earticle

영어

This study, based on the notions of imperialist objecthood, ‘idol’, ‘totem’ and ‘fetish’ of W. J. T. Mitchell, examined the trailer of Homefront, a typical FPS game, and analyzed how contemporary powers, using digital media, otherize countries in conflict with them; how they set up the enemy in virtual world (North Korea in Homefront) as an ‘idol’ to destroy, that is, an object of iconoclasm; and why the worldview in the game was reversed, different from that of real world. Just like the process of colonization, in which imperialist powers first labelled the target land as primitive and uncivilized, and represented it as an ‘idol’ to abolish, and justified their conquest, contemporary powers otherize North Korea as an ‘idol’ subject to iconoclasm. Contrary to real world, the enemy in the game is represented as an aggressor with extremely superior forces and posing an imminent threat to the Western powers. The worldview is intentionally set to strengthen the legitimacy of iconoclasm by maximizing the enemy threat. For this purpose, the lines between reality and virtuality are blurred by inserting a real news footage in the first scene of the trailer.