Language, Gender, and Videogames : Using Corpora to Analyse the Representation of Gender in Fantasy Videogames

Heritage, Frazer (2021) Language, Gender, and Videogames : Using Corpora to Analyse the Representation of Gender in Fantasy Videogames. Palgrave Macmillan, London. ISBN 9783030743970

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Abstract

This book explores how corpus linguistic techniques can be applied to close analysis of videogames as a text, particularly examining how language is used to construct representations of gender in fantasy videogames. The author demonstrates a wide array of techniques which can be used to both build corpora of videogames and to analyse them, revealing broad patterns of representation within the genre, while also zooming in to focus on diachronic changes in the representation of gender within a best-selling videogame series and a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). The book examines gender as a social variable, making use of corpus linguistic methods to demonstrate how the language used to depict gender is complex but often repeated. This book combines fields including language and gender studies, new media studies, ludolinguistics, and corpus linguistics, and it will be of interest to scholars in these and related disciplines.