The Monstrous Feminine and the Abject in HBO’s Game of Thrones: conflating three aspects of the pre-Christian, Western European Goddess, or “Sovereignty”
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Date
2020-12
Authors
Van Heerden-Smit, Adri Maryke
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Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
In Post-Modern Western culture three stereotypical visual representations of witches can be identified, namely: the ‘evil Crone’, the independent ‘Maiden’ and the more Euro-centric traditionally knowledgeable ‘Mother’ (Matthews 1998). HBO’s Game of Thrones combines these three stereotypes into one in the person of the Red Witch, Lady Melisandre (O’Brien 2015, ‘Melisandre: priestess or witch?’). Potentially this problematizes simplistically bifurcated portrayals of witches as either terrifying or alluring, which begs for an analysis of witches’ enduring ability to inspire fear. Witches’ culturally mediated capacity to inspire fear, based on an understanding of Abjection, as described by Julia Kristeva (1982, Power of Horror) and Barbara Creed (1993, The Monstrous Feminine), illustrates the efficacy of Martin’s Melisandre, whose terrifying yet alluring portrayal is intimately connected to her association with the monstrous feminine, magick as well as all three aspects of the Sovereign Goddess of Pre-Christian Europe. Melisandre, while complying with Western ideals of beauty, represents a filmic witch who is both normative and abject, making her both exceedingly terrifying and oddly acceptable. This study re-evaluates witches’ ability to inspire fear, illustrating how the character of the witch in visual texts represents a part of our own individual consciousness which needs to be ordered and suppressed. Barbara Creed (1993, p.71) explains that women are associated with abjection because their genitals threaten castration. Julia Kristeva (1982, p.91) describes ‘abjection’ as a “breakdown in the distinction between what is self and what is Other” which leads to the ‘casting off’ or rejection of abject elements to protect the self. Since the witch, as a horror trope, challenges boundaries, it helps the human psyche integrate itself by re-establishing its own borders. Medieval stereotypes’ unique individual ability to inspire fear, based on the patriarchal understanding of females’ connection to nature, are triplified by their combination in the person of Melisandre. This study investigates the implied relationship between the ‘Monstrous Feminine’ and magick (spelled with a ‘k’ throughout this text to indicate archaic, occult practices as opposed to performance magic), revealing the extent to which visual and/or textual representation of witches has altered from the Middle Ages into the Post-Modern era. Game of Thrones draws on polytheism (Estés 2008, p.4) and historical accounts of the Middle Ages in Western Europe, which is why studies which point to Western witches’ implied relation to the triune aspects of the pre-Christian Western European Goddess also feature in this research. The function of witches in literary sources is described in terms of the educational role of myths and fairy tales in Western Europe’s early polytheistic society (Lawton 2016, p.8-9). Analysing how filmic representations perpetuate or change ideas of witchcraft is therefore crucial since films are imbued with the potential to affect the psychic development of cultural groups. This dissertation uncovers the complexity of dichotomously terrifying, yet alluring witches like Melisandre. Film series like HBO’s Game of Thrones endear witches to Western and global audiences, while simultaneously inviting the rejection of their visual representations, leading to an internal crisis.
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Keywords
Dissertation (M.A. (English))--University of the Free State, 2020, Post-Modern Western culture, Euro-centric traditional knowledge, Pre-Christian Western European goddess