MAPPING NEOMEDIEVALISM: CONTEXTUALISATION OF GENRE TRANSFORMATION - REVIEW OF THE POSTMODERN FANTASY TV SERIES GAME OF THRONES
Keywords:
neomedievalism, Middle Ages, postmodern fantasy, Tolkienian fantasy, detraditionalization of genre, Umberto Eco, Game of ThronesAbstract
This paper questions the transformation process of (re)creating the Middle Ages or some of its aspects through various popular culture contents in the context of postmodern turn within the limits of the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror genre, using the example of the imagined world in the TV series Game of Thrones. In particular, the paper examines the concept of neomedievalism, which is created as a response to the idealized and romanticized version of the past in Tolkien’s work, but is also characterized by the need for more complex narratives due to various historical, social and cultural factors. Since Martin’s imagined world, thanks to the realism he strives for, enters the domain of perceiving the Middle Ages as a „dark age“, the analysis will be based on the different conceptions of the Middle Ages offered by Umberto Eco.
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