A New Approach to Reading Videogames as Story - Virtual Cathedrals in an Age of Decadence

This book is a resource for educators interested in teaching videogames as literary texts in English and Language Art classes. The book acknowledges the apprehension many teachers face when considering the introduction of videogames into their classrooms, which may be driven by the fear that their students may know more about the games than they do themselves. This is a legitimate cause for concern considering the amount of exposure students growing up in the 21st century have to videogames. Given their enormous popularity, the book argues that that videogames are not simply as valuable as literature and other media in English and Language Arts classrooms, but that they are the defining literary accomplishment of our day.
This book will help educators to define videogames in a literary context, gives an overview of their history, and the current state of the industry, while also providing critical discussions of videogame theory, clarifying critical concepts of videogames as literature and presenting a foundational understanding of videogames in order to integrate them into professional educational curriculum.

List of contents

Introduction, Chapter 1 - Games and Pachyderms, Chapter 2 - Sacred Play, Chapter 3: Bring me that Horizon, Chapter 4: The Rules of the Game, Chapter 5: The Death of Multiplayer Stories, Chapter 6: Digital Literacy & Learning, Chapter 7: Case Studies / Typology, Chapter 9: Film, Videogames, and Culture, Chapter 10: Modern Classrooms and Modern Cathedrals, Appendix 1: Game Suggestions, Bibliography, Index

Product details

• Authors: Thomas Rowland
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 27.01.2026
• EAN: 9781032302584
• ISBN: 978-1-032-30258-4
• No. of pages: 264
• Illustrations: schwarz-weiss Illustrationen, Raster,schwarz-weiss, Zeichnungen, schwarz-weiss, Tabellen, schwarz-weiss
• Series: Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; History, Media Studies, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, COMPUTERS / Programming / Games, LITERARY CRITICISM / Science Fiction & Fantasy, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 21st Century, Humanities, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary theory, Teaching of a specific subject, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, EDUCATION / Teaching / Subjects / Language Arts