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This book investigates the narrativity of some of the most popular survival horror video games and the gender politics implicit in their storyworlds. In a thorough analysis of the genre that draws upon detailed comparisons with the mainstream action genre, Andrei Nae places his analysis firmly within a political and social context.
In comparing survival horror games to the dominant game design norms of the action genre, the author differentiates between classical and postclassical survival horror games to show how the former reject the norms of the action genre and deliver a critique of the conservative gender politics of action games, while the latter are more heterogeneous in terms of their game design and, implicitly, gender politics.
This book will appeal not only to scholars working in game studies, but also to scholars of horror, gender studies, popular culture, visual arts, genre studies and narratology.
List of contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I: Immersion and Gender in Action Games; 1. Immersion in Mainstream Action Games; 2. The Gender Politics of Immersion; Part II: Classical Survival Horror Games; 3. Welcome to the Survival Horror: The Deconstruction of Gender in Resident Evil; 4. The Verisimilar Representation and Simulation of Masculinity in Crisis in Silent Hill 2; 5. The Horrors of Ie Ideology in Fatal Frame: Sh jo Fights Demonic Ghost of Otome to Save Otaku; 6. The Crisis of Naturalizing Gender in Forbidden Siren; Part III: Postclassical Survival Horror Games; 7. Resident Evil 4: Reinventing the Survival Horror; 8. Survival Horror's Normative Backlash in Condemned: Criminal Origins; 9. Amanda Ripley: From Final Girl to Action Girl in Alien: Isolation; 10. Marginalization and Intersectionality in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice; Concluding Remarks: Survival Horror for Surviving under Patriarchy; Index
About the author
Andrei Nae is Assistant Lecturer at the University of Bucharest, Romania, where he teaches video game cultural studies, narratology applied to video games, and twentieth-century American literature. He has been the beneficiary of several scholarships and grants both as a doctoral student and postdoctoral researcher and is currently the principal investigator and manager of the research project "Colonial Discourse in Video Games" financed by the Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI).
Summary
This book investigates the narrativity of some of the most popular survival horror video games and the gender politics implicit in their storyworlds. It will appeal not only to scholars working in game studies, but also to scholars of horror, gender studies, popular culture, visual arts, genre studies, and narratology.
