• Went rooting for some titles on the theory of fantasy and fantasy literature in general in the Hunter stacks. Found some titles that could prove to be useful, and am excited to go through them!
  
• Reached out again to Professor Dow Robbins about being my advisor.
• Meditated on my intended audience. While I can expect a good amount of people to be familiar in some way with the modern popular works of fantasy (Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, HBO’s Game of Thrones, etc), I obviously can’t expect them to be familiar with the history of the genre. I’d like to make my thesis as accessible to as many people as possible, so one of my projects is to try not to get lost in the more esoteric aspects of my topic. My big concern is being able to accurately explain the complexities of the storylines and characters without getting lost or leaving anything important out.

ETA: The printer at MHC wasn’t working, so here’s the “crisp paragraph” that was due today!

For my thesis, I would like to investigate the depictions of women and power in the Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin. I will first present a brief history and survey of the fantasy genre, as well as a selection of notable female characters and character tropes in the genre. I will then place the Ice and Fire novels within this context, (hopefully) demonstrating why Martin’s women and works are so important and progressive within the fantasy tradition. I will follow the character arcs of several female characters rather than on all of them, as there are too many to count. I will also touch upon the HBO adaptation of the novels, Game of Thrones,  and examine its own representations of gender and power. I will need to examine film theory and the process of adaptation for this component of my paper.

I am still working on the “so what?” of my paper – Martin has powerful and diverse women in his universe–so what? I’m thinking about delving into one of the functions of fantasy as a critique of the real world, and connecting the diversity of Martin’s women to the importance of women and power in the real world.

Some titles I am perusing at the moment mostly deal with the theory, function, and history of the fantasy genre:

• The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature by Brian Attebery
• Merlin’s Daughters by Charlotte Spivack
• Bridges to Fantasy by Eric S. Rabkin
• Other Worlds” The Fantasy Genre by John Timmerman

Apologies for my absence last week!

In terms of research, what I’ve been doing is mostly looking into works on the fantasy genre: its history, its function, the theory behind it, etc. I’ve found some books that are making their way to me via the CUNY library system, so we’ll see how it goes!

I’ve also been thinking on my characters for my thesis, and this is a writeup I did that I meant to hand out in class, but my printer wasn’t cooperating:

For my thesis, I think I will focus on several important women and follow their trajectory throughout the Song of Ice & Fire novels.

Two characters I think that need to be discussed together are the sisters Sansa and Arya Stark. Each presents a very different image of femininity: Sansa is ladylike and loves romance and chivalry, whereas Arya would much prefer to wield her own sword. Though it would be easy to fall into the trap of scorning Sansa’s traditional femininity and glorifying Arya’s inclination towards traditional masculinity, Martin puts them both into situations that play to their strengths. Sansa’s quietness and love for courtly values—traits that are often conflated with weakness or dimwittedness—pay off when she is a political prisoner during the war in the Red Keep. Arya’s aggressiveness pays off as she battles her way through Westeros and across the Narrow Sea into Essos.

Another pair of characters who I like to look at side by side are Cersei Lannister and Catelyn Stark. On the surface, they couldn’t appear more different: Cersei is scheming and cunning, constantly craving political power, while Catelyn is much more measured and maintains her own honor code. But they are also incredibly similar: they both were married off in political alliances during and after Robert’s Rebellion, they both derive much of their power from their roles as mothers, both have proven that they would do anything to protect their children, both wielded a certain amount of political power, and both were, at some point, the mothers of a kings. How each chose to use her power is what I find fascinating. I would also like to explore Cersei as one of the primary villains of the series, and what it means for a woman to be cast as a villain while still being a three-dimensional character.

Other characters I would like to examine are Daenerys, the exiled princess set to reclaim her homeland of Westeros, and Brienne of Tarth, a woman who chose the life of a warrior instead of a lady.