The concept of world and the practice of world creation have been with us since antiquity, but they are now achieving unequalled prominence. In this timely anthology of subcreation studies, an international roster of contributors come together to examine the rise and structure of worlds, the practice of world-building, and the audience's reception of imaginary worlds. Including essays written by world-builders A.K. Dewdney and Alex McDowell and offering critical analyses of popular worlds such as those of Oz, The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Minecraft, Revisiting Imaginary Worlds provides readers with a broad and interdisciplinary overview of the issues and concepts involved in imaginary worlds across media platforms.

About the Author

Mark J. P. Wolf is a Full Professor and Department Chair of the Communication Department at Concordia University, Wisconsin. His books include Abstracting Reality, The Medium of the Video Game, Virtual Morality, The Video Game Explosion, Myst and Riven: The World of the D'ni, Before the Crash, Encyclopedia of Video Games, Building Imaginary Worlds, The LEGO Studies Reader, and Video Games Around the World. With Bernard Perron, he is the co-editor of The Video Game Theory Reader 1 and 2, and the Landmark Video Game book series.

Reviews

"A 'mixed bag' in the best possible sense, Revisiting Imaginary Worlds offers a highly diverse collection of intriguing perspectives on the theory, history, practice, and reception of world-building across media that complements the editor's earlier monograph Building Imaginary Worlds exceptionally well." -Jan-Noel Thon, author of Transmedial Narratology and Contemporary Media Culture

"To understand why fictional realms become so deeply entangled with our culture and how materials, characters, and symbolic implications converge within them, the concept of subcreation again proves its value, also offering a distinct groundwork within the emergent scholarly field of world building." -Marta Boni, University of Montreal, editor of World Building. Transmedia, Fans, Industries

Book Information
ISBN 9780367873974
Author Mark Wolf
Format Paperback
Page Count 376
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g