Archive for 2022

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[Commlist] New book - Video Game Chronotopes and Social Justice: Playing on the Threshold

Thu Feb 03 17:23:41 GMT 2022



Michael Piero is pleased to announce the publication of my book, /Video Game Chronotopes and Social Justice: Playing on the Threshold/, with Palgrave Macmillan for their Games in Context series (edited by Neil Randall and Steve Wilcox). Description and Table of Contents are below. More info about the book can be found here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91944-3 <https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91944-3>. Apologies for crossposting.

Book Description:

/Video Game Chronotopes and Social Justice: Playing on the Threshold/, 292 pp., hardcover and ebook

ISBN: 978-3-030-91943-6 (hardcover)

/Video Game Chronotopes and Social Justice /examines how the chronotope, which literally means “timespace,” is an effective interpretive lens through which to understand the cultural and ideological significance of video games. Using ‘slow readings’ attuned to deconstruction along the lines of post-structuralist theory, gender studies, queer studies, continental philosophy, and critical theory, Mike Piero exposes the often-overlooked misogyny, heteronormativity, racism, and patriarchal structures present in many Triple-A video games through their arrangement of timespace itself. Beyond understanding time and space as separate mechanics and dimensions, Piero reunites time and space through the analysis of six chronotopes—of the bonfire, the abject, the archipelago, the fart as /pharmakon/, madness, and coupled love—toward a poetic meaning making that is at the heart of play itself, all in affirmation of life, equity, and justice.

Table of Contents:

 1. Introduction to Video Game Chronotopes
 2. The Chronotope of the Threshold in Medieval-Themed Role-Playing Games
 3. The Chronotope of the Abject in /The Binding of Isaac/: Gaming Under
    Sovereign Power
 4. The Chronotope of the Archipelago: Archipelagic Maps and Playing
    Colonial Conquest
 5. The Chronotope of the Fart as /Pharmakon/ in /South Park: The
    Fractured But Whole/
 6. The Chronotope of Madness in /Borderlands /and /The Elder Scrolls V:
    Skyrim/
 7. The Chronotope of Coupled Love: Compulsory Monogamy, Video Games,
    and Polyamorous Possibilities Beyond Belonging
 8. Coda: Ethics in Gaming, Here and Now

Reviews:

“In /Video Game Chronotopes and Social Justice/, Mike Piero carefully constructs the case that video games constitute a continuously unfolding chronotope, at the intersection not just of game time and space, but ours as well. In a field that oscillates between studies of what video games can do and what video games can be, through his painstaking pursuit of every trace of each chronotope, Piero highlights the intersection of the two, unraveling the social and cultural work that awaits at each threshold of play.”

—Marc A. Ouellette, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, Old Dominion University

“Piero’s focus on the chronotope provides a nuanced, contextualized tool to help game studies scholars detangle the often fraught texts with which we work. Piero’s expansive work, which addresses chronotopes from the macro level of genre down to the micro level of marginalized game content, provides a robust guide for how the study of timespace can help articulate the varied ways games convey ideology, both explicitly and implicitly.”

—Wendi Sierra, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Game Studies, Texas Christian University

“Through a novel application of Bakhtin's chronotope, Piero presents a stunning exploration of video games as a medium ripe with ideological meaning and intimately intertwined with questions of social justice. Weaving together slow close reading with careful consideration of the current socio-political context, this passionately written and timely book shows how gameplay can be a deeply impactful spatial, temporal, and embodied experience, making it an essential read for game scholars, developers, and players alike.”

—Sarah Stang, Ph.D.

Mike Piero, Ph.D. (he/him)
Professor of English
Cuyahoga Community College
Westshore Campus
31001 Clemens Road
Westlake, OH 44145
(Michael.Piero /at/ tri-c.edu) <mailto:(Michael.Piero /at/ tri-c.edu)>

www.mikepiero.org <http://www.mikepiero.org>

Co-Editor of /Being Dragonborn: Critical Essays on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim /(McFarland, 2021, https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/being-dragonborn/ <https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/being-dragonborn/>).

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