Playing With the Anthropocene: Board Game Imaginaries of Islands, Nature, and Empire
The figure of the island as a metonym for the planet is central to many allegories of the Anthropocene. These allegories build upon pre-existing discourses of islands as remote, vulnerable, and timeless, and often portray contemporary island nations as helpless, doomed, and disposable. This article...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Island Studies Journal
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Island Studies Journal |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.165 |
| _version_ | 1827117952836567040 |
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| author | Hannah Fair |
| author_facet | Hannah Fair |
| author_sort | Hannah Fair |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The figure of the island as a metonym for the planet is central to many allegories of the Anthropocene. These allegories build upon pre-existing discourses of islands as remote, vulnerable, and timeless, and often portray contemporary island nations as helpless, doomed, and disposable. This article focuses on one allegorical terrain that has received limited discursive and cultural analysis: analogue board games. Board game representations of islands are relevant to island studies both due to the popularity of island themes and because of the resonances between common island imaginaries and the form of board game play itself. Looking at three explicitly island-themed board games (Taluva, Vanuatu, and Spirit Island), I explore the extent to which these games reiterate or contest discourses of islands as sites of ahistorical insularity and alterity. I investigate the presence and absence of islanders in these fictional landscapes, the relationship between these ludic cartographies and imaginaries of ecological collapse and environmental intervention, and the articulations of nature, humanity, and empire that are literally at play. Particularly in the case of Spirit Island, these board game representations reflect the potential for the figure of the island to be reconfigured in order to imagine the Anthropocene otherwise. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T21:14:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-982d047de4824bcdbf5bfc7d067aee99 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1715-2593 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-20T12:57:44Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Island Studies Journal |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Island Studies Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-982d047de4824bcdbf5bfc7d067aee992024-09-12T22:53:27ZengIsland Studies JournalIsland Studies Journal1715-25932022-05-01171Playing With the Anthropocene: Board Game Imaginaries of Islands, Nature, and EmpireHannah FairThe figure of the island as a metonym for the planet is central to many allegories of the Anthropocene. These allegories build upon pre-existing discourses of islands as remote, vulnerable, and timeless, and often portray contemporary island nations as helpless, doomed, and disposable. This article focuses on one allegorical terrain that has received limited discursive and cultural analysis: analogue board games. Board game representations of islands are relevant to island studies both due to the popularity of island themes and because of the resonances between common island imaginaries and the form of board game play itself. Looking at three explicitly island-themed board games (Taluva, Vanuatu, and Spirit Island), I explore the extent to which these games reiterate or contest discourses of islands as sites of ahistorical insularity and alterity. I investigate the presence and absence of islanders in these fictional landscapes, the relationship between these ludic cartographies and imaginaries of ecological collapse and environmental intervention, and the articulations of nature, humanity, and empire that are literally at play. Particularly in the case of Spirit Island, these board game representations reflect the potential for the figure of the island to be reconfigured in order to imagine the Anthropocene otherwise.https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.165 |
| spellingShingle | Hannah Fair Playing With the Anthropocene: Board Game Imaginaries of Islands, Nature, and Empire Island Studies Journal |
| title | Playing With the Anthropocene: Board Game Imaginaries of Islands, Nature, and Empire |
| title_full | Playing With the Anthropocene: Board Game Imaginaries of Islands, Nature, and Empire |
| title_fullStr | Playing With the Anthropocene: Board Game Imaginaries of Islands, Nature, and Empire |
| title_full_unstemmed | Playing With the Anthropocene: Board Game Imaginaries of Islands, Nature, and Empire |
| title_short | Playing With the Anthropocene: Board Game Imaginaries of Islands, Nature, and Empire |
| title_sort | playing with the anthropocene board game imaginaries of islands nature and empire |
| url | https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.165 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hannahfair playingwiththeanthropoceneboardgameimaginariesofislandsnatureandempire |