Iron Throne: Political and Historical Analysis of "A Game of Thrones". Blue Buddha Press.

Bloch, H. (Ed.). (2014). Rethinking the New Medievalism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Boytsov, M. (2014). "Ritualy - ehto i est vlast". Intervyu s istorikom Mihailom Bojcovym ob obryade srednevekovoj koronacii praktike pomazaniya i statuse korolevskoj vlasti v Evrope. Retrieved from https://postnauka.ru/talks/35978

Boytsov, M. (2014). Koronacii v srednevekovoj Evrope. Istorik Mihail Bojcov o roli inauguracionnyh ritualov istokov tradicii pomazaniya i rabote medievista s istochnikami. Retrieved from https://postnauka.ru/video/32882

Cantor, N. (1991). Inventing the Middle Ages: The lives, works and ideas of the great medievalists of the twentieth century. New York: William Morrow.

Caroll, S. (2017). Medievalism in a Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. Boydell & Brewer.

Carroll, S. (2015). Fantasy and Science Fiction Medievalisms: From Isaac Asimov to A Game of Thrones. Rewriting the Fantasy Archetype: George R. R. Martin, Neomedievalist Fantasy, and the Quest for Realism, Young, Helen. Amherst: Cambria Press.

Clasby, D. (2017). Coexistence and Conflict in the Religions of Game of Thrones. In B. A. Pavlac, Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood. (pp. 195-208). NY: Wiley-Blackwell.

Cowlishaw, B. (2015). What Maesters Knew: Narrating Knowing. In S. Johnston, & J. Battis (Eds.), Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (pp. 57-70). NY: McFarland.

Eco, U. (1986). Dreaming of the Middle Ages, Travels in Hyperreality. Orlando: Harcourt.

Efimov, A. (2017). Urbanizaciya i drakony. Retrieved from https://batenka.ru/aesthetics/cinema/got/

Ekman, S., & Taylor, A. I. (2016). Notes Toward a Critical Approach to Worlds and World-Building. Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 3(3), 7-18.

Filyushkin, A. (2017). Kak nam privlech Ivana Vasilevicha Nevskogo Istorik-diagnost noosfera i geroicheskie mify proshlogo Narrativy proshlogo i budushchego Rossii. Retrieved from http://gefter.ru/archive/23407

Haritonovich, D. (2000). Sovremennost Srednevekovya. Novyj mir(10), Retrieved from http://magazines.russ.ru/novyi_mi/2000/10/sovr.html.

Hobsbawm, E., & Ranger, T. (1983). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ivanov, S. (2015). Gumanitarnaya nauka vse pereotkryvaet. Retrieved from https://arzamas.academy/materials/191

Jakovljevic, M., & Loncar-Vujnovic, M. (2016). Medievalism In Contemporary Fantasy: A New Species Of Romance. Imago Temporis. Medium Aevum(10), 97-116.

Johnston, S., & Battis, J. (Eds.). (2015). Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. NY: McFarland.

Kyrchanoff, M. W. (2017). “New wine into old wineskins”: the other horizons of frontier studies and performative turn in fantasy between medievalism and traditional poetics. Journal of Frontier Studies(4), 81-109.

Larrington, C. (2016). Winter is Coming: The Medieval World of Game of Thrones. NY: I.B.Tauris.

Maitland, F. W. (1897). Domesday book and beyond: three essays in the early history of England. Cambridge University Press,.

Marques, D. (2016). The Haunted Forest of “A Song of Ice and Fire”: a space of otherness. Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 3(3), 31-40.

Marsden, R. (2018). Medievalism: New discipline or scholarly norman's land. History Compass, 16(1), 1-9.

Martin, G., Antonsson, L., & Garcia, E. (2014). The World of Ice & Fire: the Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones. Bantam: Bantam: Harper Voyager.

Mason, P. (2015, April 6). Can Marxist theory predict the end of Game of Thrones? The Guardian, Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/apr/06/marxist-theory-game-of-thrones-lannisters-bankers-sex-power-feudal-westeros-revolution .

Mehanik, A. (2011). Zaverit u Klio Zapadnoj Evrope fantasticheski povezlo s istoriej... schitaet istorik chlen-korrespondent RAN Pavel Uvarov. Ekspert(11), Retrieved from http://expert.ru/expert/2011/11/zaverit-u-klio/.

Mondschein, K. (2017). Game of Thrones and the Medieval Art of War. McFarland.

Muhlberger, S. (2017). Chivalry in Westeros. In B. A. Pavlac (Ed.), Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood (pp. 47-56). NY: Wiley-Blackwell.

Panfilov, F. (2014, Февраль 11). Rycar kaminnogo kovrika Igra prestolov i drugie obrazy srednevekovya na ehkrane s tochki zreniya istorika-medievista. Kolta, Retrieved from http://www.colta.ru/articles/media/1997.

Panfilov, F. (2014). Telemedivalizm srednevekovye serialy konca XX - nachala XXI veka. Logos(6), 193-208.

Panfilov, F. (2016). Telemedivalizm srednevekovye serialy konca XX - nachala XXI veka. Neprikosnovennyj zapas(3), Retrieved from http://magazines.russ.ru/nz/2016/3/srednevekovye-pesochnicy-medievalizm-v-kompyuternyh-igrah-nacha.html.

Pavlac, B. A. (2017). Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood. NY: Wiley-Blackwell.

Pavlac, B. A. (2017). Of Kings, Their Battles, and Castles. In B. A. Pavlac (Ed.), Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood (pp. 57-70). NY: Wiley-Blackwell.

Perpinya, N. (2016). Ruins, Nostalgia and Ugliness: Five Romantic perceptions of the Middle Ages and a spoonful of Game of Thrones and Avant-garde oddity. Logos Verlag.

Pojidaev, E. (2011). Staroe i novoe srednevekove Desyatye gody. Russkij zhurnal, Retrieved from http://www.russ.ru/Mirovaya-povestka/Staroe-i-novoe-srednevekov-e.

Polack, G. (2017). Setting up Westeros: The Medievalesque World of Game of Thrones. In B. A. Pavlac (Ed.), Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood (pp. 251-260). NY: Wiley-Blackwell.

Ramon Ruiz, J. L. (2016). The Favor of the Gods: Religion and Power in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 3(3), 41-50.

Riggs, D. (2017). Continuity and Transformation in the Religions of Westeros and Western Europe. In B. A. Pavlac (Ed.), Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood (pp. 173-184). NY: Wiley-Blackwell.

Rijkovskiy, V. (2009). Sovetskaya medievistika i Beyond (k istorii odnoj diskussii). Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie(97), Retrived from http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2009/97/ry4-pr.html.

Rudoy, A. (2015). "Igra prestolov": istoricheskij materializm seks i smert. Vestnik buri, Retrieved from http://vestnikburi.com/igra-prestolov-istoricheskiy-materializm-seks-i-smert/.

Savitskiy, E. (2015). Novyj medievalizm chetvert veka spustya. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie(135), 346-354.

Savitskiy, E. (2016). Preposterous History: anahronicheskoe Srednevekove na rubezhe XX i XXI vekov. Sociologiya vlasti, 28(2).

Sidorov, A. (2017). Karolingskoe istoriopisanie Istorik Aleksandr Sidorov o zhanre deyanii politicheskih aspektah istoriopisaniya i sochineniyah. Retrieved from https://postnauka.ru/video/73561

Tarly, S. (2017). The Climate of the world of Game of Thrones. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of King’s Landing, 1(1), 1-9.

Tucker, K. (2017). Violence, Politics, and Religion: Cosmic War in Game of Thrones. Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 1(1), 54-66.

Uvarov, P. (2000). Apokatastazis ili Osnovnoj instinkt istorika. Kazus Individualnoe i unikalnoe v istorii(3), 15-32.

Uvarov, P. (2004). Istoriya istoriki i istoricheskaya pamyat vo Francii. Otechestvennye zapiski(5), Retrived from http://magazines.russ.ru/oz/2004/5/2004_5_17.html.

Uvarov, P. (2010). Revansh socialnoj istorii. Retrieved from http://polit.ru/article/2010/03/23/history/

Uvarov, P. (2011). CHlen-korrespondent RAN Pavel YUrevich Uvarov rasskazal na seminare IGITI ob osobom meste socialnoj istorii v sovremennoj nauke. Retrieved from https://igiti.hse.ru/news/37709881.html

Uvarov, P. (2016). Pryamaya rech Pavel Uvarov Istorik Pavel Uvarov o lyubimyh knigah puti k professii i obraze Srednevekovya. Retrieved from https://postnauka.ru/talks/64678

Wittingslow, R. M. (2015). "All Men Must Serve": Religion and Free Will from the Seven to the Faceless Men. In J. Battis, & S. Johnston (Eds.), Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on George R. R. Martin’s "A Song of Ice and Fire" (pp. 113-131). NC: McFarland.

Young, H. (2015). Fantasy and Science Fiction Medievalisms: From Isaac Asimov to A Game of Thrones. Cambria Press.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.