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Article published In:
Indirect Translation and Sustainable Development
Edited by Jan Buts, Hanna Pięta, Laura Ivaska and James Hadley
[Translation Spaces 12:2] 2023
► pp. 305–325
Regular Article

Translating gender in video games

A queer phenomenological analysis

ORCID logo | Universidad Complutense de Madrid,
This article investigates the role of localization in the representation of different gender and sexuality profiles in video games. Using Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenology as a methodological framework, it analyzes the ideological and cultural limitations that restrict the rewriting of minority sexualities and genders when the original versions are transferred to other languages. The article begins by considering the generative capacities of translation as an agent that can discursively construct the subject, before focusing on the implications of localization for the shaping of identities from a phenomenological perspective to describe what conditions may lead to the appearance of translated queer paradigms in video games. The theoretical approach is applied to selected examples and conclusions for the practice of localization and its academic study are drawn.
Keywords: localization, video games, phenomenology, translation, gender, non-binary language
Article outline
  • Building discursive identities through translation
  • Translated identities as a phenomenological product
  • Gender representation and (in)visibility in localization
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.22032.mar
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