Prose Fiction
Term 1
MWF, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
For most readers – and viewers – of Martin’s fantasy-medieval A Game of Thrones narratives, the world of Westeros and the embattled Seven Kingdoms seem medieval. Knights fight on horseback, women are protected (or not) in castles, and peasants farm the fields (or are slaughtered in them). This course examines how the medieval is reimagined in our current moment through Martin’s novels and the HBO series that they have spawned. Reacting both to the High Fantasy genre of the 1970s and 80s (that inspired by, and largely imitating, the mode of Tolkien’s novels), and to post-everything nature of the last twenty years, Martin’s works hold an influential place in the popular modern imagined medieval, largely supplanting any real notion of the European Middle Ages in the minds of most of its readers and viewers. As such, we will be considering Martin’s works as much for what they tell us about our own time, as for what they tell us about our ideas of the past. The course will involve the reading of the five books (thus far) of the series, and the watching of the six seasons of the HBO series. While it is not a pre-requistite to have read all the novels before the course starts, you’ll be doing yourself a huge favour if you have done so.
