PAPER ABSTRACTS GROUPED By SESSIONS - GAME OF THRONES: Popular Culture
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GAME OF THRONES Popular Culture and the :
Deep Past
PAPER ABSTRACTS GROUPED By SESSIONS
SESSION 1: Classical and Oriental themes
1. Jesse Weiner, Greek and Roman Studies, Illinois Wesleyan U. "Across the Great Divide: The Poetics
of Fantasy"
Although high fantasy in the strictest sense may be a modern literary phenomenon, the consummately
mythological genre finds its roots in Homer, Aristophanes, Lucian, and other authors of Greek antiquity.
Famously, Tolkien and Lewis were philologists, and in their wake it would be a difficult task to find a high
fantasy novel that is not abundantly rich in classical intertext and allusion. This essay is not so much a specific
case study, but rather a broader exploration of the generic links between high fantasy and heroic epic,
conducted in part through the lens of Greek aesthetics.
Amidst the summaries, teasers, and critical endorsements on the dust jackets and covers of high fantasy
novels and series from The Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter to Game of Thrones, “epic” is easily one of the
most common words bandied about. All of the word’s various contemporary colloquial meanings (“long,”
“monumental,” “heroic,” “majestic”) fit within the conventions and aims of classical epic, and I argue that high
fantasy constitutes modern day epic in prose. In the first potion of my essay, I read the generic conventions of
fantasy through George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and the aesthetic guidelines for epic set forth by
Aristotle’s Poetics. I show that, more than any other modern genre, fantasy most closely fits Aristotle’s
schematics for authors of high literature.
If fantasy is, in contemporary English literature, something akin to Greek epic, an obvious question arises:
how do we account for the radical divergences in their receptions? For the Greeks, epic poetry occupied the
penthouse suite in the hierarchy of genres, and the places of Homer and Hesiod in the canon were sacrosanct.
Fantasy, however meets with a far more ambivalent reception today. High fantasy series routinely top lists of
best sellers and high-grossing Hollywood blockbusters, yet often they are critically maligned and stigmatized
as base in genre. Tolkien, Lewis, Martin, and Rowling may habitually be credited with writing classics of the
fantasy genre, but, no matter how many books they sell, their novels are rarely if ever listed among the
classics of English literature. In many ways, the bipolar reception of contemporary high fantasy bears more in
common with the afterlives of the Greek novels or even Botticelli, in that the views of a critical elite are
manifestly at odds with a popular audience. The second portion of my essay attempts to account for this clash
of aesthetics.
2. Robert Haug, History, University of Cincinnati. "Between the Steppe and the Throne: The Rise of
Daenerys Targaryen and Turko-Persian Empire Building"
The story of Daenerys Targaryen throughout the first five books of A Song of Ice and Fire has been the story
of an outsider trying to manipulate the politics of Essos with the ultimate goal of forming an army that will
allow her to retake the Iron Throne of Westeros. In doing so, this outsider has put herself at the center of a
web of political power players: Dothraki Khals, Unsullied slave soldiers, mercenaries, merchant lords, and
disgraced knights. Above all, she has attracted followers through her practically religious charisma based in a
noble lineage and represented by her three dragons. In this constellation of the city and the steppe, the
freedman and the slave, the west and the east, the past and the present, Daenerys Targaryen is treading a
path familiar to historians of the great Turko-Persian Empires of the medieval and early modern Islamic
world. In this presentation, Daenerys’s rise to power will be placed in the context of the Turko-Persian
tradition of empire building as exemplified by men like Mahmud of Ghazni and Timur. Her ability to weave
together this network of potential allies will be examined as a means to explore the difficulty of empire
building in complex societies such as Essos or medieval Central Asia.
13. Kevin Bloomfield, Classics, Ohio State University. "The Dance with Dragons: Dynastic Conflict in
Byzantium and Westeros"
SESSION 2: ' Game of Thrones, ' opening-credits sequence
4. Karl Whittington, Art History, Ohio State University. "The Game of Thrones title sequence and the
tradition of maps in fantasy fiction"
My talk will briefly explore the maps that are introduced in the title sequence of Game of Thrones. Maps have
long been a feature of fantasy fiction, introducing the reader to the geography of the constructed world in the
text. These maps, like the Game of Thrones title sequence, often include "medievalizing" features. My talk will
seek connections between these maps and actual medieval traditions of cartography. What kinds of historical
mapping practices do these authors embrace or reject? In what ways do the fantasy maps include references,
implicit or explicit, to real historical civilizations? Besides the Game of Thrones maps, examples discussed
will include the fantasy maps of Tolkien and David Eddings.
5. Arved Ashby, Music, Ohio State University. "'Ice and Fire': Medieval Signifiers in the Game of
Thrones Title Music"
6. Bart Snapp, Mathematics, Ohio State University. "The Star of the Seven Kingdoms: A Mathematical
Perspective"
SESSION 3: gender
6. K. A. Tuley and Sarai Silverman Star, English, Ohio State University. "Seven Kingdoms, Seven Styles:
Power and Politics in Women's Costuming in Game of Thrones"
Costume forms a key element in the medieval aesthetic portrayed in HBO's Game of Thrones series, with the
fashions of the High and Late Middle Ages heavily influencing the design and embellishment of characters'
clothing. We propose first to present some of the more notable examples of medieval influence in the
women’s clothing, at the same time demonstrating how this clothing is distinctly and intentionally designed
to highlight regional and political affiliation.
We will go on to discuss the design choices in the costumes worn by the women of the court at King's
Landing, focusing on their changes throughout the three current seasons: the rich brocades, and complex
embellishments of the nouveau-riche Lannisters, with Cersei Lannister's colors and embroideries becoming
stronger and more masculine as she attempts to take more control of events around her, versus the light,
flowing chiffons and gentle, nature-inspired colors of the southern Tyrells, whose Magaery counters Cersei's
harsher, more martial presentation of a women of power. Trapped as the youngest and weakest member of
the court is Sansa Stark, whose youth and powerless position make her a weathervane for court styles, clearly
shown in the first season as she gradually shifts from the high, gathered collars, subdued colors, heavy
materials and three-dimensional embellishments of the northern Starks to the embroidered silks and
elaborately braided hair seen in the Lannister women, shifting again to airier materials and more simply
bound hair with the entrance of the Tyrells in Season 3, while retaining a taste for delicate, winged insects as
her personal design.
Finally, quotes from the series' dialogue supports the argument for a conscious effort on the part of the
producers—and in some cases the characters—to represent first, political and familial loyalty, and second,
images of women's power and powerlessness through the costuming choices of these three characters.
7. Steven Bruso, English, Fordham University. "Monstrous Male Bodies: Sir Gowther and A Song of Ice
and Fire"
2Medieval literary texts as well as contemporary fantasy narratives often feature monstrous characters who
threaten the social order, though such medieval and fantasy narratives are not often put in conversation with
one another. In this essay, I examine destructive violence through the lens of the monstrous male body in
medieval literature and fantasy. In particular, I'm considering late medieval texts, like the fifteenth-century
Sir Gowther, alongside George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, both of which feature monstrous
males whose bodies are fearsomely large, terrifyingly strong, and are often employed in wreaking havoc
wherever they go. Though separated by hundreds of years, I argue that Sir Gowther and A Song of Ice and Fire
can be meaningfully considered alongside one another, as both narratives present cultural anxieties about
male bodies, and man’s capacity for horrific violence. The vehicle for communicating this message is the
monstrous male body, which often resembles those of giants. Ultimately, the characters in these narratives
and their violence are ‘contained,’ but there is something decidedly impermanent about the closure, and for
audiences witnessing the integration of violent, fighting men into their community, this ambiguity is troubling
in and of itself.
8. Lauryn S. Mayer, English, Washington and Jefferson University. "'Gladly lerne': The Problems and
Profit of Male Mentorship for the Women of A Song of Ice and Fire"
"I don't know if I have any particular views about women in positions of power, though I do think it's more
difficult for women, particularly in a medieval setting. They have the additional problem that they're a woman
and people don't want them in a position of power in an essentially patriarchal society." -- George R. R. Martin
Martin in this quote acknowledges the historical boundaries that prevented clear paths to power for
medieval women; A Song of Ice and Fire relies heavily on the figure of the male mentor as a necessity for later
female authority. As these mentors, however, frequently have their own agendas, the question of cui bono
becomes a fraught one, particularly when the women are encouraged or forced to give up parts of their own
identity or history or conform to questionable values. This paper will focus on these relationships in the light
of medieval conceptions of power, auctorite, and just rule.
SESSION 4: scenography
9. Sean O'Sullivan, English, Ohio State University. "The Best Piece of Business in the History of
Television"
My subject is the first scene in which we meet Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance). In the scene, he guts and
dresses a deer, or some large animal. The scene is not "about" what he's doing; he and someone else talk
about plotting and scheming. I found the fact that this massive butchery operation is never discussed via
dialogue to be fascinating, and indicative of ways in which the series deals with things like figure and ground.
10. Angus Fletcher, English, Ohio State University. "Different Roads to the Same Castle: Game of
Thrones from Page to Pilot"
In this talk, we'll explore two ways in which GRR Martin's original novel was adapted for the HBO TV pilot:
(1) cinematic adaptations, necessary for converting indirect narration and other narrative techniques into
dramatic action, and (2) studio adaptations, changes to the material that were driven purely by studio
concerns, and do not reflect the original logic of the novels. We'll use this to discuss some general principles
for adapting novels to TV, and talk about the ways in which the HBO pilot succeeds and falls short.
11. Graeme M. Boone, Music, Ohio State University."Musical Hybridization in the Red Wedding Scene"
One of the most shocking episodes in the HBO series, the 'Red Wedding' scene (season 3 episode 9) features a
arrangement of the topical ballad 'Rains of Castamere' as a diegetic and non-diegetic element of the drama. I
will discuss how music sets up the scene and plays through it, and observe how different musical genres are
incorporated into the soundtrack to distinct but complementary effect.
3SESSION 5: myths and stereotypes
11. Sarah Lampkin, English, Lynchburg University. "Northern Identity: Stereotypes in Popular
Culture"
Our Northern stereotypes in England have been around since the times of Chaucer. With the depiction of the
North being wild and untamed spreading for centuries, these stereotypes have allowed people to see people
from the North as inferior, traditional, and prone to economic problems. It did not help that after World War
II, the industrialization that happened in the North failed, creating many economic probable for those who
lived there. Even the dialect of a person can give them away as uncivilized compared to the South.
The Northern stereotypes work outside of literary culture and are at work in the media industry. As
examples, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, and Downton Abbey are television shows and movies that
depict the stereotypes sometimes by leaning on depictions of earlier times along with the Northern
stereotypes those times held. Video games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Rune Factory 4 have been
able to hold on to those Northern identities. Popular culture has changed over the years, but even in the
twenty-first century, the North cannot seem to lose the identity it was labeled with centuries ago.
12. Elizabeth Wawrzyniak, English, Marquette University. "George R.R. Martin and the Myths of
History: Postmodernism and Medievalism in A Song of Ice and Fire"
What, exactly, does the medievalism in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series do? Certainly it’s not
intended to be an accurate representation of the Middle Ages, actual or romantic. As Umberto Eco, Heather
Arden, and other scholars of medievalism have long suggested, a return to the medieval is an attempt to
process the concerns that trouble our collective cultural identity, concerns which cannot be fully explored in
the framework of our contemporary experiences. With this in mind, I argue that the combination of Martin’s
postmodern interpretations of history with his medievalism functions to enact a liminal space wherein it is
possible to explore the unexamined constructions of knowledge which threaten our ability to understand the
world we live in. Martin’s work reminds us that our representations of the medieval have always been about
the contemporary first and the medieval second, and warns us of the consequences of building identities,
national or individual around the myths of history. The author disrupts the processes of history and
historicism, and conceals issues of contemporary relevance under a quasi-medieval framework; the
medievalism in Martin’s texts thus acts as an abreaction of contemporary experiences and cultural traumas
performed within the representation of the medieval. The point behind this disguising of identity (real as
unreal; historical as ahistorical; contemporary as medievalism, etc.) within the aforementioned space is that
the process enacts a metaphysical distance between identity and representation where it becomes possible to
imagine alternative identities and histories. Underneath the artifice of medievalism, then, the differences
between Martin’s world and the contemporary world are negligible. The medievalized Westeros and the
world of the contemporary West are really just two sides of the same coin, and the world of A Song of Ice and
Fire can be utilized as a free space in which to explore a host of issues that concern modern culture.
12. Dana Plank, Music, Ohio State University. "Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things: Tyrion
Lannister, Class, and Disability in the Middle Ages"
13. Misho Ishikawa, English, University of Colorado at Boulder. “Dragons, Books, and Bards:
Technology and Innovation in a Song of Ice and Fire”
The universe in the Song of Ice and Fire novels is disturbingly stagnant. Despite the shifting seasons and
changing alliances; despite the death, the war, and the ebb and flow of magic, very little has changed in over a
thousand years of Westeros history. The world of Westeros is one that has been trapped in a kind of circular
movement of time, where every "birth" is a reincarnation of the past. In this paper, I will explore the place
that technology and medical advancements held in the late medieval psyche as compared with the sealed and
self-contained world of Martin's series. I will examine why the people of Westeros are constantly reaching
backward in time; unable to conceive, or even consider, a new future. Furthermore, I will analyze how this
thinking compares with the imaginative space that innovation held in the late medieval period. I argue that
while the Song of Ice and Fire series has done much to revive interest in the medieval period, the discrete
quality of its universe also reinforces a sense of distance. The medieval period is not just one of historical fact,
tightly contained by the borders of time. The changes that occurred during the Middle Ages have profound
4implications in contemporary modes of thinking. By recognizing the new ideas introduced at this time--and
how these ideas challenged and stretched medieval conceptions--we may better understand the effects of
change on ourselves.
SESSION 6: literary and cultural themes
13. Clare Simmons, English, Ohio State University. "Tournaments and Wagers of Battle: Replaying
Ivanhoe in A Game of Thrones"
A crucial element of the success of George R. R. Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire is not the
strangeness of his imagined world, but rather its familiarity. Some of this, of course, is achieved through
characterization in a structure in which each chapter shows the internal workings of one of the characters, a
technique largely replaced by the expert acting in HBO’s award-winning series A Game of Thrones. The
names of the main characters of the kingdoms of the North and South are recognizably Anglo, and readers
and viewers will readily recognize the culture as medieval. I want to interrogate here not the linguistics but
the cultural aspects, and especially the process through which we identify the medieval. I especially want to
focus on set pieces of what we think of as medieval, the tournament and the practice of Wager of Battle, and
discuss their indebtedness to the medievalist literary tradition for which Sir Walter Scott’s 1820 novel
Ivanhoe is a crucial point of departure.
14. Jonathan Combs-Schilling, French and Italian, Ohio State University. "Confessions of an Erstwhile
Knight: Tights, Texts, and the Place of Medieval Fandom in the Classroom"
15. Karen Winstead, English, Ohio State University. "Ice and Fire: George R. R. Martin’s Faux
Medieval"
16. Richard Green, English, Ohio State University. "Les Rois maudits and the Game of Thrones"
SESSION 7: Round table Discussion Getting Medieval(ish), :
Locating Our Enjoyment in the Middle Ages
17. Laurie Finke, Women's and Gender Studies, Kenyon College
18. Mary Kate Hurley, English, Ohio University
19. Travis Neel, English, Ohio State University
SESSION 8: concluding round table
20. Barry Shank, Comparative Studies, Ohio State University
21. Jared Gardner, English, Ohio State University
22. Graeme M. Boone, Music, Ohio State University
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