Song of Ice and Fire is unarguably one of the most popular fantasy series of all time. Notwithstanding its success, the series has only recently begun to be analyzed critically. George R.R. Martin’s books are often celebrated for breaking many of the tropes common in fantasy literature. Despite this, the series is nonetheless a product of a genre that has been shaped by white, male authors. Using such prominent postcolonial scholars as Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha, and Albert Memmi, I analyze the five published books of Martin’s series. I argue that although Martin seems to be aware of the theoretical background of postcolonial studies and attempts to present a story sensitive to issues of colonization, the book series fails to present a Western representation of the East outside of orientalist stereotypes and narratives that reinforce imperialism. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This diploma thesis deals with intertextuality in Game of Thrones series from the academic perspective. The thesis presents a comprehensive summary of selected intertexts including their classification according to the different types of semantic connection. The theoretical frame is based on the theoretical approaches of leading intertextuality theorists in literature and culture in general. In addition, it reflects the position of Game of Thrones series in the cultural mainstream, both in regards of its popularity and dissapointment of viewers over the final series. Based on national and international critical reviews, this diploma thesis analyzes the genre changes in Game of Thrones and focuses especially on the shared features with the soap opera genre. The fantasy genre specifics and its possible influence on reality is also briefly described. The methodological part summarizes the analytical tools and formulates research questions. According to the different types of semantic connection, the analysis is divided into three parts: the referential intertextulity (the connection to history), the intertextuality between texts (the connection to other works of culture) and the inner intertextuality (the connection to other elements inside the series). The first part of the analysis describes...

This thesis offers a feminist perspective on the character development on Daenerys Targaryen in the TV-series Game of Thrones and Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon. It mobilizes Laura Mulvey’s notion of the male gaze, which addresses the objectification of female character in classical Hollywood film, as well as Clarie Johnston’s critical take on the cinematic ideological construction of the image of woman. Another source of inspiration is the so-called Bechdel test, which was initially suggested by graphic novelist Alison Bechdel, but the widely adapted by feminist cinephiles as a useful tool to study the representation of woman in film. Examining the character development of Daenerys and Rhaenyra Targaryen in Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon on their journey towards claiming the Iron Throne, this thesis examines three episodes of Game of Thrones and two episodes of House of the Dragon.  The analysis shows that the male gaze is still present in the control, coercion and disciplining of the series’ female characters. Claire Johnston’s theorizations about the objectification of the female characters are echoed in the representation of two female characters’ struggle to lead a country as a woman. Moreover, not each of the series’ episodes would pass the Bechdel test.

Магистерская диссертация посвящена сопоставительному анализу реалий в англо- и русскоязычной версиях сериала «Игра престолов». Материал исследования составляют 218 реалий, отобранных методом сплошной выборки. Теоретической базой работы служит классификация С. Влахова и С. Флорина, в соответствии с которой выделены в английском оригинале и соотнесены с русским переводом географические, этнографические и общественно-политические реалии. В границах каждой группы сделаны сопоставительные количественные наблюдения, представленные в виде диаграмм. Результаты исследования могут быть использованы в терминографии при составлении тематических и сопоставительных словарей, в т. ч. для будущих переводчиков исследуемого сериала и книги, а равно как материал для учебных занятий по теории и практике перевода и для спецкурсов по художественному переводу. / This master’s thesis provides comparative analysis of realia in the English and Russian versions of the “Game of Thrones” series. The research material includes 218 realia, selected by the method of continuous sampling. The theoretical basis of the work is S. Vlakhov and S. Florin’s classification, which distinguishes geographic, ethnographic and socio-political realia. All the three types are found in the English original and correlated with the Russian translation. Within each group, there are made comparative quantitative observations, which are afterwards presented in the form of diagrams. The research results can be used in terminography when compiling thematic and comparative dictionaries; the latter can be used for future translators of the series and book studied. The paper can also provide materials for training sessions on the theory and practice of translation and for special courses on literary translation.

Creators of popular culture, especially in the Fantasy- and Science Fiction-genres, has oftenused religious inspiration in the form of symbolism of the divine to form their own religioussystems and beliefs. The gods in these works ranges from actual physical beings to lofty ideasof transcendent powers in the sky. Readers have consumed these aspects of divinity, that doesn’tstray that far from their own world’s deities, and many of them have probably done so withouta thought on if this affects their own view of the divine. The first step towards this realizationrequires some form of analysis over how popular culture has depicted gods and religion. Thefollowing study treats how one of the world’s most well-known Fantasy series, George R.R. Martins A Song of Ice and Fire, portrays divine agency in three of its religions. The religionsin question are The Seven-Pointed Star, the Drowned God, and The Lord of Light. Thetheoretical approach has been built upon Pierre Machereys thesis on how to reveal a textsideological project to accomplish this goal. The study has shown that the religions with a clearinspiration from western religions, such as Christianity, are portrayed with a weaker divineagency than those religions based on religions without an apparent western inspiration. Thestudy concludes that this implies that the ideological project of A Song of Ice and Fire can beseen as a critique on how religious people use the divine and construct it for their own gains.

The purpose of this paper is to study the adaptation process of the TV-show Game of Thrones. This paper focuses mainly on how David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and HBO adapted the TV-show from George R.R. Martins book series A Song of Ice and Fire and what, in the adaptation and in the reception of the TV-show, made it such a global cultural phenomenon. The analysis has been done by analysing interviews and studying behind-the-scenes material that has been available through articles and bonus material provided by the web and on the DVD and Blu-Ray features of the show. Mary H. Snyders Analyzing Literature-to-Film Adaptations provides a ground tool of analysing adaptations where particularly her “A Marriage of Media” theory has significantly helped the study. The paper analyses fantasy as a genre, the book series that the TV-show is based on, and the adaptation process itself and the different components that make up for the TV-show called Game of Thrones. After the adaptation analysis there is a study on how the internet has helped distributing both the show’s popularity and the show itself through the use of illegal downloading. The result is that the adaption is a successful “Marriage between media”, to use Snyders words, where the internet can be seen as product of that metaphorical marriage. The confidence and trust that both the author of the books and the show runners of the TV-series has placed in each other is the binding fundament that made the adaption as successful as it is. HBO as a cable network company also play a significant part where the financial support to the show’s production and the non-existent censorship regarding the adult content otherwise wouldn’t have been provided for, had the show been produced and/or aired by any other network company for example. The previous successes of other fantasy adaptations such as The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter-series could also be seen as necessary initiators regarding the industry’s newfound openness towards large scale fantasy projects.

This master's thesis deals with the topic of emotionality of the Game of Thrones fandom in the era of convergence culture. Game of Thrones, which had been on air since 2011 to 2019, became a hit show which gained millions of supporters and each new season was highly anticipated among public. During the course of all eight seasons, the show caused numerous heated controversies. Final season left both viewers and critics torn. This master's thesis is therefore interested in detecting and describing emotions of the Game of Thrones fan community during the time that the final season had been on air. Apart from emotionality, emphasis is also put on the characteristics of the show and its fandom. Reasearch was carried out online via the method of participant observation in six comments sections on the fan website Watchers on the Wall.com. Insomuch as fandom is connected to convergence culture, media convergence and audience participation, these topics are also covered. The term fandom is defined and the difference between audience and fandom is described. Last but not least, terms such as collective intelligence and knowledge community, which are also associated with fandom, are defined as well. All findings and the answers to research questions are then presented in the summary.

This thesis discusses the ways of how physically handicapped fans of Game of Thrones, a television series, identify with characters like or dislike and answers the questions how physically handicapped fans choose who they favour and who they don't, how they identify with them and how is their interpretation linked to their own experience of being handicapped and how their social reality influences how they perceive the media reality. The research reveals orthodoxies of power of the dominating ideology of being fit, against which "the ill" and "powerless", define themselves, albeit subconsciously; it describes the difficulties, connected with their handicap, which they project into the series, behaviour strategies resulting from this phenomenon and how the world around interferes; and, last but not least, it confirms sociological premises of deepening empathy on the basis of different dimensions of one's own identities and experience. The qualitative research of audience is based on semi- structured interviews and deploys the interpretative approach, while the results are coded using the method of anchored theory. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The thesis "Audience reception to the paradoxical narrative in the series Game of Thrones" focuses on the research of the audience and its reactions to the unusual plot twists in the series Game of Thrones producted by HBO. The Audience and its reactions to specifically selected twists were researched through qualitative methods of deep semi-structured interview which was carried out with ten respondents. "Primary" audience, i.e. the viewers who had not read any books from the Ice and Fire saga before watching the show, was choosen as a research sample for this study. Reactions of this audience are more spontaneous and unpredictable. The primary aim of the research is to find out how viewers react to the newly defined paradoxical narrative in the Game of Thrones series and why they keep watching this series despite its unusual plot twists.

This diploma thesis deals with the fantasy saga A Song of Ice and Fire written by American author G. R. R. Martin and the analysis of its fictional world. It explores saga's genre classification and focuses on elements that depart from its genre and which enrich it. Through the narratological analysis of the work, it focuses on the main principles of the construction of the fictional world and its specific characteristics. The basic theoretical framework for the analysis of the saga consists of contemporary fictional worlds that are not called fictional in the sense that they would form a fictional narrative but create a new narrative universe. It is designed to help construct further sequels or narrative turns. The diploma thesis also refers to the phenomenon of transmediality, thanks to which the narrative universe continues to expand and the fictional world becomes more realistic.