Empires in the ‘Game-Over Era’: Videogames and the Question of Historical Narrative

Panel Proposed by: Mahshid Mayar, Bielefeld University, Germany
Event: 5th European Congress on World and Global History (ENIUGH)
Theme: “Ruptures, Empires, Revolutions”
Date and Venue: August 31-September 3, 2017, Budapest

Thanks to diverse and incisive research conducted in response to the so-called ‘new imperial studies’, it is now a common belief across the board that in the past half a century our everyday relationship to and encounters with ‘empire’ and (post)colonial heritage have changed almost entirely. On the one hand, the contemporary experience of, retrospection over, and re-imagining empires in the former colonies has opened spaces for the colonized to record the otherwise unheard or suppressed ‘subaltern voices’ and to open doors to archive-worthy evidence which were formerly doomed to transmute into dust. On the other hand, in the so-called metropole, unprecedented geopolitical ruptures, disruptions in the colonial economic (im)balance, and new forms of relating to, representing, and imagining colonial identity have altered the perspectives and experiences of empire and the force behind it.

The panel entitled Empires in the ‘Game-Over Era’: Videogames and the Question of Historical Narrative seeks to investigate this changed everyday experience and exposure to the historical notion and institution of empire, and the consequent changes in the definitions and applications of the term in our post-colonial, ‘game-over era’ by focusing on the various medial, rhetorical, and historical aspects of an increasing body of history-themed videogames which have, for the past two decades or so, dealt with empires in one way or another. The particular nature of these videogames—sites where producers and gamers challenge historical narratives and where the borders between historical fact and fiction are blurred—have drawn a group of both young and established historians to ask apropos micro- and macro-level research questions about empires and historical narratives:

- What functions does history perform in the popular historical imaginary of gamers?
- What are the definitions of empire in its popular forms, e.g., in history-themed videogames?
- How do gamers’ personal affinity to an empire (being an Indian Hindu adolescent) and the historical moment at which they play (peak of the ‘War on Terror’ hysteria worldwide) affect their relationship to games and to historical narratives which function as the games’ backdrop?
- How do these factors change the gamer’s choices and adopted strategies in the games?
- How does ‘playing an empire’ change the gamers’ relationship to the (post)colonial heritage?
- How does relating to empires in our game-over era through videogames change/reinforce/cleans/dismiss/renew existing imperial myths?

Asking these and similar questions, this panel offers a podium for historians interested in videogame cultures to discuss the immense potential of videogames in reminding historians of the necessity to reflect upon the tenacity of grand historical narratives, to zoom in and investigate close relationship of individuals to and roles in imperial past and imperial present, and to evaluate the nature and limits of ‘historical source’ and ‘historical evidence’.

Please note that abstracts (100–300 words) should include the name, current affiliation, short academic bio, and e-mail address of the potential presenter.

Submissions, in English, should be received at the latest by June 10, 2016.

For inquiries and submissions, contact Mahshid Mayar, mahshid.mayar@uni-bielefeld.de.

For information on the ENIUGH 2017, the conference CfP, and previous events, see http://research.uni-leipzig.de/~eniugh/congress/home/.