Politics in Fantasy Media

Gerold Sedlmayr is professor of British cultural studies at TU Dortmund University, Germany. He lives in Kamen. Nicole Waller is professor of American studies at Potsdam University, Germany. She lives in Berlin.

• Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Politics of Fantasy • Gerold Sedlmayr and Nicole Waller I. Identity“It’s all a big show”: Constructing Identity in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games Trilogy • Stefanie FrickeGender and Racial Roles in Computer ­Role-Playing Games • Andreas BlümlII. The Politics of FantasyConservative and Countercultural Elements in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas • Beatrix HesseSubversive or Conservative? Vampires and Ideology in the Twilight Series and True Blood • Christian KnirschFrom ­Hyper-Male Aardvarks to the Female Void: Gender Politics in Cerebus • Sebastian DomschFantasy as Politics: George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire • Rainer EmigThe Politics of ­Post-Apocalypse: Interactivity, Narrative Framing and Ethics in Fallout 3 • Matthias KemmerThe Atheist Believer: Harry Potter and the Politics of Religion • Bärbel HöttgesPolitical Rhetoric as a Structural and Ideological Instrument in Star Wars and Harry Potter • Christina FlotmannHaven’t I Been Here Before? China Miéville’s Uncanny Cities • Dirk VanderbekeIII. The Fantasy of PoliticsFantastic Body Politics in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law Trilogy • Gerold SedlmayrThe Fantasy of Politics: The Past and the Future of ­Object-Related Fantasy • Sladja BlažanTolkien’s Baits: Agonism, Essentialism and the Visible in The Lord of the Rings • Dirk WiemannAbout the Contributors Index

“The 13 essays in this volume cover the whole range of present-day forms of fantasy...a valuable contribution to the discussion of contemporary fantasy by demonstrating in great detail that there is much more to this often reviled form of dealing with the complexities of our world than meets the eye”—Inklings Jahrbuch.