A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book

Vows of blööd and flesh: The aggrieved entitlements of fascist
ideology in Disco Elysium





AuthorsKolehmainen, Pekka M.

EditorsVic Castro & Nicholas Kiersey

PublisherRoutledge

Publication year2025

Book title The World Politics of Disco Elysium

First page 173

Last page188

eISBN978-1-03-262034-3

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4324/9781032620343-15

Web address https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032620343-15


Abstract

Disco Elysium’s portrayal of fascist ideology posits it as an ideology of resentment and suffering, often as harmful to its adherents as to those they resent. Through the player character’s interactions with fascism as an ideology and its four in-game representatives—Jean Luc Measurehead, René Arnoux, Gary, the cryptofascist, and Racist Lorry Driver—the game makes an argument about how individual grievances fuel the allure of fascist ideology and how they become ideologized through its basic tenets. My chapter explores this process of ideologization through key works of studies into radical right-wing ideology, most notably Michael Kimmel’s concept of aggrieved entitlement—a sense of ownership over the world, which upon becoming denied turns into humiliation, bitterness, and resentment. My question is what does the game actually say about not just fascism in particular but reactionary right-wing ideologies in general and how it uses its lens of humor to expose the rhetoric and inner logics of these ideologies. I argue that while the game’s treatment of many other ideologies is strongly rooted in the post-Soviet Estonian experience, its approach to reactionary right-wing ideologies is largely transnational, with each of the four representatives portraying a different face of fascism.



Last updated on 2025-04-09 at 12:54