Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game"

Grant Craig
8 years ago
Views:

1 Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game 26 th October 2015, The Institute for Research in Digital Culture and Humanities, Open University of Hong Kong Paul Martin Assistant Professor University of Nottingham Ningbo China Paul.martin@nottingham.edu.cn

Culture and Humanities, Open University of Hong Kong Paul Martin

2 Race, colonial history and national identity: Resident Evil 5 as a Japanese game 26 th October 2015, The Institute for Research in Digital Culture and Humanities, Open University of Hong Kong Paul Martin Assistant Professor University of Nottingham Ningbo China Paul.martin@nottingham.edu.cn

4 Popular culture texts are polysemic Fiske, J. (1989). Understanding Popular Culture. New York: Routledge. Encoding/Decoding Hall, S. (2000). Encoding/Decoding. In P. Marris & S. Thornham (Eds.), Media Studies: A Reader (pp ). New York: New York University Press.

Encoding/Decoding Hall, S. (2000). Encoding/Decoding. In P.

5 What is Resident Evil 5 about? Japan s colonial memory as it relates to contemporary Japan s place in the international community Game announced in 2005 and released in 2009

6 Chris Jill Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance Sheva Wesker Zombies

8 Zombies a surface upon which humanity reflects anxieties Boyer, E. (2014). Zombies all! The Janus-faced zombie of the twentyfirst century. The Journal of Popular Culture, 47(6), Pp barometer of cultural anxiety Dendle, P. (2007). The zombie as barometer of cultural anxiety. In N. Scott (Ed.), Monsters and the Monstrous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil (pp ). Amsterdam and New York, NY: Rodopi. P.45

1139-40 barometer of cultural anxiety Dendle, P. (2007). The zombie as barometer of cultural anxiety. In N.

9 Games and action Galloway, A.R. (2007). Gaming. Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Vella, D. (2015). The Character of the Ludic Muse. Paper presented at the Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Berlin.

11 Africa as backdrop Schmidt, S. J., & Garrett, H. J. (2011). Reconstituting Pessimistic Discourses. Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, 25(3), doi: /

12 Africa as backdrop Achebe, C. (1978). An image of Africa. Research in African Literatures, 9(1), 1-15.

13 Africa as backdrop Kuwahara, Y. (1997). Japanese culture and popular consciousness: Disney's The Lion King vs. Tezuka's Jungle Emperor. The Journal of Popular Culture, 31(1),

14 Koizumi Junichiro, Prime Minister it is time [for the region] to look towards the future and escape the bondage of history.

15 Normal country

16 Normal country Japan ought to become a normal country by stepping up and shouldering its rightful international responsibilities and by cooperating with other states to build prosperous societies around the globe Soeya, Y., Tadokoro, M., & Welch, D. A. (2011). What is a 'normal country'? In Y. Soeya, M. Tadokoro & D. A. Welch (Eds.), Japan as a 'Normal Country'. A nation in search of its place in the world.. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. P.42.

, Tadokoro, M., & Welch, D. A. (2011). What is a 'normal country'? In Y. Soeya, M. Tadokoro & D. A. Welch (Eds.

17 The Self-Defense Force (SDF)

18 Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister Issues of apologies, textbooks and the Yasukuni shrine were (and are) deeply contested domestically Lawson, S., & Tannaka, S. (2010). War memories and Japan's "normalization" as an international actor: A critical analysis. European Journal of International Relations, 17(3), doi: / P.

War memories and Japan's "normalization" as an international actor: A critical analysis.

19 Hybrid characters

20 Hybrid monsters

21 Player-avatar structure

22 Gameplay as virtual travel Sterling, M. D. (2011). Searching for self in the global south: Japanese literary representations of Afro-Jamaican Blackness. Japanese Studies, 31(1), doi: /

23 Gameplay as virtual travel Games are explorations and colonizations of space Fuller, M., & Jenkins, H. (1995). Nintendo and new world travel writing: A dialogue. In S. G. Jones (Ed.), Cybersociety: Computermediated communication and community (pp ). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

24 Shaw, A. (2011). He could be a bunny rabbit for all I care! Paper presented at the Digital Games Research Association Conference, Utrecht.

25 Travel writing and imperial subjectivity Travel writing was one of the key instruments that made people at home in Europe feel part of a planetary project; a key instrument, in other words in creating the domestic subject of empire Pratt, M. L. (2008). Imperial eyes: travel writing and transculturation. London: Routledge. P.24.

26 Two performative opportunities To perform a sanitized and exuberant version of colonialism without guilt To perform a normalized contemporary global Japanese subjectivity

27 Degoul, F. (2011). "We are the mirror of your fears": Haitian identity and zombification (E. M. Lore, Trans.). In D. Christie & S. J. Lauro (Eds.), Better Off Dead: The evolution of the zombie as post-human (pp ). Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press.

28 Zombie as victim Krzywinska, T. (2008). Zombies in gamespace: form, context, and meaning in zombie-based videogames. In S. McIntosh & M. Leverette (Eds.), Zombie culture. Autopsies of the living dead (pp ). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

29 Zombie as victim Backe, H.J. and Aarseth, E. (2013). Ludic Zombies: An examination of zombieism in games. Paper presented at DiGRA 13, Atlanta.

HIS 13 Introduction to Modern European History

HIS 13 Introduction to Modern European History Basic Information Instructor Name Home Institution Email Office Hours Naum G. Katz Carnegie Mellon University kats@andrew.cmu.edu by Appointment Course Description