Call for Papers:
Games without frontiers -war without tears
Computer games as a sociocultural phenomenon

As a rule Computer games remain to be the focus of media attention when
specific acts of violence which deeply horrify the audience (war and
rampage â€" Iraq and Erfurt)draw the public's perception to them. The
first ever occuring impetus then is aimed at a more or less serious
examination of their dangerous and problematic aspects (blunting
people's senses, playing down and provoking violence, player's loss of
touch with reality, escapism, unsrupulousness, etc.). Beyond the
dominating reflex of such an often monocausal, naive formulation of the
topic, a thoroughly controversial â€" yet most of the time superficial â€"
discussion about the critical sociocultural implications of
computer games has been established. Even in the academic analysis the
surely relevant, though by no means sufficient concentration
on the link between computer games and violence is dominant. Up to now
only few studies have offered a contextualizing view of the political,
aesthetic, narratologic,economic, historic aspects with regard to their
mutual connection.Accordingly this volume is meant to become an
extensive account of the phenomenon "computer games" with all its
different genres. The various perspectives of analyses
(aesthetics, economy, narratology, etc.) will thus provide the reader
with a sound insight into the subject.

Proposals of subjects
The history of computer games / The media economic position of the
computer game industry / Modes of production and technologies of the
computer game industry / The "language" of computer games / A theory of
the computer game as a medium / Computer games and intermediality / The
meaning and fascination of violence in computer games / War and computer
games / Modes of usage and acquisition of computer games / Computer
games as youth phenomenon / Computer games and politics / Computer
games and the politics of representation / Computer games and body
politics /Gender constructions in computer games / Computer games and
cultural identity /The cultural geography of space in computer games /
Computer games and sexual politics / Constructions of "Good" and "Evil"
in computer games / "Good" games vs."bad" games / Computer games and
identification / Computer games and immersion /Computer games and
political correctness / Computer games and the far right / Computer
games and fantasies of power / Computer games and learning

Criteria
Contributions should
• be empirically or theoretically well-founded
• show new aspects or access to the subject
• be as yet unpublished
Authors with interest are asked to submit an abstract (3.500 characters,
incl. blank, max.) until June 1st, 2005. In case of acceptance the
author has ten weeks time to complete the article (40.000 characters,
incl. blank, max.). Date of submission will be September 1st, 2005.
Date of publication will be spring 2006.

Deadlines
June 1st, 2005: submission of abstracts
September 1st, 2005: submission of articles
September 15th until November 1st, 2005: reworking if necessary

Please contact:
Andreas Jahn-Sudmann (wiss. Mitarbeiter, Univ. Göttingen, Zentrum für
interdisziplinäre
Medienwissenschaft, Abt. Medienwissenschaft und Journalistik)
Tel. +49 551 39 9373
Mail: andreas.sudmann_at_t-online.de /ajahn2_at_uni-goettingen.de
Humboldtallee 32
37073 Göttingen

Ralf Stockmann (Leiter GDZ Göttingen, wiss. Mitarbeiter)
Tel. +49 551 39 3878
Mail: stockmann_at_sub.uni-goettingen.de
Papendiek 14
37073 Göttingen

Texts in English are of course very welcome. Sorry for cross-postings...

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Received on Tue Mar 15 2005 - 21:47:29 EST