Pande, Rukmini
(2025)
“You Can Be Lara Croft Too!” : examining the extractive colonial logics of Tomb Raider Fan tourism in Cambodia.
Feminist Media Histories, 11 (3).
pp. 86-107.
ISSN 2373-7492
![[thumbnail of You Can Be Lara Croft Too_Tomb Raider Fan Tourism in Cambodia.pdf]](https://pure.jgu.edu.in/style/images/fileicons/text.png)
You Can Be Lara Croft Too_Tomb Raider Fan Tourism in Cambodia.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to Repository staff only
Download (295kB) | Request a copy
Abstract
Cultural heritage has been substantively identified as a vital motivator for tourism. An additional significant driver of visitor interest to specific historical locations is the influence of media properties. Among these, the influence of video games is an emerging area of scholarly interest. However, scholarship has not yet adequately addressed the troubling implications of player/tourists being incentivized by game mechanics to “replay” historical colonial extractive logics on real world spaces. As postcolonial video game scholars have pointed out, such game mechanics form the foundation of many adventure-based game franchises. Their extension to real world locations, potentially disrupting the possibility of acknowledgment of colonial histories by visitors, has serious implications. This article addresses this gap by examining the ways in which the influential Tomb Raider franchise continues to affect how visitors to the Angkor Wat Hindu-Buddhist temple complex in Cambodia choose to re/present the site in their personal tourism narratives.
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Keywords: | Tomb Raider | video game studies | fan studies | postcolonial studies | tourism studies | colonialism | fandom racism |
Subjects: | Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Social Sciences (General) |
JGU School/Centre: | Jindal School of Liberal Arts & Humanities |
Depositing User: | Mr. Luckey Pathan |
Date Deposited: | 14 Aug 2025 12:41 |
Last Modified: | 14 Aug 2025 12:41 |
Official URL: | https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2025.11.3.86 |
URI: | https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/10003 |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year