Is the world of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s Game of Thrones really medieval? How accurately does it reflect the real Middle Ages? Historians have been addressing these questions since the book and television series exploded into a cultural phenomenon. For scholars of medieval and early modern women, they offer a unique vantage point from which to study the intersections of elite women and popular understandings of the premodern world. This volume is a wide-ranging study of those intersections. Focusing on female agency and the role of advice, it finds a wealth of continuities and contrasts between the many powerful female characters of Martin’s fantasy world and the strategies that historical women used to exert influence. Reading characters such as Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, and Brienne of Tarth with a creative, deeply scholarly eye, Queenship and the Women of Westeros makes cutting-edge developments in queenship studies accessible to everyday readers and fans.
Author(s): Zita Rohr, Lisa Benz
Series: Queenship And Power
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 326
Tags: History Of Medieval Europe, Female Agency, Game Of Thrones, Queenship
Front Matter ....Pages i-lxxiv
Front Matter ....Pages 1-1
A Game of Thrones in China: The Case of Cixi, Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty (1835–1908) (James J. Hudson)....Pages 3-27
Queen of Sad Mischance: Medievalism, “Realism,” and the Case of Cersei Lannister (Kavita Mudan Finn)....Pages 29-52
Westerosi Queens: Medievalist Portrayal of Female Power and Authority in A Song of Ice and Fire (Sylwia Borowska-Szerszun)....Pages 53-75
“All I Ever Wanted Was to Fight for a Lord I Believed in. But the Good Lords Are Dead and the Rest Are Monsters”: Brienne of Tarth, Jaime Lannister, and the Chivalric “Other” (Iain A. MacInnes)....Pages 77-101
Front Matter ....Pages 103-103
The Peaceweavers of Winterfell (Kris Swank)....Pages 105-127
Cersei Lannister, Regal Commissions, and the Alchemists in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire (Curtis Runstedler)....Pages 129-143
‘All Men Must Die, but We Are Not Men’: Eastern Faith and Feminine Power in A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s Game of Thrones (Mikayla Hunter)....Pages 145-168
Daenerys the Unready: Advice and Ruling in Meereen (Shiloh Carroll)....Pages 169-185
Front Matter ....Pages 187-187
The Royal Minorities of Game of Thrones (Charles E. Beem)....Pages 189-204
Wicked Women and the Iron Throne: The Twofold Tragedy of Witches as Advisors in Game of Thrones (Sheilagh Ilona O’Brien)....Pages 205-230
Afterword: Playing, Winning, and Losing the Game of Thrones—Reflections on Female Succession in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones in Comparison to the Premodern Era (Elena Woodacre)....Pages 231-251
Back Matter ....Pages 253-263
