Representation of Women in J.R. Tolkien's and G.Martin's Epic Fantasy

Šarić, Ivana. (2015). Representation of Women in J.R. Tolkien's and G.Martin's Epic Fantasy. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature. [mentor Polak, Iva].

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Abstract

This paper discusses the ways in which female characters are represented in J.R.R. Tolkien and G. R. R. Martin's works, and the ways in which they subvert the conventions of medieval romance. The paper first discusses the relationship of women and power and the ways in which their appearance and narrative representation are connected to their agency in the story. This is followed by the analysis of warrior women, and the ways in which they occupy traditionally male spaces, as well as their subversion of the medieval quest narrative in which both authors remove the women from their traditional positions and make them active participants in quests. Finally, as the point of greatest subversion, the character of Sansa Stark is used to show how the rules of medieval courtly romance are both insufficient for the success of the character and, at the same time, their idealism and strict social order is questioned. The aim of this paper is to show that both authors subvert medieval literary tropes, only to produce a different effect. Tolkien uses them to create a mythology for England which is greatly embedded in the forms of medieval romance, epic and fairytale. Martin, on the other hand, uses medieval tropes in order to subvert them and create a narrative in which the reader does not know what to expect. He turns the conventions against themselves.

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