Rules of the Father in The Last of Us

Masculinity Among the Ruins of Neoliberalism

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by J. Jesse Ramírez

Type

Essays

Subject

One Film > The Last of Us (TV Series)

Keywords

TV Series, gender

Publishing date

2022

Publisher

Palgrave MacMillan

Collection

Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 159 pages
6 x 8 ½ inches (15 x 21.5 cm)

ISBN

978-3-030-89603-4

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Book Presentation:
Widely regarded by critics and fans as one of the best games ever produced for the Sony Playstation, The Last of Us is remarkable for offering players a narratively rich experience within the parameters of cultural and gaming genres that often prioritize frenetic violence by straight white male heroes. The Last of Us is also a milestone among mainstream, big-budget (AAA) games because its development team self-consciously intervened in videogames’ historical exclusion of women and girls by creating complex and agentive female characters. The game’s co-protagonist, Ellie, is a teenage girl who is revealed to be queer in The Last of Us: Left Behind (DLC, 2014) and The Last of Us II (2020). Yet The Last of Us also centers Joel, Ellie’s fatherly protector.

How is patriarchy, the rule of the father, encoded in rule-based systems like videogames? How does patriarchal rule become an algorithmic rule and vice-versa? These questions are at the heart of this book, the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the zombie apocalypse/ action-adventure/ third-person shooter videogame The Last of Us (2013). On the one hand, the book is a close, extended study of The Last of Us and its themes, genres, procedures, and gameplay. On the other hand, the book is a post-GamerGate reflection on the political and ethical possibilities of progressive play in algorithmic mass culture, of which videogames are now the dominant form.

About the Author:
J. Jesse Ramirez is Assistant Professor of American Studies at University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

See the publisher website: Palgrave MacMillan

See The Last of Us (TV Series) (2023) on IMDB ...