Cannibalism and femininity: from the Old English Judith to Game of Thrones' Arya Stark

Moving between an example of metaphorical cannibalism in the Old English poem Judith to one of literal cannibalism in Game of Thrones, this chapter argues that an enforcement is a form of jettisoned social dismemberment: it is the perpetration of a violent detachment from the social body of those who are subjected to cannibalism. Both Judith and Arya perform these acts of enforced cannibalism in a way that forms their own kind of heroic femininity, brought violently to the surface by their subversion of the feminine expectations of nurturing. Before starting with the analysis of the cannibalistic acts perpetrated both in Judith and in Game of Thrones, the chapter presents the theoretic base for this chapter. It shows the ways in which a binary forma mentis influences both the way in which cannibalism can be understood and the way in which a performance can shape gendered identities.