Death, culture & leisure : playing dead / edited by Matt Coward-Gibbs.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Coward-Gibbs, Matt, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Death in popular culture.

Play.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (229 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bingley, England : Emerald Publishing, 2020.

Summary:

Death, Culture and Leisure: Playing Deadis an inter- and multi-disciplinary volume that engages with the diverse nexuses that exist between death, culture and leisure. At its heart, it is a playful exploration of the way in which we play with both death and the dead.

Contents:

Intro

Half Title Page

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Contributor Biographies

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Death ≠ Failure

Playing with Understandings

Gaming Encounters in Gothic Environments

Frolics with Monsters

Performing Playful Realities

References

Part I-Playing with Understandings

Chapter 1-Nonhuman Games: Playing in the Post-Anthropocene

Let's Start from the End

Boys' Tools

Posthuman Games

Posthumous Games

Idle Games

Delegated Games

Procedural Games

Conclusion: Playing the Anthropocene

Interactions and Sensoria

Chapter 2-Peaceful in Death: Encountering Death in the Pokémon Universe

Introduction

Dying in the Digital World

Who Rangers Can Not Save

Approaching Pokédeath

Life in the Shadow of Pokémon Tower

Chapter 3-Staying Dead: The Corpse, Burial and Exhumation in Three Contemporary British History Plays

The Object of Possession

Victoria

Temporality

Common

Eyam

Conclusion

Chapter 4-Death, Playfulness and Picture Books

A Brief Overview of Books on Death for Children

Playfulness

Four Examples of Playfulness in Picture Books

Lessons in Loss and Death

Concluding Remarks

Part 2-Gaming Encounters in Gothic Environments

Chapter 5-Living and Dying in the City of the Damned: A Close Reading of Mordheim's Gothic Post-Apocalypse

Welcome to Mordheim: City of the Damned

Gothic Post-apocalypse

Life and (Perma)death in Mordheim

Life

Death

Permadeath and Precarity

References.

Chapter 6-Prepare to Die: Reconceptualising Death, and the Role of Narrative Engagement in the Dark Souls Series (2011-2018)

Chapter 7-'He Died a Lot': Gothic Gameplay in What Remains of Edith Finch

Gaming the Gothic

Gothic Interpellation

Compulsions to Repeat

Mourning and Melancholia

Going Home

Part 3-Frolics with Monsters

Chapter 8-Dead Chatty: The Rise of the Articulate Undead in Popular Culture

Look Within

It's Never too Late to Change

Never Forget

Chapter 9-The Slender Man: The Internet's Playful Creation of a Monster

The Slender Man Mythology

Analysing the Slender Man

The Digital Self

Chapter 10-Gameful Interactions: The 'Ludification' of Zombie Fiction

Introduction: Gamification, Ludification and Convergence Culture

From Social Anxiety to Gameful Interactions: Playful Zombies?

Ironic Survival(ist) Horror

Agency and You: Reader as Player?

Utility-Oriented Fiction: From App to Book

Conclusions

Part 4-Performing Playful Realities

Chapter 11-The Jovial Aesthetics of the Death-Positivity Movement: Notes on the Appeal of Playfulness in Activism

Death and Dark Humour

Fashion and Aesthetics

The Language of the Merry Rogue

Chapter 12-Some Games You Just Can't Win: Crowdfunded Memorialisation, Grief and That Dragon, Cancer

Memorialisation in Digital Gaming Environments

Crowdfunding Platforms for Game Development

Mechanisms of Experience.

Crowdfunded Memorialisation

Games Should be Fun

Chapter 13-Suicide, Angst, and Popular Music

Context

Durkheim, Suicide, and Popular Music

Depression and Suicide in the Music Industry

The Werther Effect

Concluding Discussion

Discography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-83909-037-5