. This essay interrogates how the novel tackles cultural perceptions of ASD and how Sam’s representation interlinks with the novel’s representation of neoliberalism. It will primarily argue that Stuart’s depiction of Alex and Sam’s performances as avatars both critiques and simultaneously subscribes to aspects of post-millennial neoliberalist society, engaging specifically with dispossession, self-help culture, career-centricity, and the focus on “family” (Stephen Crossley, 2016).
View More Affect, Minecraft and Neoliberal Techno-Utopianism in Keith Stuart’s “A Boy Made of Blocks”Author: Holly Parker
Holly Parker is an Associate Lecturer and PhD researcher at the University of Lincoln. She has a book chapter on A Boy Made of Blocks in the edited collection Ready Reader One: The Stories we Tell About, With and Around Videogames, ed. by Mike Sell and Megan Amber Condis, under contract with Louisiana State University Press. She also works as a guest editor for Alluvium. Her current research focuses on affect and performance in twenty-first century fiction, forming an interdisciplinary study across affect theory and performance studies that rests on the cultural backdrop of neoliberalism and postmillennial digital culture.