Historical grand narratives of the Seven kingdoms of Westeros: from invention to deconstruction of a traditional medieval historiography

Abstract

The article is focused on the problems of medieval images in modern mass culture in the contexts of simulation and imitation of grand historical narratives. The author analyses the text of "The World of Ice and Fire: the Untold History of the Westeros and the Game of Thrones" in the contexts of historical and political imaginations and the inventions of alternative identities. The author believes that medievalism lost its academic isolation because modern mass culture uses various images of the Middle Ages actively. Representatives and creators of mass culture use the achievements of academic medieval studies. The imagined universe of George Martin has real medieval prototypes. The author of the article, on the one hand, analyses the historical narratives of "The World of Ice and Fire: the Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones" as an attempt to form historical and political memories. On the other hand, the problems of the features and type of Westeros feudalism are also analysed in this article.

Keywords

• George Martin, Westeros, Seven Kingdoms, historical imagination, narratives, feudalism, political rituals