Re-Calibrating Steampunk London
Heterotopia and Spatial Imaginaries in Assassins Creed: Syndicate and The Order 1886
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20249001 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Helena Esser (0009-0001-9935-5965, Birkbeck, University of London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 56 |
| Publication date | 2021-03-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0787 • E-ISSN: 2076-0787 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/h10010056 |
| OpenAlex | W3136743695 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 14 |
Video games have become important but understudied narrative media, which link into as well as perpetuate popular forms of cultural memory. They evoke and mediate space (or the illusion thereof) in unique ways, literally putting into play Doreen Massey’s theory of space as being produced through a multiplicity of trajectories. I examine how Assassins Creed: Syndicate and The Order 1886 (both 2015) configure a neo-Victorian London as a simulated, spatio-temporal imaginary in which urban texture becomes a readable storytelling device in and of itself, and interrogate how their neo-Victorian heterotopias are mediated through a spatial experience. Both games conjure up imaginaries of steampunk London as a counter-site sourced from and commenting on the Victorian city of memory. Through retro-speculation, they re-calibrate neo-Victorian London as a playground offering alternative forms of agency and adventure or as cyberpunk-infused hyper-city. In so doing, they invite the player to re-evaluate, through their spatial experience in such a heterotopic steampunk London, shared imaginaries of ‘the city’ and ‘the Victorian’
Adventure · Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Creed · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Syndicate · The Imaginary · Visual arts · Crime and Detective Fiction Studies · History · Law · Night-time city culture · Psychology · Spatial and Cultural Studies
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |