4/7/2023 0 Comments Games like oxenfreeOxenfree’s remote island setting is a liminal space where the teenage characters are free from institutional authority. Oxenfree achieves this through its use of playful temporal disruptions projected through the game’s supernatural timeslips and its cyclical conclusion that repeatedly transports its heroine back to the beginning of the game. I propose that Oxenfree disrupts the frequent narrative of “overcoming” adolescence when its heroine Alex's conclusive reincorporation to normative society is denied. To illustrate this, I take Night School Studio’s Oxenfree (2016) as a case study for it offers a transgressive presentation of developmental linearity. Drawing on anthropological accounts of ritualistic rites of passage and on feminist appropriations of those accounts, this paper theorises what I call “girlhood games” as liminal spaces that have the potential to evoke transformative play. The increased presence of adolescent girl protagonists in popular videogames calls for deeper analysis into their representational potential. Liminal Rhetoric in Girlhood Games: Developmental Disruption in Night School Studio’s Oxenfree by Stephanie Harkin Abstract
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