Students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) will soon be able to take a course in which binge-watching a TV show may actually help them pass.
The school will be offering a course next semester on the popular Game of Thrones series, and focus on the books by George R. R. Martin the hit HBO television series is based on.
The fourth-year literature course, called “Our Modern Medieval: The Song of Ice and Fire as Contemporary Medieval,” will require students to have read all five of the series’ novels. The course also recommends students to watch the five seasons of the television show.
Game of Thrones is set in a medieval-style era on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos. Known for its multi-layered plot and characters, the books and TV show follow dueling noble houses fighting for power, all with fictional creatures such as dragons and the undead.
Despite the recommendation of watching the TV show, the course will still be a “literary course,” according to Robert Rouse, the UBC professor and medieval literature expert teaching the course. Students will still be required to have read the books, which range from 694 to more than 1,000 pages each.
The course will cover issues and themes found in the series including women, politics, monsters, religion, sexuality, chivalry, race, and disability. Rouse said the course will jump from different themes found in the five TV seasons that can be connected to the medieval era and the world today.
Rouse said he came up with the idea after using the series in one of his past lectures. He said his students were so intrigued, they recommended he teach an entire seminar on the subject.
Rouse said literary courses have already been taught on Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, so he figured teaching about Game of Thrones was not far-fetched. However, Rouse said he wouldn’t say he was a normal fan.
“I am fascinated,” Rouse said. “I like the story—they’re interesting, but I wouldn’t say enough to be a fan.”
Rouse said the course is a study of how the “recreation or the re-imagination of the Middle Ages is used to say things about that moment in history.”
He said J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings works in the aftermath of World War Two, while Martin’s more dark and gritty imagination of the Middle Ages reflects his views of the modern world.
“It’s a very dark world,” he said. “There are very few people that you would say are 100 per cent good people in Martin’s novels. Almost everyone does bad things. That’s kind of a dark view of society . . . and I think that represents his view of the modern world.”
As for his favourite character, Rouse said it was the witty and strategic dwarf played by actor Peter Dinklage, Tyrion Lannister.
“Tyrion is a really interesting example of someone who is not mad. He has to survive and make a difference with his brain. He’s a book reader,” Rouse said.
“He’s kind of one of the most successful survivors,” he said. “In many ways, he’s one of the more modern characters than these guys running around with swords.”
Students are required to do one presentation, one TV analysis, and one research essay.
Rouse said spots were full three hours after registration began. He said his colleagues have been supportive of his new course, poking fun at the fact he has received international attention for it.
Rouse said he was fascinated by how popular the book and TV series has become.
“I think the Lord of the Rings . . . kind of opened up acceptability in the mainstream,” he said. “Martin’s kind of taken that formula, and he’s mixed in HBO’s sex-and-violence selling point, and it’s just caught the modern imagination.”
