ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 focuses on narrative involvement/immersion in RH+TRPG+LARP historical storyworlds. The key heritage studies concept for this (and the next) chapter is Authorised Heritage Discourse, coined by Laurajane Smith. It assumes all the official grand narratives about a nation’s past are discursively constructed by the hegemonic (usually governmental) structures as Foulcaudian knowledge/power. Role-played enactment of historical places, personas, and events inevitably engages with the larger heritage-, memory-, and identity-related narratives. As discussed in this chapter, of the three media, the hegemonic AHD tends to find its expression mainly in Battle RH, as it dutifully reenacts a national history in a commemorative way. It is no coincidence that RH often finds support in state-controlled institutions, and from conservative, patriotic, and religious circles.
