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

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 mean...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Vincent Martins
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires du Midi 2020-03-01
Series:Caliban: French Journal of English Studies
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/caliban/7595
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Summary: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.
ISSN:2425-6250
2431-1766