Race and historical authenticity: Kingdom Come: Deliverance

The Middle Ages are typically imagined as ‘Whites only’ spaces. This is despite a growing weight of historical evidence, significant activism aimed at improving representation of characters of colour and a demonstrated link between improved profits and casting which at least reflects the diversity of contemporary populations. This chapter draws on Laura Mulvey’s pivotal work on cinema and the Lacanian mirror stage to argue that the textual Whiteness of the monochrome Middle Ages provides an ideal, a fantasy of purity and completeness, which organizes the White identity of the (presumed ideal) spectator – viewer, gamer or reader – who recognizes a Self in it. The chapter will take the video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance and HBO’s Game of Thrones as case study examples. I will argue that marketing and paratextual material that constructs these texts as ‘historically authentic’ does so in ways which encourage audience members to engage in identity work.