Beyond the Sea

Navigating Bioshock

Felan Parker, Jessica Aldred, Felan Parker, Jessica Aldred

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780773554986
• eBook ISBN: 9780773555563
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Popular Culture
• Index: Social Sciences

The Bioshock series looms large in the industry and culture of video games for its ambitious incorporation of high-minded philosophical questions and retro-futuristic aesthetics into the ultraviolent first-person shooter genre. Beyond the Sea marks ten years since the release of the original game with an interdisciplinary collection of essays on Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and Bioshock Infinite.

Simultaneously lauded as landmarks in the artistic growth of the medium and criticized for their compromised vision and politics, the Bioshock games have been the subject of significant scholarly and critical discussion. Moving past well-trodden debates, Beyond the Sea broadens the conversation by putting video games in dialogue with a diverse range of other disciplines and cultural forms, from parenting psychology to post-humanism, from Thomas Pynchon to German expressionist cinema.

Offering bold new perspectives on a canonical series, Beyond the Sea is a timely contribution to our understanding of the aesthetics, the industry, and the culture of video games.

Contributors include Daniel Ante-Contreras (Miracosta), Luke Arnott (Western Ontario), Betsy Brey (Waterloo), Patrick Brown (Iowa), Michael Fuchs (Graz), Jamie Henthorn (Catawba), Brendan Keogh (Queensland), Cameron Kunzelman (Georgia), Cody Mejeur (Michigan State), Matthew Thomas Payne (Notre Dame), Gareth Schott (Waikato), Karen Schrier (Marist), Sarah Stang (York/Ryerson), Sarah Thorne (Carleton), John Vanderhoef (California State, Dominguez Hills), Matthew Wysocki (Flagler), Jordan R. Youngblood (Eastern Connecticut State), and Sarah Zaidan (Emerson).

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• There’s Always an Introduction
• Part One – Unity and Metamorphosis: Making and Breaking Family Bonds in Bioshock
• Part Two – To Seduce the Ear and Delight the Spirit: Bioshock, Gender, and Sexuality
• Part Three – The Flesh Becomes Clay: Technology, Humanity, and Embodiment in Bioshock
• Part Four – There’s Always a City: The Many Histories of Bioshock
• Part Five – All That’s Left Is the Choosing: Rethinking Agency in Bioshock and Beyond
• Contributors
• Index