Heartbeat, Heartbreak: Persona 4, Reparative Reading, and Queer Identity in the Japanese Countryside

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorHaag, Andre
dc.contributor.authorMcIntyre, Lillian
dc.contributor.departmentEast Asian Languages and Literatures
dc.date.accessioned2023-09-28T20:15:02Z
dc.date.available2023-09-28T20:15:02Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.description.abstractThis thesis weaves together approaches from queer studies, area studies, and game studies to analyze the 2008 game Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 within a broader context of depictions of the Japanese countryside and representations of alternative gendered and sexual identities. While reception of the game’s attempts to explore sexuality have been fraught in both American and Japanese contexts, a survey of how the text is situated within broader histories of queer and rural depictions reveals that this juxtaposition in Persona 4 still belies a hopeful perspective. In contrast to theorizations of the myth of metronormativity, Persona 4 challenges standard teleological coming-out stories and situates the countryside as a place where queer youth can exist. Ultimately, this research suggests that games in broader culture and transnational contexts can encourage new considerations of queer identities beyond the typical identity categories suggested by the acronym LGBTQ+. This thesis also provides an overview of the game’s English and Japanese-language receptions on the fifteenth anniversary of Persona 4.
dc.description.degreeM.A.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/106114
dc.languageeng
dc.publisherUniversity of Hawaii at Manoa
dc.subjectPersona 4 (Video game)
dc.subjectSexual minorities--Identity
dc.subjectVideo games--Social aspects
dc.titleHeartbeat, Heartbreak: Persona 4, Reparative Reading, and Queer Identity in the Japanese Countryside
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.dcmiText
local.identifier.alturihttp://dissertations.umi.com/hawii:11878

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
McIntyre_hawii_0085O_11878.pdf
Size:
9.48 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

M.A. - East Asian Languages and Literatures (Japanese)