Creating Alternative Worlds: How Play Produces Queer Times and Spaces in Dungeons & Dragons

Wistow, Hollie (2023) Creating Alternative Worlds: How Play Produces Queer Times and Spaces in Dungeons & Dragons. MRes thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

This dissertation removes queerness from strict identity practices to look at how spaces and times can be queered during moments and movements when players interacted with the fantasy role playing game Dungeons & Dragons. I conducted 7 semi-structured interviews with avid players of Dungeons & Dragons to investigate their relationships with play, time, and space. Throughout the dissertation I employ and build on the work of prominent queer scholars of time and space to create my own framework of queer space/time analysed in the context of play. I found numerous routes to queerness including, counter affective feelings in boredom, extreme success, player modifications, wandering of ‘course’ and boredom. These routes are united by their argument that individuals’ expressions and interactions with their play practices can create alternative locations, feelings, and desires - crafting queer worlds and inverting normativity.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (MRes)
Supervisors: Mansell, James
Kennedy, Helen
Keywords: role-playing, role-playing games, RPGs, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, queerness, queer theory
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation. Leisure
H Social sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Arts > School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
Item ID: 72050
Depositing User: Wistow, Hollie
Date Deposited: 31 Jul 2023 04:40
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2023 04:40
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/72050

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