Orientalism in Assassin's Creed : self-orientalizing the assassins from forerunners of modern terrorism into occidentalized heroes

Komel, Mirt (author)

The article delivers an analysis of the first of Ubisoft's long and popular franchise Assassin's Creed (2007-) in order to show how it conforms as well as how it distinguishes itself from similar cases of Orientalism in video games. If Orientalism traditionally depicted a negative picture of the Oriental Other in general and the so-called Assassins in particular (seldom associated with extremism and terrorism), then in Assassin's Creed we find at work a certain self-orientalistic subversion that mediates a positive identification, rather then disqualification of this privileged Arabo-Islamic Other. Thus, the article proposes a close examination of the orientalistic and self-orientalistic elements in the selected video game from a cultural studies approach in order to answer the question of how is it possible that the Assassins, traditionally understood as forerunners of modern terrorism, became the heroic protagonists of a western video game.

• Language: English
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2014
• Number of pages: Str. 72-90, 188
• Numbering: Letn. 51, št. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-75600
• UDC: 794-028.23:316.7
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 32561245
• Publication date in RUL: 21.12.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Članek podaja analizo prve videoigre iz niza dolge in popularne Ubisoftove franšize Assassin's Creed (2007-) z namenom prikaza skladnosti in razlik glede na podobne primere orientalizma v videoigrah. Če orientalizem tradicionalno slika negativno sliko orientalnega Drugega nasploh in t. i. ašašinov še posebej (ti se pogosto povezujejo z ekstremizmom in s terorizmom), je v videoigri Assassin's Creed na delu neka specifična samoorientalistična subverzija, ki namesto negativne diskvalifikacije mediira pozitivno identifikacijo z arabsko-islamskim Drugim. Članek zato predlaga natančen pregled orientalističnih in samoorientalističnih elementov v obravnavani videoigri z vidika kulturnih študij, da bi lahko odgovoril na vprašanje, kako je mogoče, da so ašašini, tradicionalno razumljeni kot predhodniki modernega terorizma, postali heroični protagonisti zahodne videoigre.