Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth, and Violence in the Video Game West

by John Wills, Esther Wright Narrated by Andrew Joseph Perez

Overview

While the Western was dying a slow death across the cultural landscape, it was blazing back to life as a video game in the early twenty-first century. Rockstar Games' Red Dead franchise, beginning with Red Dead Revolver in 2004, has grown into one of the most critically acclaimed video game franchises of the twenty-first century. Red Dead Redemption: History, Myth, and Violence in the Video Game West offers a critical, interdisciplinary look at this cultural phenomenon at the intersection of game studies and American history.



Drawing on game studies, western history, American studies, and cultural studies, the authors train a wide-ranging, deeply informed analytic perspective on the Red Dead franchise-from its earliest incarnation to the latest, Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018). Their intersecting chapters put the series in the context of American history, culture, and contemporary media, with inquiries into issues of authenticity, realism, the meaning of play and commercial promotion, and the relationship between the game and the wider cultural iterations of the classic Western. The contributors also delve into the role the series' development has played in recent debates around working conditions in the gaming industry and gaming culture.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Like the amply filled satchels and saddlebags of Red Harlow, Arthur Morgan, and John Marson, this collection has you covered, delivering an exquisitely intersectional range of scholarly work on a paradigm-shifting addition to the Western imaginary in the twenty-first century. So, saddle up pard’. Your trail-exploring video game Wests should start here.”—Stefan Rabitsch,
author of Star Trek and the British Age of Sail: The Maritime Influence throughout the Series and Films
 

“This timely intervention explores one of the biggest historical game franchises through myriad lenses that together demonstrate the complexity and impact of both the games and the discourses from which they draw. Wills and Wright have shown how videogames, and in particular Red Dead, are the new frontier for the ongoing construction of the historical West in both the US and international imaginary.”—Adam Chapman, author of Digital Games as History: How Videogames Represent the Past and Offer Access to Historical Practice

 

“Offering a wide-ranging treatment of Rockstar’s Red Dead franchise, the essays here meditate on a persistent fascination with the mythic West in the popular imagination. Overall, a valuable contribution to the growing field of contemporary (and historical) game studies.”—Matthew Carter, author of Myth of the Western: New Perspectives on Hollywood’s Frontier Narrative
 

Product Details

BN ID:	2940178018583
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	04/25/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,167,301

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