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Autoethnographic Denial: The Disavowal of Game Studies’ Most Fundamental Methodology and the Struggle for Its Realization

  • Stephanie C. Jennings (author)
Chapter of: Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be(pp. 433–466)

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Metadata
TitleAutoethnographic Denial
SubtitleThe Disavowal of Game Studies’ Most Fundamental Methodology and the Struggle for Its Realization
ContributorStephanie C. Jennings (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.53288/0441.1.20
Landing pagehttps://punctumbooks.com/titles/historiographies-of-game-studies-what-it-has-been-what-it-could-be/
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
CopyrightStephanie C. Jennings
Publisherpunctum books
Published on2025-07-25
Long abstractDespite the centrality of autoethnography in the historical emergence of critical video game analysis—and despite recognition from game studies scholars that players’ situated subjectivities and embodied experiences are inextricable aspects of gameplay—the field of game studies has developed an enduring habit of disparaging the use of autoethnography. The purpose of this chapter, then, is to examine the history of autoethnography in the field: so pivotal, and yet so denied. I chronicle the ways that the field has largely abstained from conducting autoethnographies, even as autoethnography’s increasingly undeniable significance continues to emerge in the generative experiential-intellectual knowledges from marginalized scholars’ critical, political storytelling. The chapter is, itself, an autoethnography. Interspersed throughout my analysis, I recount my own history with autoethnographic research, which started in denial. I use this story to emphasize the need for future scholarship that more thoroughly explicates how to conduct autoethnographies pertaining to videogames and gaming cultures. And in conclusion, I urge that the field continue to build upon the rich and growing body of autoethnographic research; to develop novel approaches to autoethnography that contest the dominant standards of academic scholarship and publishing practices; and to embrace autoethnography as a uniquely defining feature of the field.
Page rangepp. 433–466
Print length34 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Stephanie C. Jennings

(author)

Stephanie C. Jennings (she/her) is an independent scholar and writer.