The Joys of Civilization

The Western genre is traditionally defined through depictions of conflict and wilderness at the American frontier. Only rarely does a Western narrative depict images of a lively, flourishing city. Drawing on game studies, urban theory, frontier mythology, and spatial theory, this thesis examines how Rockstar Games's video game Red Dead Redemption 2 breaks with this tradition by integrating the urban space of Saint Denis into a Western narrative to reflect on tensions between wilderness and civilisation, and between progress and nostalgia at the end of the American frontier.Julian Welz is a doctoral researcher at TU Dortmund University. He is currently researching the role of AI in journalism, with a focus on transparency and trust.