The Journal of Historical Fictions
published by the Historical Fictions Research Network
Volume 6, Issue 1: “Sexy business and queer detecting: Playful subversions of Victorian dynamics of oppression” by Sarah Beyvers and Sarah Faber, pp. 3-25, 2025
Abstract
Video games that depict historical facets of marginalisation in the Victorian Age provide spaces to engage with the dynamics of oppression, motivate players to use existing rules creatively, and to innovate new ways of resistance against both the rules of the game and the oppression they illustrate. Highlighting the overlap of literal and structural queernessin case studies of two neo-Victorian games, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One (2021) and Max Gentlemen Sexy Business! (2020), this article traces how games that reimagine the Victorian era encourage players to engage critically with historical social structures through playful attitudes and what Bo Ruberg calls ‘queer play’.
Keywords: queer play, critical play, counterhegemonic play, critical historiography, marginalisation, LGBTQIA+ games, Victorian video games, indie games, transgressive play, resistance gaming, Sherlock Holmes
Historical Fictions Research Network 