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Artifacts Of Empire: Orientalism And Inner-Texts In Tomb Raider (2013), Kristin M.S. Bezio

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This chapter examines Crystal Dynamics' 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, arguing that the game makes use of intertextual references to the original Core Design Tomb Raider (1996) and popular culture archaeology in an effort to revise the original franchise's exploitative depiction of both Lara Croft and archaeological practise. Framed by a theoretical understanding of Orientalism (Said, 1979) and the constraints of symbolic order (Kristeva, 1986a) and the recognition that video games in general and the Tomb Raider franchise in specific are "games of empire" (Dyer-Witheford & de Peuter, 2009), it becomes clear that the 2013 Tomb Raider ultimately fails to escape …