Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Doing (Audio-Visual) Things with Words – From Epistolary Intent to Epistolary Entanglements: An Introduction
- 1 Performance and Power : The Letter as an Expression of Masculinity in Game of Thrones
- 2 ‘My dearest little girl, I just got your letter and I hope that you will continue to write to me often’: Epistolary Listening in News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976)
- 3 Dead Letters: Epistolary Hauntology and the Speed of Light in Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
- 4 Attention to Detail: Epistolary Forms in New Melodrama
- 5 The Spiritual Intimacies of The Red Hand Files: How Long Will I Be Alone?
- 6 Video Authenticity and Epistolary Self-Expression in Letter to America (Kira Muratova, 1999)
- 7 Epistolary Affect and Romance Scams: Letter from an Unknown Woman
- 8 Delivering Posthumous Messages : Katherine Mansfield and Letters in the Literary Biopic Leave All Fair (John Reid, 1985)
- 9 The Interactive Letter : Co-Authorship and Interactive Media in Emily Short’s First Draft of the Revolution
- 10 Epistolary Distance and Reciprocity in José Luis Guerín and Jonas Mekas’s Filmed Correspondences
- 11 Instagram and the Diary : The Case of Amalia Ulman’s Excellences & Perfections (2014)
- 12 Civil War Epistolary and the Hollywood War Film
- 13 Epistolarity and Decolonial Aesthetics in Carola Grahn’s Look Who’s Talking (2016)
- 14 Epistolary Relays in Fatih Akin’s Auf der anderen Seite (On the Other Side/On the Edge of Heaven) (2007)
- Index
1 - Performance and Power : The Letter as an Expression of Masculinity in Game of Thrones
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Doing (Audio-Visual) Things with Words – From Epistolary Intent to Epistolary Entanglements: An Introduction
- 1 Performance and Power : The Letter as an Expression of Masculinity in Game of Thrones
- 2 ‘My dearest little girl, I just got your letter and I hope that you will continue to write to me often’: Epistolary Listening in News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976)
- 3 Dead Letters: Epistolary Hauntology and the Speed of Light in Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
- 4 Attention to Detail: Epistolary Forms in New Melodrama
- 5 The Spiritual Intimacies of The Red Hand Files: How Long Will I Be Alone?
- 6 Video Authenticity and Epistolary Self-Expression in Letter to America (Kira Muratova, 1999)
- 7 Epistolary Affect and Romance Scams: Letter from an Unknown Woman
- 8 Delivering Posthumous Messages : Katherine Mansfield and Letters in the Literary Biopic Leave All Fair (John Reid, 1985)
- 9 The Interactive Letter : Co-Authorship and Interactive Media in Emily Short’s First Draft of the Revolution
- 10 Epistolary Distance and Reciprocity in José Luis Guerín and Jonas Mekas’s Filmed Correspondences
- 11 Instagram and the Diary : The Case of Amalia Ulman’s Excellences & Perfections (2014)
- 12 Civil War Epistolary and the Hollywood War Film
- 13 Epistolarity and Decolonial Aesthetics in Carola Grahn’s Look Who’s Talking (2016)
- 14 Epistolary Relays in Fatih Akin’s Auf der anderen Seite (On the Other Side/On the Edge of Heaven) (2007)
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011–19) has been intricately bound with epistolary forms since it first appeared on television, using social media as a means of engaging with audiences and giving rise to busy global communities. However, the subtle use of letters in the pseudo-Medieval diegetic storyworld of Westeros has attracted limited academic attention. Letters are vital in bridging narrative arcs and are key elements in the construction of masculinity and the projection of power within the televisual text. This chapter interrogates the epistolary performance of Tywin Lannister's (Charles Dance) letters and Ramsay Bolton's (Iwan Rheon) ‘Bastard Letter’, arguing they are used as a means of reinforcing and amplifying hegemonic masculine identity via the construction and projection of a masculine self-image.
Keywords: Game of Thrones; television; masculinity; letters; gender performance
‘Roslin caught a fine fat trout. Her brothers gave her a pair of wolf pelts for her wedding. Signed Walder Frey’.1 Ostensibly about the masculine pursuits of hunting and fishing, this three-line letter is one of the most memorable written communications in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011–19). Sent to King Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) in the final episode of the third season, the activities are metaphors for the murders of Robb Stark (Richard Madden) and Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) at the Red Wedding, the spectacular and profoundly shocking closing moment of the previous episode, ‘The Rains of Castamere’ (3:9). However, the news of the ambush, as communicated by this letter, also crystallizes the intersection of epistolary discourse, gender, power, and performance that gives momentum to the narrative through the construction of masculinity. The letter written by Walder Frey (David Bradley) is just one example of Game of Thrones’ use of the writer as a trope of masculine performance. There are numerous other letters that frame the show's complex relationship between epistolarity and masculinity.
In this chapter, I analyse the content and significance of some of the most important letters sent and received in Game of Thrones, including Tywin Lannister's (Charles Dance) use of letters to conduct strategic operations against the Stark family and exert control over Westeros in the third season, and Ramsay Bolton's (Iwan Rheon) ‘Bastard Letter’, which was sent with the purpose of goading Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) into battle in the sixth season.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2023