- KOREAN
- P-ISSN1229-4632
- E-ISSN2733-5925
- KCI
ISSN : 1229-4632
Gender Diversity and the trouble of Identification in The Last of Us Series
Abstract
This article aims to examine how the gender diversity of game characters affects the relationship between the game player and the character in The Last of Us series, which has been appreciated as one of the most cinematic games. In other words, I would like to ask the correlation between the video game characters’ identity and the game player’s agency. In particular, The Last of Us Part 2, in which two women, Ellie and Abbey, appear as player characters, received a hate attack from the fandom, which mainly consist of male gamers. This is because both of Ellie’s body and Abby’s, which exceed and deviate normative gender system. However, The Last of Us Part 2 is also designed to make a player’s agency instable and cause the trouble of identification. This game, which has lower degree of freedom in the choices of narratives and actions of player characters, compels players to play as and identify both Eli and Abbie who are hostile each other. It allows players to experience the gender differences among/within women, female masculinity, and multi-layered game bodies (character’s, actor’s, player’s, game machine’s, etc.). A player/Ellie/Abby can complete the game to the end only when they accept the instability of subjectivity and failure of their identity and acknowledge that it is impossible to overcome the trauma of the subject for others’ pains. The Last of Us Part 2 navigates the ethical coexistence of different actants only possible when revealing vulnerability and finding traces of oneself from strangers.
- keywords
- 더 라스트 오브 어스 파트2, 동일시와 비동일시, 플레이어 행위자성, 젠더 다양성, 여성의 남성성, 영화적 게임, 비디오게임, 게임 서사학, The Last of Us Part 2, identification and disidentification, agency, gender diversity, female masculinity, cinematic game, video game, game narratology
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