Island Worlds

A Subcreation Studies Anthology
1. Auflage 2027
ISBN: 978-1-041-31460-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 282 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

This anthology explores the most iconic type of imaginary world, and one with the longest of histories and traditions; the island world.

In this volume, we have not only case studies of particular island worlds (arranged roughly in chronological order), but also theoretical essays looking more broadly at island worlds and their conventions and creation. The essays also examine island worlds across a variety of media, including those of literature, film and video, comics, video games, board games, and beyond. Regardless of one’s interest in the realm of subcreation, there is something of interest to be found here, as the essays also tie their topics into other areas, such as AI and complexity theory. With the interdisciplinary and transmedial nature of the topic, the book is designed to appeal not only to scholars, but to be accessible to any audience interested in popular culture and especially in franchises based on imaginary worlds.

This anthology will be of general interest to advanced students and scholars of imaginary worlds in a variety of fields, including Popular Culture Studies, Comparative Media Studies, Video Game Studies, Transmedia Studies, Film Studies, and Literature.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wolf, Mark J.P.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

About the Contributors

Introduction

Mark J. P. Wolf

1. Islands, Borders, and Conditional Connectivity in the Imaginary World Tradition

Mark J. P. Wolf

2. Islands in The Odyssey by Homer

Lars Konzack

3. Exploring Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World

Amy Elizabeth Watson and Glenn Porter

4. An Elegant Repose, An Island as Artifact: Mistress Masham’s Repose by T. H. White

Helen Conrad O’Briain

5. The Island as a Metaphor for Play: The Monkey Island Games and Playful Discovery within a Bounded Space

Kevin Schut

6. To Me, My Homeland: World-Centric Narrative Design in X-MEN’s Age of Krakoa

Geoffrey Long

7. Big Monkeys & Large Language Models: Skull Island in the Age of AI

Kevin Conran

8. Island-Hopping Into the Future: From Utopia via Lincoln Island and Isla Nubar to Animal Crossing’s Deserted Island

Gundolf S. Freyermuth

9. Alone! Islands of Imagination as Utopias, Dystopias, Parables, and Riddles

Lily Alexander

10. Between Realms: The Island as a Liminal Space of Redemption and Fantasy in The Tempest and Lost

Mingying Zhou and Xiaohong Zhang

11. Island Gameworlds and Natural World-Building

Krzysztof M. Maj

12. Paradise is an Island at the End of the World

Kris Swank

13. Island Themes in Board Games

Lars Konzack

14. Stage Set Islands: The Artificial as Archetype

Amy Elizabeth Watson

Appendix: Geographical Genres of Imaginary Worlds

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Mark J. P. Wolf is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Digital Media & Design at Concordia University Wisconsin, USA. His 30 published books include The Video Game Theory Reader (2003), The Video Game Theory Reader 2 (2008), Encyclopedia of Video Games (two-volume First Edition, 2012; three-volume Second Edition, 2021), Building Imaginary Worlds (2012), The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies (First Edition, 2014; Second Edition, 2023), LEGO Studies (2014), Video Games Around the World (2015), the four-volume Video Games and Gaming Cultures (2016), Revisiting Imaginary Worlds (2017), The Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds (2017), The Routledge Companion to Media Technology and Obsolescence (2018), World-Builders on World-Building (2020), Exploring Imaginary Worlds (2020), Fifty Key Video Games (2022), Calculated Imagery (2025), and Navigating Imaginary Worlds (2025).