The Presence and Role of Female Characters in Raymond E. Feist’s The Riftwar Cycle

Abstract

Diversity is an increasingly important subject in today’s society. This importance is reflected in literature, but not all genres seem to follow this trend. Traditionally, the fantasy literature genre is male-dominated, with a strong preference for male heroes. Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar Cycle is a fantasy novel series which focuses heavily on quest narratives and other epic fantasy tropes, such as heroism, adventure and sword-and-sorcery. This novel series also has an abundance of male heroes and under-represents its female characters. This thesis analyses eight novels of The Riftwar Cycle and shows the imbalance between male and female characters, as well as their roles in the story. At best, female characters form 30% of the cast, with equivalent dialogue. Furthermore, female characters are often marginalised, put in traditional roles or a victim of sexism. It shows that this sub-genre of fantasy literature still has improvements to make to diversify.