Archives par étiquette : jeux vidéos

Appel à contribution : So(cially) Ancient! Representing Ancient and Early Medieval Social, Ethnic and Religious Realities in Video Games

Antti Lampinen / Jasmin Lukkari, The Finnish Institute at Athens (The Finnish Institute at Athens)
22.10.2026 – 23.10.2026

Video games have become a significant and influential part of mainstream culture. Consequently, historical game studies have rapidly evolved into a new field of study over the last two decades. The objective of this conference is to direct attention towards two aspects of video games that have received comparatively little scholarly attention; firstly, the representations of social, ethnic and religious aspects of past worlds in video games and, secondly, the reception of the late antique and early medieval periods (however defined) in video games. We also wish to include non-Eurocentric points of view, such as papers focusing on the rarely discussed social, ethnic and religious aspects of the ‘Byzantine’ empire or SWANA (South-West Asian and North African) societies in video games.

In order to encourage discussion between different academic disciplines and to bridge the gap between classical and medieval reception studies, we welcome case studies and comparative studies on the reception – in any game genre – of social, ethnic and religious realities from Classical Antiquity until the Crusades.

The two keynote speakers who have confirmed their participation are Jane Draycott (Glasgow University) and Robert Houghton (Winchester University).

We warmly invite scholars from any discipline to submit an abstract, whether they are PhD students or more experienced academics. Please submit your abstracts and a short bio in English (max. 300 words for the abstract and 50 words for the bio) to Antti Lampinen at ajlamp@utu.fi by 31 March 2026.

The results will be communicated in April. The proceedings of the conference will be published in a collected volume.

The full call for papers can be viewed here: https://lukkarij.wixsite.com/socially-ancient

Parution : Popularising the Middle Ages in Modern Fantasy. Neomedievalism, Video Games, and Vikings

Carolyne Larrington, Hans Rudolf Velten et Helen Young (dir.), Popularising the Middle Ages in Modern Fantasy. Neomedievalism, Video Games, and Vikings, à paraître en janvier 2026. https://boydellandbrewer.com/book/popularising-the-middle-ages-in-modern-fantasy-9781843847595/

Contributions de Angela Schwarz, Carolyne Larrington, Charlotte Braun, Hans Rudolf Velten, Helen Young, Lukas Schrage, Milan Weber, Minjie Su, Theresa Specht, Tobias Winnerling, Tom Pinsker

Examines the development, nature, and significance of gritty (neo)medievalism in popular culture, from Assassins Creed: Valhalla and Berserk to Robert Eggers’ The Northman.

Twenty-first-century popular culture has a fascination for the medieval. Its imagery, tropes and settings have become an integral part of the epic fantasy genre across different media, demonstrated by and following the success of such globally acclaimed television shows as Game of Thrones and Vikings. This volume studies this phenomenon, aiming to establish a broader understanding of why the Middle Ages have become so popular in an era of transmedia productions; it argues that concepts of accuracy and “authenticity” are key to this popularity, alongside engagement with contemporary debates about identity, race and gender, and agile responses to fan-community and media critiques.
The essays address a variety of topics, from worldbuilding and narrative structures to female agency and the reception of Vikings, across a wide range of media, including film, television, literature, video games and manga. It also explores how contemporary fantasy engages with both academic knowledge and developments in imagination more widely, responding to ever-changing ideas about how an “authentic” Middle Ages may be created.

Introduction: Popularising the Middle Ages
Carolyne Larrington, Hans Rudolf Velten, Helen Young

Part I: Neomedieval Fantasy in the Twenty-First Century
Worldbuilding in Fantasy: A Neomedieval Grammar – Hans Rudolf Velten
Adventure, Quest, Politics and Gender in Fantasy Literature: On the Popularisation of Medieval Narrative Structures and Their Transformations – Theresa Specht
‘The Childbed is our Battlefield’. Female Agency in House of the Dragon – Charlotte Braun / Lukas Schrage
The Hero We Deserve: The Image of Dark Knight as Anti-Utopia in Kentaro Miura’s Manga Berserk – Minjie Su

Part II: Contemporary Medievalist Video Games
‘Step inside the Middle Ages’: Four Decades of Medievalism in Video Games with Historical Settings – Angela Schwarz
The Middle Ages Never End: Fantasy, History, Digital Games and Early Modernity – Tobias Winnerling
The Gritty Middle Ages as a Place of Longing and Demarcation: Gamers’ Reception of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) – Tom Pinsker

Part III: The Vikings Across Different Media
‘Pray like a Viking!’ Popularising Norse Mythology and Religion in Video Games with Historical Settings: The Case of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (2020) – Milan Weber
Fantasies of Vinland. Popularising Medieval History – Helen Young
Robert Eggers’ The Northman: Imagining and Marketing Vikings in Popular (Anglo-American) Culture – Carolyne Larrington

Bibliography
Index

CAROLYNE LARRINGTON is Emerita Professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford and Emerita Research Fellow in medieval English literature at St John’s College, Oxford.

HANS RUDOLF VELTEN is a Professor of medieval German language and literature at the University of Siegen.

HELEN YOUNG is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University, Australia where they hold an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.