Affronter le confinement grâce à la modalisation des défilés de RuPaul’s Drag Race dans Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Abstract

The instant success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the onset of the pandemic, in March 2020, has prompted several researchers to wonder to what extent this game served, for some players, as a remedy for the inconveniences caused by the pandemic, thanks to its modulable environment and avatar favoring, among other things, creative freedom, socialization, and identity expression. This article illustrates these various functions of AC:NH during the pandemic and highlights the game parameters that make them possible, based on a case study, that is the organization, during the lockdown, of a drag queens’ parade, by a player named Jou, in tribute to the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race on his island. This case study is based on the analysis of his phenomenological account and of the material produced during the event in the light of Goffman’s framing theory as well as Goffman’s and Butler’s theories about performances.