Performing Against Annihilation

“Schepp's fascinating study (...) (provides) an innovative framework for assessing the the protagonists' performance.”

– Thomas Honegger, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany

“Without a doubt, the new gold standard in Film Studies.”

– Christoph Bode, Department of English and American Studies, LMU Munich, Germany

This book outlines how the protagonists in The Nibelung's Ring, The Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones attempt to construct identities and expand their consciousness manifestations. As the characters in the three works face the ends of their respective worlds, they must find answers to their mortality, and to the threat it implies: the loss of identity and consciousness. Moreover, it details how this process is depicted performatively. In a hands-on and interdisciplinary approach, this book seeks to unveil the underlying philosophical concepts of identity and consciousness in the three works as they are represented audio-visually on stage and screen. Through the use of many practical examples, this book offers both academic scholars and any interested readers a completely new perspective on three enduringly popular and interrelated works.

Lukas Schepp completed his PhD in English Literature at LMU Munich: "Performing Against Annihilation: Identity and Consciousness in J.R.R. Tolkien, Richard Wagner and George R.R. Martin." Lukas Schepp specializes in film and media studies, interdisciplinary studies, and philosophical approaches to literature and film. Among others, he has published the essays "Kubrick's Ambiguous Intermedial Translation of Thackeray's The Luck of Barry Lyndon" and "Identity and Consciousness in Black Mirror - Be Right Back" in "East-West Dialogues on the Humanities," which he also co-edited. Moreover, he published the chapter "Toward Sphere Theory: Redefining the Narrative Genres of the Novel and the TV Drama Series" in "Television Series as Literature" (Palgrave Macmillan). Lukas Schepp is a working filmmaker and has written for several German series. Furthermore, Lukas Schepp composes both film scores and symphonic poems.