Being the Other in Electronic Narratives

Representation and normalization of queerness in video games

Bibliographic Data

ID22017382
AuthorsAmélie Vallières (0000-0002-4567-483X, Université du Québec à Montréal), P Dumoulin (Université du Québec à Montréal), Pierre Gabriel Dumoulin, Emmanuelle Lescouet (0000-0003-2620-4135, Université de Montréal)
Year2025
Volume12
Issue1
Pages77-101
Publication date2025-07-31
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMatlit Revista do Programa de Doutoramento em Materialidades da Literatura (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2182-8830 • E-ISSN: 2182-8830
PublisherCoimbra University Press (PUBLISHER • PT)
DOI10.14195/2182-8830_12-1_5
OpenAlexW4412808930
LanguageEN
References cited4

Joining various critical discourses, notably critical play (Flanagan, 2009), feminist and queer video game theories (Ruberg and Shaw, 2017), our project is interested in the potential of digital literary works (e.g., visual novels, video games) in raising awareness towards social issues, such as equity, inclusivity, and diversity. Analyzing digital literary works as text-objects, we can question them and the discourses they transmit through their procedural rhetoric (Bogost, 2008). With the growing interest in empathy-driven games in the industry and their mobilization of social issues, especially those related to queerness, we decided to explore these designed experiences and the ways in which they may provoke (or not) awareness in players. In this article, we analyzed through a socio-semiotic approach two video games, drawn from a larger queer video game corpus, dealing differently with social issues such as representation and normalization of queerness, to further understand their potential as literary works

Art · Cognitive science · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology

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