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Masculinity, Violence, and Abjection in a Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones

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Masculinity, Violence, and Abjection in a Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones CRIPPLES AND BASTARDS AND BROKEN THINGS: MASCULINITY, VIOLENCE, AND ABJECTION IN A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE AND GAME OF THRONES Tania Evans January 2019 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Of the Australian National University Declaration of Originality This work has not previously been accepted for any degree and is the result of my own independent investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. An earlier version of the chapter “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” is published in Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies. All images are owned by Home Box Office (HBO) and are reproduced here for the purposes of research. Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter One: Genre and Gender and the Undoing and Remaking of Ideology ................................... 22 Chapter Two: Some Knights are Dark and Full of Terror ........................................................................ 57 Chapter Three: The Sovereign Sword ........................................................................................................... 89 Chapter Four: The Bear and the Maiden Fair .......................................................................................... 125 Chapter Five: Knights of the Mind ............................................................................................................ 155 Conclusion: Queer Magical Violence and Gender Fluidity .................................................................... 194 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 219 Abstract Normative models of masculinity that are based upon violence, domination, and invulnerability are recognised by scholars as damaging for the individuals who enact them and for the societies in which they are enacted. In both the “real” world and the cultural texts that reflect and shape it, this narrow definition of masculinity is debated, reinforced, and/or critiqued. Challenges to normative masculinity are often identified in literary representations; but fantasy fiction seldom features in these analyses, despite the genre’s ongoing engagement with masculine characters, themes, and images. The genre’s long history of subversive content and ability to (re)imagine the world without the constraints of realism also suggest its capacity to expand conceptions of masculinity. Using a theoretical framework based primarily on Judith Butler’s work on gender performativity and subversion, Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, and Barbara Creed’s notion of the monstrous feminine, I argue that, in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (1996—) and its television adaptation Game of Thrones (2011—), when masculine characters use violence to gain power at others’ expense, they are positioned as monstrous and are shown to be part of a destructive cycle, whereas when these characters use violence in ways that makes the world a more liveable place, they are able to maintain their constitutive borders and proliferate their ideas and practices through queer kinship. Illegal and excessive forms of violence used by normatively masculine characters, such as torture and rape, are critiqued through the same textual devices as legal and legitimate sovereign violence when they are individualistic and reproduce existing power structures. In contrast, female, disabled, and queer masculine characters make violence a visibly masculine act and use it in ways that are coded it as heroic or horrifying, depending on whether it empowers or disempowers others. The relationship between masculinity and violence is negotiated in the Martinverse in complex ways, and I demonstrate that the fantasy genre and its conventions have unique potential for presenting alternative masculine discourses and queer kinships that interrogate, refuse, or work the weaknesses in patriarchal logics of reproduction and repetition that maintain a lack of opportunity for certain subjects unable to access these privileged power dynamics. Page 1 of 248 Acknowledgements This project was generously funded by an Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend Scholarship, and additional funding for presenting earlier chapters of the thesis at international conferences was provided by an ANU Vice Chancellor’s HDR Travel Grant and a Madonna and Michael Marsden International Travel Grant. Warm thanks to my primary supervisor, Katherine Bode, for working tirelessly to make this project better than I could have imagined; for supporting me as an academic; and for being incredibly patient, especially with my pet words. I would also like to thank Katie Sutton and Kate Mitchell, for the time and effort they have contributed to supervising this project. I am particularly grateful to Katie for stepping in as my primary supervisor in my second year and for providing ongoing encouragement. Special thanks to my friend and colleague Chuckie Palmer-Patel for our long email conversations about fantasy, for kindly volunteering to read several chapters of this thesis, and for giving sound and encouraging editorial advice. I owe a very important debt to Penny Holliday and Vivienne Muller, without whose passion for masculinity studies this project would never have been conceived; and to Jason Sternberg, whose enthusiastic support enabled me to embark on this quest. Thank you to the PhD Coffee Coven, especially Lauren Sadow, Katie Cox, Ally Wolfe, and Kate Oakes. This thesis would not exist if not for your support and our combined love for stickers, cheese, and wine. Big thanks to my very patient family, especially my Dad, who tells me he’s proud of me every single week, without fail. Finally, I am indebted to my best friend, Shane Murphy, who saw and valued this project long before it began, and who has kept it going with his unwavering support. Page 2 of 248 Abbreviations For ease of reading, I make the following abbreviations in my in-text references to the novels of A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones (GoT) A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow (SoS1) A Storm of Swords 2: Blood and Gold (SoS2) A Feast for Crows (FfC) A Dance with Dragons (DwD) Additionally, when I refer to Game of Thrones episodes in-text, I abbreviate as follows: Season number, episode number “Title” (S1E1 “Winter is Coming”) Page 3 of 248 List of Figures Figure 1: Long shot of Joffrey sitting with his crossbow after shooting Ros (S3E6 “The Climb”) .................... 64 Figure 2: Close up of Ros’s face and breasts after she has been killed by Joffrey (S3E6 “The Climb”) ............. 65 Figure 3: Close up of Joffrey’s face as he chokes to death, lying on his mother’s dress (S4E2 “The Lion and the Rose”).......................................................................................................................................................... 67 Figure 4: Gregor killing an unnamed man in King’s Landing and blood pours on the ground between the victim’s legs (S4E7 “Mockingbird”) .............................................................................................................. 69 Figure 5: Close up profile shot of Ser Hugh’s face and neck as he spits up blood (S1E4 “Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things”) ....................................................................................................................................... 71 Figure 6: Close up profile shot of Oberyn’s face and chest as blood trails from his mouth and Gregor grabs his neck (S4E8 “The Mountain and the Viper”) ......................................................................................... 72 Figure 7: Blood running through a palace grate after Gregor beheads one of the Faith Militant (S5E8 “No One”) ................................................................................................................................................................. 75 Figure 8: Ramsay and Locke walking through a doorway with spikes shown in silhouette (S4E2 “The Lion and the Rose”) .................................................................................................................................................. 78 Figure 9: Long shot of Ramsay unlocking a secret door to the Dreadfort with Theon in tow (S3E4 “And Now His Watch Is Ended”) ..................................................................................................................................... 78 Figure 10: Long shot of Ramsay and Theon walking through a tunnel underneath the Dreadfort (S3E4 “And Now His Watch Is Ended”) ..........................................................................................................................
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