Women of Ice and Fire Gender, Game of Thrones and Multiple Media Engagements

George R.R. Martin's acclaimed seven-book fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire is unique for its strong and multi-faceted female protagonists, from teen queen Daenerys, scheming Queen Cersei, child avenger Arya, knight Brienne, Red Witch Melisandre, and many more. The Game of Thrones universe challenges, exploits, yet also changes how we think of women and gender, not only in fantasy, but in Western culture in general.

Divided into three sections addressing questions of adaptation from novel to television, female characters, and politics and female audience engagement within the GoT universe, the interdisciplinary and international lineup of contributors analyze gender in relation to female characters and topics such as genre, sex, violence, adaptation, as well as fan reviews. The genre of fantasy was once considered a primarily male territory with male heroes. Women of Ice and Fire shows how the GoT universe challenges, exploits, and reimagines gender and why it holds strong appeal to female readers, audiences, and online participants.

Anne Gjelsvik is Professor in Film Studies in the Department of Art and Media Studies at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. Her research includes popular cinema, film violence and representation of gender in the media. Among her recent publications are Eastwood's Iwo Jima: A Critical Engagement with Flags of Our Fathers & Letters from Iwo Jima (2013) and Adaptation Studies: New Challenges, New Directions (2013).

Rikke Schubart is Associate Professor in Media Studies at the Institute for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark. Her research focuses on gender, genre, and emotions in cinema and media. Schubart's publications include Mastering Fear: Women, Emotions, and Contemporary Horror (forthcoming), Eastwood's Iwo Jima (2013), and Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970-2006 (2007).

Introduction Rikke Schubart & Anne Gjelsvik
PART ONE. ADAPTING WOMEN
Chapter 1: Adapting Sex: Cultural Conceptions of Sexuality in Words and Images (Mariah Larsson - Stockholm University, Sweden)
Chapter 2: Adapting Desire in Ros and Talisa: Prostitutes, Wives and Smallfolk (Shannon Wells-Lassagne (Université de Bretagne Sud, France)
Chapter 3: Unspeakable Acts of (Sexual) Terror as/in Quality Television (Anne Gjelsvik, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
Chapter 4: Unconcealable Fire: Performance and Travel in Brienne, Daenerys and Arya (Jason Jacobs, University of Queensland, Australia)
PART TWO. FEMALE CHARACTERS
Chapter 5: Pride, Postfeminism and Daenerys as Female Fantasy Hero (Rikke Schubart, University of Southern Denmark)
Chapter 6: The Women of Westeros: A Dialogic Revision of Fairy-Tale Fantasy (Angela Ndalianis, University of Melbourne, Australia)
Chapter 7: Power Play: Mainstream Fantasy, Flawed Characters and Network Narratives (Helle Kannik Haastrup, Roskilde University, Denmark)
Chapter 8: Mother, Maiden, Crone: Motherhood in Westeros (Marta Eidsvåg, freelance writer, UK)
Chapter 9: Gender Transgression, Cross-Dressing and the Warrior Figure (Yvonne Tasker, University of East Anglia, UK and Lindsay Steenberg, Oxford Brookes University, UK)
PART THREE. POLITICS AND RECEPTION
Chapter 10: Fantasy Women and Real Power: On Visual and Narrative Discourse in Cersei, Daenerys and Sansa (Holger Pötzsch, Tromsø University, Norway)
Chapter 11: Female Machiavellian Princes in Westeros (Elizabeth Beaton, Australian National University)
Chapter 12: The Expert GoT Fan Review on YouTube: Transmediality and Power Play (Susana Tosca & Lisbeth Klastrup, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Chapter 13: Writing GoT Slash Fan Fiction: Female Fan's Oppositional Desires and Fantasies (Line Nybro Petersen, University of Southern Denmark)
Chapter 14: “I'm not going to fight them, I'm going to fuck them”: Sexist Liberalism and Gender (A)Politics in Game of Thrones (Stéphanie Genz, Edge Hill University, UK)
Index