"Gore Galore: Literary Theory and Computer Games" summary

 In the article "Gore Galore: Literary Theory and Computer Games" by Geoffrey Rockwel, the author analyses possible approaches to computer games from the point of view of literary criticism and proposes a new framework for literary criticism.

Firstly, he provides a brief history of computer games as was in 2002. After that, he provides
arguments for the development of literary criticism applied to videogames.

Rockwel then proceeds to discuss three different points of view on videogames. He starts with psychological approach, which views computer games as, often destructive, culture phenomenon. He continues by presenting a literary view on videogames, which, he points out, sadly only considers text based games. The author then moves onto the hypertext approach, which views computer games as a kind of hypertext, a synergy of different genres and texts. Rockwell proceeds by refuting all these approaches on various grounds and proposes his own framework for videogame criticism.

He proposes to use Bakhtin's framework for hypertext criticism, broaden it and apply to computer games. He explains that this method will use the following criteria when analysing videogames: the types of media and fiction integrated into the mulrimedia game and the ways they are integrated into the whole; the types of characters that interact in the videogame with special attention to the interactive possibilities for the player and the ways the player interacts with other characters; and finally the chronotope that provides the unity to the game.

He finishes by restating the idea of using Bakhtin's framework, arguing that it is not a full-developed model, but a good place to start anyway,

I have chosen this article because the title looked intriguing and applicable to my course paper. Though I cannot say that it helped much. I have confused literary criticism with Linguistics, which happened to be two different areas. Also, the date of publishing is only 2002, which in my field is VERY old. However, a few questions still arose:

1) How has the literary game criticism developed in 16 years?
2) Has the attitude to games changed? (the author argues that they are hazardous)
3) Have the games evolved from the point of view of narrative?

Rockwell, Geoffrey. “Gore Galore: Literary Theory and Computer Games.” Computers and the Humanities, vol. 36, no. 3, 2002, pp. 345–358. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30200532.

Comments

  1. Natalia Eydelman21 November 2018 at 02:45

    Hello Andrey, thank you for preparing the summary of this article and explaining your confusion. It can actually be considered as a useful learning moment for you.

    You've both managed to summarize the article with a sufficient amount of detail and take a critical look at its content, which are both necessary when you need to assess critically what you have read.

    You also pointed out correctly that by the standards in this area of research 16 years is a very long period of time. In addition, your analysis has demonstrated your good familiarity with existing research conventions.

    All in all, your work better deserves praise for its content.

    ReplyDelete

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