America is Dead. Long Live America! Political Affect in Days Gone
This essay models a method for understanding political affect in video games by analyzing the American action-adventure survival horror game Days Gone (SIE Bend Studio, 2019). Through an examination of its rendering of the Pacific Northwest landscape as ideology, much is revealed about a deeply trou...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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European Association for American Studies
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| Series: | European Journal of American Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/17409 |
| _version_ | 1797310413959856128 |
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| author | Soraya Murray |
| author_facet | Soraya Murray |
| author_sort | Soraya Murray |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay models a method for understanding political affect in video games by analyzing the American action-adventure survival horror game Days Gone (SIE Bend Studio, 2019). Through an examination of its rendering of the Pacific Northwest landscape as ideology, much is revealed about a deeply troubled and oppositional worldview. While this research addresses matters of representation—particularly notions of fraught masculinity and a struggle for recognition—its focus is on how the game functions as a window onto a fantasy of American self-reliance and populism that strongly resonates with a Trump-era nationalist turn in the U.S. The essay also gestures toward a methodology of experiential close-reading, one focused on working-through and sitting with a difficult aesthetic object that may at first seem entirely generic. In this essay, the author reaches through the offending, formulaic image to grasp the political affect that emanates from a sustained aesthetic experience of playing Days Gone. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T01:43:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c45a3bc620024f9598afb166f45918f8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1991-9336 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T01:43:35Z |
| publisher | European Association for American Studies |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of American Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-c45a3bc620024f9598afb166f45918f82024-02-14T13:19:57ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-933616310.4000/ejas.17409America is Dead. Long Live America! Political Affect in Days GoneSoraya MurrayThis essay models a method for understanding political affect in video games by analyzing the American action-adventure survival horror game Days Gone (SIE Bend Studio, 2019). Through an examination of its rendering of the Pacific Northwest landscape as ideology, much is revealed about a deeply troubled and oppositional worldview. While this research addresses matters of representation—particularly notions of fraught masculinity and a struggle for recognition—its focus is on how the game functions as a window onto a fantasy of American self-reliance and populism that strongly resonates with a Trump-era nationalist turn in the U.S. The essay also gestures toward a methodology of experiential close-reading, one focused on working-through and sitting with a difficult aesthetic object that may at first seem entirely generic. In this essay, the author reaches through the offending, formulaic image to grasp the political affect that emanates from a sustained aesthetic experience of playing Days Gone.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/17409politicsaffectideologywhitenessmasculinityvideo games |
| spellingShingle | Soraya Murray America is Dead. Long Live America! Political Affect in Days Gone European Journal of American Studies politics affect ideology whiteness masculinity video games |
| title | America is Dead. Long Live America! Political Affect in Days Gone |
| title_full | America is Dead. Long Live America! Political Affect in Days Gone |
| title_fullStr | America is Dead. Long Live America! Political Affect in Days Gone |
| title_full_unstemmed | America is Dead. Long Live America! Political Affect in Days Gone |
| title_short | America is Dead. Long Live America! Political Affect in Days Gone |
| title_sort | america is dead long live america political affect in days gone |
| topic | politics affect ideology whiteness masculinity video games |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/17409 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sorayamurray americaisdeadlongliveamericapoliticalaffectindaysgone |