The Hyperlab Presents – Survival Horror: the perfect video game genre for a study of gender

In this talk, noted cinema and video game studies scholar Bernard Perron will examine survival horror video games as a surprisingly rich and complex site for the study of gender. At first blush, the hypersexualized heroines and militarized, ultra-macho heroes that tend to populate the survival horror genre seem to do little other than reaffirm problematic stereotypes, as do the game design choices that underpin this dichotomy and structure player experience. However, as Dr. Perron will demonstrate, through survival and event flight, the horror game genre ultimately narrows the gap between the sexes, aligning players with empowered, active characters that subvert traditional expectations. In so doing, Dr. Perron acknowledges the indebtedness of survival horror games to their cinematic counterparts, at the same time as he considers their uniqueness as games.

Weds, Dec. 5th, 1:00-2:30pm, 303 Paterson Hall

Bernard Perron

Dr. Perron is the Full Professor of Cinema at the University of Montreal. He is co-editor of The Video Game Theory Reader I (Routledge, 2003) and 2 (2009), editor of Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play (McFarland, 2009), and author of Silent Hill: The Terror Engine (University of Michigan Press, 2012). His research concentrates on video games; on horror; on interactive cinema; on narration, cognition, and the ludic dimension of narrative cinema.

Poster