Apr 18 2024

Ghosts of the Past: Anti-Black Aesthetics and the Ruse of Historical Accuracy in the Sherlock Holmes Video Game Series

Feminisms Lunch Lectures

April 18, 2024

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Location

Zoom

Calendar

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Promotional poster: A gamer sitting in front of a monitor. Below that is a photo of Dr. Dez Brown. At the top is the event title, and below that is info about the event (same info on this page).
Promotional poster: A gamer sitting in front of a monitor. Below that is a photo of Dr. Dez Brown. At the top is the event title, and below that is info about the event (same info on this page).

* Please note: Dr. Brown's talk will be hosted via Zoom only. Please register to receive the Zoom link.

 

Join us for a talk by Dr. Dez Brown exploring the anti-Black aesthetics within three popular video games in the Sherlock Holmes series and their effects on Black gamers.

Historically, the Black community has been largely ostracized from on-screen representation in the video game genre. On-screen inclusion was limited to sparse portrayals of anti-Black, one-dimensional caricatures. In recent years, there has been a noted increase in the prominence of Black characters due to demands for authentic and multifaceted Black life in this genre; however, this is often solely through narratives of slavery, violence, and domination underneath the guise of historical accuracy.

In this presentation, Dr. Brown will discuss the anti-Black aesthetics illustrated within three popular video games in the Sherlock Holmes series: Crimes and Punishments (2014), The Devil’s Daughter (2016), and Chapter One (2021). They will consider the implications of historical accuracy used as a moral impetus to showcase Black life and their effects on Black gamers. In conversation with Jared Sexton, Saidiya Hartman, and other scholars in the fields of Afropessimism and Black feminism, they will argue that these violent representations of Black people are the result of the concurrent history of slavery in the U.S. as well as the spectacle of Black suffering in the U.S. and abroad.

Accessibility:

  • Captions will be enabled on Zoom.

Please contact us with any questions or access requests: wlrc@uic.edu or (312) 413-1025.

 

Contact

WLRC
(312) 413-1025
wlrc@uic.edu

Date posted

Apr 3, 2024

Date updated

Apr 17, 2024

Speakers

Dez Brown | PhD Candidate, English | University of Illinois Chicago

Dr. Dez Brown (they/he) is a Black queer nonbinary Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, scholar, and sjw, born and raised in Flint, MI. They are the winner of the Betty Stuart Smith Award from the University of Illinois Chicago, where they will graduate with their doctorate in English with concentrations in Black Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies in Spring 2024. Their professional and research specializations include poetry; Black poetics; queer and trans studies; Afropessimism; and popular and digital culture, with special attention to video games. Brown was a Quarterfinalist in the 5th Annual Screencraft Screenwriting Fellowship, often claiming to have been born with a poem written across their chest. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Cream City Review, swamp pink, Four Way Review, Foglifter Magazine, and the anthology A Garden of Black Joy: Global Poetry from the Edges of Liberation and Living, among others.

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