Is pop culture mostly full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? Or can the capitalist motives of authors and analysts be defended when analysing icons like SoaP and Borat?
I’ve started a new category on this blog to reflect a trend I’m seeing, drawing from influences like Stallybrass and Berger, Johnson and Gladwell: deconstruction.
The latest example I’ve stumbled into: The Meaning And Culture of Grand Theft Auto, via CNet News. Chapter titles include:
- Spilling Hot Coffee? Grand Theft Auto as Contested Cultural Product
- Political Interface: The Banning of GTA3 in Australia
- Virtual Gangstas, Coming to a Suburban House Near You: Demonization, Commodification, and Policing Blackness
- Play-Fighting: Understanding Violence in Grand Theft Auto III
- The Subversive Carnival of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Grand Theft Video: Running and Gunning for the U.S. Empire
- From Stompin’ Mushrooms to Bustin’ Heads: Grand Theft Auto III as Paradigm Shift
- Everyday Play: Cruising for Leisure in San Andreas
- Cruising in San Andreas: Ludic Space and Urban Aesthetics in Grand Theft Auto
- Experiencing Place in Los Santos and Vice City
- Positioning and Creating the Semiotic Self in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Against Embedded Agency: Subversion and Emergence in GTA3
- Inviting Subversion: Metalepses and Tmesis in Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto Series
- Playing with Style: Negotiating Digital Game Studies
Chapter excerpts are available here. And I thought it was just a video game.