One Neoliberalism, Many Resistances by Dennis R. Redmond
Copyright 2012 Dennis R. Redmond VIDEOGAME CULTURE AS TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA: ONE NEOLIBERALISM, MANY RESISTANCES BY DENNIS R. REDMOND DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communications in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Angharad Valdivia, Chair Professor Isabel Molina Professor Antoinette Burton Professor Paula Treichler, Emeritus ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes two best-selling videogames, Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 4 (2008) and Square Enix' Final Fantasy 12 (2006), as sites of contestation between commercial media corporations on the one hand, and communities of artists, consumers and non-commercial digital users on the other. I argue that Metal Gear Solid 4 rewrites the stealth espionage thriller into a critique of neoliberalism's financial speculations and neocolonial wars, while Final Fantasy 12 rewrites the fantasy role-playing videogame into a critique of the colonial and neocolonial legacies of fantasy and role-playing fiction. Using the tools of critical communications theory, postcolonial media studies, and digital media scholarship, I argue that these videogames narrate the struggle between neoliberalism (i.e. the ideology of late 20 th century market fundamentalism which exerted global hegemony during the thirty years from 1975 to 2005) and a wide range of anti-neoliberal social movements, developmental states (especially those of the BRIC nations, i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China), and non-commercial networks of digital production, distribution and consumption. I also argue that these videogames frame the politics of transnational media production and transnational audience reception in productive ways.
[Show full text]