"Uncanny, Monstrous, and Sublime": ecoGothic Transformations in Horror Video Games
First author: LoringYear: 2023
Abstract
Ecohorror video games, analyzed through a feminist ecoGothic lens, offer a critical opportunity for scholars to examine the impact of the environmental crisis in popular culture as well as the reasons why this “villainous” nature is still so frequently depicted as female. Like the nature they inhabit and/or represent, the monstrous-feminine characters in ecohorror video games cannot be controlled. Female monsters that have become hybridized in some way with nature—whether through flora, fauna, fungi, or by contagion which they then spread to others—are central to the ecohorror narrative. Using the games Blair Witch and Resident Evil VII: Biohazard/Resident Evil Village, I investigate how anxieties surrounding both gender and ecology intersect, seeking the ways in which these female characters’ transgression of categories interrogate the artificial dichotomy between humanity and nature. I argue that despite storylines seemingly embedded in ecophobia, it is possible to analyze ecohorror video games as narratives empowering both monstrous-feminine characters and the ecology that spawns them by using a feminist ecoGothic lens.Details
Language: EnglishCountry of affiliation: United States
Published in: Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies
Publication type: Journal article
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376450396_Uncanny_Monstrous_and_Sublime_ecoGothic_Transformations_in_Horror_Video_Games
Games
No Results
Franchises
No Results