Description
Book SynopsisExamining the social and cultural implications of noir and Western narratives in video games,
Manifest Destiny 2.0 explores the performative literacy of gaming as a means by which Western and noir genres continue to influence twenty-first-century attitudes and global culture.
Trade Review“[Sara Humphreys] demonstrates the ways in which games and, more specifically, reward systems are aligned with troubling ideological positions related to race, class, and gender. . . . [She] draws on a broad range of scholars and theorists of narrative [with the result being] a rich network of sources that help connect the functioning of game-based storytelling to a broader understanding of narrative.”—Holly Willis, author of
Fast Forward: The Future(s) of the Cinematic Arts Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Game and the Nation: Legacies of the Frontier Western
2. Manifest Memory: The Role of Mexico in
Red Dead Redemption 3. Virtual Indian Removal: Why Indigenous Knowledge Matters in Game Development
4. “He’s Everything”: Making the Man in
L.A. Noire 5. Blanching Noire: The Performance of White Womanhood and Middle-Class Identity
6. Burning Down the House: Murder, Corruption, and the Middle Class
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
