"Winter Has Got No King": An ecocritical analysis of George R. R. Martin's a Song of Ice and Fire

Over the last decades, an exponential increase in environmental issues and the climate change pertaining to it have generated discussion not only about how to tackle the problems but also about delving into the root cause of the matter. Having emerged as a result of these discussions, environmental criticism (ecocriticism) intends to create change in society's environmental perspective through utilizing ecological symbols in literary narratives and nature writing. With a view to attaining this goal, methods that would help understand the society and transform it have been devised. Ibn Khaldun's civilization methodology, which leans on pillars of geography, spirituality and asabiyah (group feeling), provide the necessary sociological data to analyze and juxtapose the environmental perspectives of different societies. In this dissertation, Ibn Khaldun's civilization methodology is applied to George R.R. Martin's world-famous fantasy fiction novel A Song of Ice and Fire whilst ecocritically close reading similarities and differences of environmental perspectives in civilizations via a fictional realm. In this way, this thesis will endeavor to answer questions such as whether pillars of civilization such as geography, religion and group feeling influence social structure and if such is the case, in what way. Keywords: environmental criticism; ecocriticism; civilization; Ibn Khaldun; A Song of Ice and Fire; George R.R. Martin