Narrative Redemption: A Commentary of McGregor's Narrative Justice

Abstract:Rafe McGregor's Narrative Justice provides a powerful argument for the merit of an education by and through aesthetics as a way of challenging criminal inhumanity. As a work at the intersection of critical criminology and philosophy, it is a challenging and thoughtful articulation of the criminological imagination. Ultimately, McGregor's argument highlights the possibility of a political education through aesthetic engagement. The exemplary narratives that McGregor uses in his book are varied and richly evocative. My commentary on the book is in keeping with this spirit and suggests an exemplary narrative of my own from the medium of video games as a way of both complementing McGregor's book and outlining its merits, as well as proposing a future line of study. With focus on Red Dead Redemption 2, I argue for the importance of considering a given narrative's context of production and historicity.