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

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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