SLSP5380M
Module Reading List

1 Welcome to Videogames & Society: Module Introduction and Overview  

No set reading

2 Who Plays Videogames?: ‘Gamers’ and (Post)Identity

Set reading

Burkitt, Ian. 2008 [1991]. ‘Society and the Self’ in Social Selves: Theories of Self and Society (2nd Edition). London: Sage.  1-30  

Muriel, Daniel and Garry Crawford. 2018. 'Chapter Six: Video Gamers and (Post-)Identity’ in Videogames as Culture: Considering the Role and Importance of Videogames. Oxford: Routledge.  

3 Consumerism, Class and Masculinity

Set reading

Newman, Michael J. 2017. ‘Space Invaders: Masculine Play in the Media Room’ In Atari Age: The Emergence of Video Games in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.  

4 The Representation of Women in Videogames

Set reading

Boluk, Stephanie & Patrick Li Mieux. 2017. ‘Breaking the Metagame: Feminist Spoilsports and Magic Circle Jerks’ In Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  

Coles, A. 2020. The Rampant Body-Shaming of Abby in The Last of Us Part II shows Gamers Still can’t accept a realistic female lead. Available on: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/last-us-2-abby-gaming-naughty-dog-a9609616.html  

5 Bad Influence: Videogame and Moral Panics

Set reading

Cohen, S. 1987. Folk devils & moral panics: the creation of the Mods and Rockers. Oxford: Basil Blackwell (Chapter 1)  

6 Reading Videogames from the Margins

Set reading

Ruberg, Bonnie. 2016. ‘Introduction’ and ‘”Loving Father, Caring Husband, Secret Octopus”: Queer Embodiment and Passing in Octodad’. Video games have always been queer. New York: New York University Press. 1–28 and 84–109  

7 Videogames and Orientalism

Set readings

Boyes, P. 2018. From Final Fantasy 12 to Uncharted 3: exploring gaming's Orientalist fantasies. Available on: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-03-24-from-final-fantasy-12-to-uncharted-3-exploring-gamings-orientalist-fantasies

Hall, Stuart. 1992. ’Chapter 6: The West and the West’. in Formations of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.   OCR REQUESTED BY LIBRARY (MH 13/01/2022) 

Hoglund, J. 2008. Electronic Empire: Orientalism Revisited in the Military Shooter. Available on: http://gamestudies.org/0801/articles/hoeglund

8 Videogames and Whiteness

Set reading

Murray, Soraya. 2021. ‘Aesthetics of Ambivalence and Whiteness in Crisis’ in On Video Games: The Visual Politics of Race, Gender and Space. London: New York. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 89-140.  

9 Working and Playing Online: The Rise of the Videogame Live-Streamer

Set reading

Taylor, T.L. 2018. ‘Broadcasting Ourselves’ and ‘Home Studios’. In Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.  

Woodcock, J., & Johnson, M. R. 2019. The Affective Labor and Performance of Live Streaming on Twitch.tv. Television & New Media. 20(8): 813–823  

10 The Labour of Videogame Production

Set reading

Dyer-Witheford, Nick & Greig de Peuter. 2006. “‘EA Spouse’ and the Crisis of Video Game Labour: Enjoyment, Exclusion, Exploitation, Exodus.” Canadian Journal of Communication 31 (3): 599–617  

Schrier, Jason. 2019. Making Videogames Is Not a Dream Job. The New York Times. 4th April 2019. [Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/opinion/video-games-layoffs-union.html]  

Woodcock, Jamie. 2019. ‘The Work of Videogames’ in Marx at the Arcade: Consoles, Controllers and Class Struggle. Haymarket Books.  

11 Essay Q&A session

No set reading

This list was last updated on 11/01/2022