The Lady's Revival in Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite, a first-shooter video game, was released on 29 August, 2013. 'Irrational Games and creative director Ken Levine based the game's setting on historical events at the turn of the 20th century, such as the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and based the story on the concept of American exceptionalism, while also incorporating influences from more recent events at the time such as the 2011 Occupy movement' (Source 1).
Browse the interactive map of the Columbia Exposition: are there any similarities between its physical linear structure and the way in which the floating city 'Columbia' has been conceived by its creator, Ken Levine, as a series of horizontal strata?
In what way does the racial classification separating the white ruling upper and middle-class from the minority race 'underclass' (subjugated to menial tasks and humiliation) inform a symbolic reading of the visual representation of the floating city in Bioshock Infinite?
'In Bioshock Infinite, what is the significance of Columbia as the idealized floating city? How does the fictional Columbia, as the diegetic setting, represent the historical legacy of the idea of Columbia in visual images?' (Deborah Madsen, Forum question from her seminar 'Rhetoric of American Exceptionalism', Department of English Literature, University of Geneva).
How is are the visual symbols of American Exceptionalism embedded and mapped onto the virtual images found in Bioshock Infinite?
In Bioshock Infinite, Columbia is both city and persona: she is the personification of the floating city but also a divine figure guarding the city which bears her name. As a figure, she is represented as a winged angel protecting her realm with motherly piety and love. As from her famous inception in the late 19C, she thus remains a mythologized figure. In the idealised floating city, she upholds peace and order, but as anyone who has tried to play the game knows, the truth about Columbia, the floating city, is made up of many different hidden and complex layers. Furthermore, the alternate universes made possible by the 'Tears' in time and place will reveal other and perturbing incarnations of the Lady Columbia. In the virtual world of Bioshock Infinite, we are left wondering who this 'Columbia' truly is - has or may become.
Browse the interactive map of the Columbia Exposition: are there any similarities between its physical linear structure and the way in which the floating city 'Columbia' has been conceived by its creator, Ken Levine, as a series of horizontal strata?
In what way does the racial classification separating the white ruling upper and middle-class from the minority race 'underclass' (subjugated to menial tasks and humiliation) inform a symbolic reading of the visual representation of the floating city in Bioshock Infinite?
'In Bioshock Infinite, what is the significance of Columbia as the idealized floating city? How does the fictional Columbia, as the diegetic setting, represent the historical legacy of the idea of Columbia in visual images?' (Deborah Madsen, Forum question from her seminar 'Rhetoric of American Exceptionalism', Department of English Literature, University of Geneva).
How is are the visual symbols of American Exceptionalism embedded and mapped onto the virtual images found in Bioshock Infinite?
In Bioshock Infinite, Columbia is both city and persona: she is the personification of the floating city but also a divine figure guarding the city which bears her name. As a figure, she is represented as a winged angel protecting her realm with motherly piety and love. As from her famous inception in the late 19C, she thus remains a mythologized figure. In the idealised floating city, she upholds peace and order, but as anyone who has tried to play the game knows, the truth about Columbia, the floating city, is made up of many different hidden and complex layers. Furthermore, the alternate universes made possible by the 'Tears' in time and place will reveal other and perturbing incarnations of the Lady Columbia. In the virtual world of Bioshock Infinite, we are left wondering who this 'Columbia' truly is - has or may become.
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