“Winter is coming”: From Climate Threat to Political Collapse

Abstract

This article aims at analyzing the emblematic quote “winter is coming,” from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, as a sylleptic structure, since it conceals a natural, a supernatural, and a political meaning. In the light of a collapsological reading, it turns out that the overlapping meanings entangle with the numerous collapses and accentuate the mystification of the motto, thus establishing a gloomy atmosphere on the continent of Westeros. As the multiple collapses come to define the genre of the saga and give the story its rhythm, I will argue that the syllepsis encapsulates the dynamics of collapse which paradoxically participate in the de-structuring of the universe in which the characters evolve and in the structuring of the novels.

Keywords

• fantasy
• politics
• collapsology
• climate
• George R. R. Martin
• A Song of Ice and Fire