Game of Thrones

With dragons, dogs, wolves, ravens, and so many more, animal symbolism is endlessly significant in Game of Thrones. Discover their meanings in heraldry, in Celtic myth, and other clever correspondences. What do red, green, black, and grey symbolize, in heraldry and fiction? Why does Daenerys wear so much blue? What about golden roses? As George R.R. Martin’s characters chomp on bloody beef, blood oranges, red wine, beets, and pomegranates, they foreshadow the inevitable bloodbaths. Thus the intricately crafted world of books and show has endless depth, revealed in this spoiler-free talk for fans of every flavor. (This is a free powerpoint of a presentation I've done--this is also a book, written by me, with this title).

CU Boulder - FREN1200
Offered FA2014, FA2015, FA2016
Course Description: The popularity of George RR Martin's fantasy saga A Song of Ice and Fire and its Emmy-winning HBO adaptation Game of Thrones shows us that major themes from medieval stories still resonate with audiences a thousand years after their composition. This course will examine major epic and romance texts of the Middle Ages such as Beowulf, The Song of Roland, and The Death of King Arthur. We will aim to understand the rich literary tradition that has led to our modern interest in dragons, knights, heroes and magic. We will also look at how representations of medieval culture in contemporary series such as Game of Thrones influence our conceptions (and misconceptions) of the Middle Ages. Much like Sansa, we will find that the stories do not necessarily reflect the reality.

In this paper, the textual schematic of Game of Thrones is examined through the emotional reactions of national fan groups to themes and events of the show. In particular, the analysis of Italian and New Zealand followers’ comments on Game of Thrones, as reported in their own words, will be instrumental to illustrating the reasons for their passion for the series as well as the main concerns that arise during the viewing of this TV program. This ambivalent attitude in the responses of fans will emerge as significantly dependent on the media text’s capacity to transcend the boundaries of a simple categorization, so as to stand as a notable example of a program that manages to appeal to diverse audiences beyond the country of origin.

İnternet teknolojileriyle gelişen yeni medya araçları, izleyiciyi pasif süreçten aktif bir sürece doğru sürüklemeye başlamıştır. Bu süreç içerisinde izleyiciler, her türlü yeni medya ortamında var olabilmek ve kendini kabul ettirebilmek için mücadeleye girişmiştir. Yeni medyanın sağladığı bu olanaklar sonucunda katılımcı kültürün inşası tezini ortaya atan Henry Jenkins, günümüzde insanların, pasif birer izleyici olmaktan ziyade, medya içeriklerini üreten, dağıtan ve reklamını yapan kişilere dönüştüğünü ifade etmektedir.
Günümüzde milyonlarca insan tarafından takip edilen Game of Thrones dizisinin, Henry Jenkins’in yukarıda sözü edilen katılımcı kültürün inşasından fazlasıyla faydalandığı düşünülmektedir. Bu bağlamda çalışmanın amacı; yeni medya teknolojileri vasıtasıyla katılımcı kültür inşasının ne şekilde oluştuğunu ortaya koymak olarak belirlenmiştir. Çalışmada örneklem olarak son yılların en çok konuşulan dizilerinden Game of Thrones dizisi seçilmiştir ve dizinin bu denli popüler olmasında spoiler kavramı ve katılımcı kültürün ne tür etkilerinin olduğu üzerine inceleme yapılmıştır. Çalışma sonucunda Game of Thrones dizisinin yakaladığı başarıda katılımcı kültür ve spoiler kavramlarının büyük katkısının olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

The 9th issue of Fantasy Art and Studies gathers the proceedings of the symposium "Représentations animales dans les mondes imaginaires" (Université d'Artois, November 2019) organised by Marie-Lucie Bougon, Charlotte Duranton and Laura Muller-Thoma. It explores the animal theme in Fantasy fiction with papers dealing with the link between woman and dragon in Game of Thrones and Robin Hobb's works, the swine animalisation of Orcs, the bestiary of Harry Potter...
It also includes short stories, including a new tale by Charlotte Bousquet, a figure of the French Fantasy scene, and the new chapter of Guillaume Labrude's comics, plus beautiful illustrations by Océane Azeau, GaëlleC., Antoine Pelloux, Guillaume Labrude, Guillaume Sallah Thomas, Princesse Mandragore Art and Véronique Thill who signs the cover art.

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Le 9e numéro de Fantasy Art and Studies rassemble les actes du colloque "Représentations animales dans les mondes imaginaires" (Université d'Artois, novembre 2019) organisé par Marie-Lucie Bougon, Charlotte Duranton et Laura Muller-Thoma. Il explore la thématique animale dans la Fantasy à travers des articles sur le lien entre femme et dragon dans Game of Thrones et l'oeuvre de Robin Hobb, l'animalisation porcine des Orques, le bestiaire de Harry Potter...
Il inclut également des nouvelles, dont un récit inédit de Charlotte Bousquet, figure majeure de la Fantasy française, et le nouveua chapitre de la BD de Guillaume Labrude, ainsi que de superbes illustrations d'Océane Azeau, GaëlleC., Antoine Pelloux, Guillaume Labrude, Guillaume Sallah Thomas, Princesse Manadragore Art et Véronique Thill qui signe l'illustration de couverture.

This article examines the Game of Thrones (GoT) fan phenomena in the Arab world. Although I contextualize GoT as a commodity within HBO’s global ambitions to attract a global audience, I study GoT Arab fans as an organized interpretive online community. I examine the Arabic fan Facebook page “Game of Thrones‒Official Arabic Page” (GoT-OAP), which has over 240,000 followers, as a case study of cultural production and consumption by fans. Based on interviews with members of the administration staff of the GoT-OAP Facebook page, as well as textual analysis of the page’s posts, I ask: How is fan culture around GoT produced in the Arab world? How are the boundaries between being fans, media producers, and consumers negotiated? Are there connections between the themes of GoT and the current unrest across the Arab region? If so, how are they articulated? Through emotional realism and hybridity, I show that Arab fans find ways to negotiate their fandom of GoT with their local context and li...

What can be done and what is being done to alter the depictions of fat characters as evil, negligible or comedic in fantasy fiction?  Despite being a genre in which almost anything is possible, fantasy fiction is still yet to embrace fat protagonists or characters that have evolved from anything other than a number of “fat tropes” which have existed for decades, trailing far behind other genres in term of diversity.  From classic high fantasy like, “The Lord of the Rings,” in which hero Frodo is noted for being especially slender when compared to other members of his traditionally rotund species, to modern series such as, “Harry Potter,” in which larger characters are portrayed a either unsympathetic bullies or incapable cowards, fat characters are demoted to the role of amusing side-kick or an even more minor character, normally with a deep-seated loathing or unease about their weight.  Characters with the tenacity to feel comfortable in their own bodies are relegated to the role of antagonist or a fetishistic love interest. In the rare cases that a fat character makes it as a protagonist, such as in Robin Hobb’s “Soldier Son Trilogy,” the characters are universally unhappy with their size and their weight loss is used as a short cut to character development.  With YA fantasy a burgeoning genre representing fat people as relatable and realistic protagonists in a fantasy setting becomes of greater import as those books reach a wider and more impressionable audience.  Why are so few novels picking up this slack?

This article analyzes the representations of non-white identities in an HBO's fantasy show "Game of Thrones" (GOT). By specifically focusing on hegemonic relations between white characters and characters of color, the research scrutinizes the rhetorical strategies through which non-whiteness is enacted in relation to white "natives" of the "Westeros." Authors show that the GOT employs orientalist discourse in constructing the world of Westeros and contrasts it with the exotic lands of Essos. Westeros is rich, white and located in the western hemisphere, while Essos is a scorched and mysterious land located in the East. By associating the show's major characters with Westeros and the casting of white actors, viewers are encouraged to identify with their complex struggles and to embrace their intricate characterizations. On the other hand, Essos' characters of color typically include marginalized characters such as slaves, servants, and pirate...

This paper explores how Varys, a supporting character of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, represents several tropes about eunuchs. The paper also touches on the Unsullied and Theon Greyjoy, other characters who are, for better or worse, made into eunuchs over the course of the series, and how this castration shapes their growth as dynamic characters.

Dragons have always been present in the imaginary of mankind, since ancient myths about the creation of the world. The figure of the dragon is rooted in every culture, be it the evil serpent symbol of the devil typical of Western, Christian culture, or the benevolent creature that is bringer of rain in the Eastern tradition. Perhaps because of their importance in all the cultures of the world, dragons have also played a consequential role in fantasy literature, and indeed since J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937), this creature has been a recurrent character in many works of the genre.
In this dissertation, the role of the dragon will be analyzed, especially in postwar fantasy fiction. More specifically, it will be shown how this mythical creature passed from being considered no more than a beast to be slain to a real icon of this literary genre. If in the ancient Western narratives, indeed, the dragon was regarded as a representation of chaos to be annihilated by a god or hero in order to restore a social balance previously subverted (Lionarons 1998), nowadays it is not necessarily seen as an enemy, but also as an advisor, an ally or even an inseparable companion for the main character of a novel.
We will focus mainly on some literary works that can serve as examples of such a transition, but we shall start by briefly analyzing the literary dragons in Beowulf and The Saga of the Volsungs, for they contributed enormously in shaping Tolkien’s Smaug: a dragon that, in turn, would have a great influence on all subsequent fantasies. Then we shall examine the role of dragons in Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea sequence (1968-2001), noting how in her later novels they become protectors of order and no more agents of chaos. We will continue by examining the bond between dragons and their riders in Anne McCaffrey’s The Dragonriders of Pern series (1967-2012), the dragons depicted in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series (1983-2015) – seen as imaginary beasts that can acquire shape and substance only if we truly believe in them – and finally their role in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (1996 ff.).
During our survey, we will compare the role of dragons to that of other fantasy creatures who underwent a similar evolution in the same period, such as the werewolf and the vampire, and we shall notice how all these literary monsters are nothing but different projections of our selves (Du Coudray 2006, Browning and Picart 2009). In conclusion, we shall see how in contemporary fantasy dragons can play at least five different roles: ‘the evil enemy to be slain or subjugated’; ‘the wise warden of order’; ‘the shapeshifter’; ‘the inseparable ally and life-long friend’; and finally ‘the wild but tameable beast’.
We shall focus mainly on literary works, but we will also make some references to other media, such as the main representations of dragon in cinema and role-playing games (RPGs).

El presente artículo busca explorar los modos
en que estas actividades de creación libre,
informal y cotidiana de los jóvenes en entornos
extraescolares puede ser aprovechada pedagógicamente
desde el medio educativo con un doble
objetivo: por un lado, para atender los variados
intereses y necesidades de los alumnos; por otro,
para acompañar los nuevos aprendizajes y construir
conocimiento con ellos. En un contexto en
que la escuela y la universidad se hallan atravesadas
por nuevas prácticas y dispositivos que se
filtran por la porosidad inevitable de sus paredes,
es necesario capitalizar didácticamente dichos saberes
procedentes del afuera de la institución educativa
para transformar la enseñanza en una actividad
emancipatoria, generadora de significados
relevantes para los jóvenes y niños de hoy.

This article analyzes the representations of non-white identities in an HBO’s fantasy show “Game of Thrones” (GOT). By specifically focusing on hegemonic relations between white characters and characters of color, the research scrutinizes the rhetorical strategies through which non-whiteness is enacted in relation to white “natives” of the “Westeros.” Authors show that the GOT employs orientalist discourse in constructing the world of Westeros and contrasts it with the exotic lands of Essos. Westeros is rich, white and located in the western hemisphere, while Essos is a scorched and mysterious land located in the East. By associating the show’s major characters with Westeros and the casting of white actors, viewers are encouraged to identify with their complex struggles and to embrace their intricate characterizations. On the other hand, Essos’ characters of color typically include marginalized characters such as slaves, servants, and pirates. Their story arcs are glazed over and their characterization serves not to enhance the narrative but to emphasize the uniqueness of a superior cultural entity, i.e. Westeros. The essay discusses the implications in which GOT perpetuates long-established relations in a re-imagined system of power, which its writers and audiences have identified as female progressive and noted for its narrative complexity.

From Winston Black in The Medieval Review 15.06.24...

'In the concluding essay, "The Bright Side of the Knife: Dismemberment in Medieval Europe and the Modern Imagination," Lila Yawn clearly takes the most chances and has the most fun in exploring the topic of medieval wounds and wounding. After a review of graphic and supposedly "medieval" dismemberments in modern movies and literature, such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, or Pulp Fiction, Yawn poses the simple question of "how medieval cutting up living bodies really was" (218). In response, she gives a whirlwind tour of nearly two millennia of images and descriptions of amputation, dismemberment, fragmentation, and mutilation from Cicero to Thomas Jefferson. In so doing she demonstrates, as many medieval apologists have already noted, that there is no greater amount or degree of dismemberment in the Middle Ages than before or after, but what leads moderns to equate "medieval" with "dismemberment" is the medieval tendency to celebrate dismemberment and put severed body parts on display, be they of the criminal or of the saint.'

The Medieval Review 15.06.24
Kirkham, Anne, and Cordelia Warr, eds. Wounds in the Middle Ages. The History of Medicine in Context. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014. pp. xvi, 254. $124.95 (hardback). ISBN: 9781409465690 (hardback).
Reviewed by: Winston Black, Assumption College. black@assumption.edu
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/19219/25339

En esta 3ra edición de nuestra Revista Cuadernos de Comunicólogos no tratamos a la pandemia por el virus SARS-CoV-2.

Lejos de tratarse de una ingenua declaración de originalidad, hemos decidido no tratar el tema en curso dado que aún no sabemos si esta experiencia compartida a la distancia en la pandemia, constituirá un recuerdo, un llamado de atención, o el comienzo de un período de confinamientos fluctuantes originados por epidemias, catástrofes ambientales, crisis económicas, políticas, sociales, inseguridad creciente a causa del crimen organizado, etc.

Lo que sí sabemos es que la comunicación profesional necesita comunicar resiliencia y para ello vigilar estratégicamente la anomia. Desde la sociología fundacional, Durkheim señalaba que la anomia sobreviene ante la ausencia de normas claras capaces de guiar el comportamiento en una área de la vida social determinada. Más tarde Merton identificó a la anomia con la tensión que se produce cuando las normas aceptadas y establecidas en una sociedad, entran en conflicto con la experiencia social de la realidad. Comunicar en las sociedades contemporáneas dependerá en modo creciente de nuestra capacidad profesional para encontrar soluciones creativas, innovadoras, provisionales y biodegradables capaces de fortalecer la resiliencia y superar la anomia en contextos volátiles, inciertos, complejos, ambiguos.

El presente número cuenta con artículos enviados por profesionales de nuestro campo disciplinar y una reseña sobre la edición de un libro coral sobre la actualidad de la gestión de la comunicación en las organizaciones.

From the soaring castles of Sleeping Beauty to the bloody battles of Game of Thrones, from Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings to mythical beasts in Dungeons & Dragons, and from Medieval Times to the Renaissance Faire, the Middle Ages have inspired artists, playwrights, filmmakers, gamers, and writers for centuries. Indeed, no other historical era has captured the imaginations of so many creators. This volume aims to uncover the many reasons why the Middle Ages have proven so flexible-and applicable-to a variety of modern moments from the eighteenth through the twenty-first century. These "medieval" worlds are often the perfect ground for exploring contemporary cultural concerns and anxieties, saying much more about the time and place in which they were created than they do about the actual conditions of the medieval period. With over 140 color illustrations, from sources ranging from thirteenth-century illuminated manuscripts to contemporary films and video games, and a preface by Game of Thrones costume designer Michele Clapton, The Fantasy of the Middle Ages will surprise and delight both enthusiasts and scholars.

In "The Dark Reality of Fantasy," I analyze "Game Of Thrones," the popular HBO fantasy series, and argue that the program's success is related to the dark aspects of Western history related to power dynamics. I claim that ideological oppression—specifically by means of racism and misogyny—is the primary facilitator of the show's plot. I also attempt to pinpoint what makes oppression so captivating to the program's viewers.

This is the second volume of the History of Tv series, that goes from 2000 to today. It deals with both Italian and American Tv series (it has also a chapter on series in UK). It arrives to today: the explosion of Netflix, the Tv series in Amazon and Dinsy+, and the opening of Italian Tv series to the International market with series like Medici, My Brilliant Friend, and Leonardo

Since the beginning of literature itself, men have been dominating over all forms of writing. In terms of fictional writing, men have set the standards of characterization and plot progression in stories. Female characters in fiction are depicted in ways that reflect how men view women. Such depictions satisfy the patriarchal view of women, and in doing so, it has been shaping the minds of the audience on how women should be viewed in real life. However, as more women have taken to writing fiction, they slowly dismantled the stereotypical portrayal of women and instead introduced more substance and attributes that not only shows the character’s femininity, but also the power and strength she holds in the patriarchal society. To explore this difference, this paper will compare and contrast how male and female writers portray women in power by looking into Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones (2011-2019), written for television by Dan Weiss and David Benioff, and Linda Woolverton’s version of Maleficent (2014). By analyzing the TV show and the movie, this paper will look into how two iconic female characters in recent times have been portrayed and visualized by their writers.

Game of Thrones é uma série que revela complexidades na representação de personagens femininas. Tal percepção explodiu simbolicamente através do destino dado à personagem
Daenerys Targaryen. Empreendemos, aqui, a partir da leitura de gênero, um mapeamento dos jornalismos que construíram críticas sobre a problemática implicada no destino da personagem. A partir da análise do discurso francesa, mapeamos e analisamos 49 textos. Percebemos como o feminino e o masculino atravessam a cultura pop, operacionalizada pelo jornalismo, acionando saberes sobre o gênero. Por fim, destacamos o jornalismo de cultura pop feminista como um espaço potente para discutir criticamente como o gênero está implicado na série.

This chapter describes how being one of the outcomes of new media, convergence culture enables
individuals to participate in the production process of media. The active and participatory nature of the
members of the modern web society has led media conglomerates to seek new methods. Transmedia
storytelling is the concept which emerged as a response to this. It can be seen that this type of storytelling is commonly adopted for tv series which have lately become popular. In this chapter, being delivered
with transmedia techniques, Game of Thrones tv series is analysed in terms of transmedia storytelling.

The superhero genre has thrived since the turn of the century. The record-breaking blockbusters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC’s Extended Universe, Marvel and DC’s adult and children’s television series, multiple video games across numerous platforms, and plethora of comic books have all successfully extended their reach beyond the traditional comic book reader to attract new audiences across a variety of media. In this chapter, I focus on what I believe to be some dramatic changes that are happening in female representation and the female demographic within the context of the genre, particularly over the last decade. The emphasis is on the female superhero across comics, film, and television and the systemic changes that have been (slowly) occurring in the stories, in the creative industries that create the stories, and in the world of fans who consume the stories.

The idea that the Middle Ages were a kind of “pre-race utopia,” where discursive constructs of race did not exist, but the races themselves – as biologically related cultural groups – did is very strong in Western culture. It stems chiefly from the ethno-nationalist discourses which developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and saw the Middle Ages as a chaotic, but essential originary crucible. This paper argues that popular culture medievalism are often closely linked to concepts of Whiteness, pointing to fantasy fiction as an example.

Game of Thrones, one of the hottest series on television, leaves hundreds of critics divided on how "feminist" the show really is. Certainly the female characters, strong and weak, embody a variety of archetypes--widow queens, warrior women, damsels in distress, career women, priestesses, crones, mothers and maidens. However, the problem is that most of them play a single role without nuance--even the "strong women" have little to do besides strut about as one-note characters. This book analyzes the women and their portrayals one by one, along with their historical inspirations. Accompanying issues in television studies also appear, from the male gaze to depiction of race. How these characters are treated in the series and how they treat themselves becomes central, as many strip for the pleasure of men or are sacrificed as pawns. Some nude scenes or moments of male violence are fetishized and filmed to tantalize, while others show the women's trauma and attempt to identify with the scene's female perspective. The key is whether the characters break out of their traditional roles and become multidimensional.

Previous research has found that parasocial relationships mirror actual social relation- ships. The purpose of this study is to determine how people reacted to the end of a parasocial relationship per a character death, by applying the Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief Model to Twitter reactions after the death of fictional character Jon Snow from the television show Game of Thrones. The applicability is discussed, as are directions for future research.

Theories of international relations applied to fiction, illuminating both the strengths and weaknesses of their application. Neorealism while aptly providing explanations for certain outcomes in Westeros, it is Gender theory that provides the clearest insights into decision-making. This is a preliminary research paper - and requires both critique, and dialogue for improvement.