English 187A - Spring, 2011

Topics in Literature & Media

Topic: Video Games and Literature

Class Information

Instructor: Milburn, Colin
CRN: 53200
Time: TR 1:40-3:00
Location: 126 Voorhies/123 Wellman b/u

Description

The video game has now emerged as the dominant media form of contemporary culture. This seminar will examine the video game as a storytelling medium, addressing the formal features that distinguish video games from other narrative texts. At the same time, we will study the relationship of video games to literary fiction in today’s global media ecology, focusing on examples of video games that explicitly establish textual relationships with one or more works of literature, as well as examples of literary texts that establish narrative relationships with video games. We will also investigate the strategic ways that video games, in claiming the status of high art, increasingly position themselves as “interactive fictions” whose characters, plotlines, and gameplay mechanics draw upon, and contribute to, broader literary traditions.

Grading

gameplay project; term paper; in-class presentation; seminar participation

Texts

For the Win, Cory Doctorow
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
1984, George Orwell
Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism, Ian Bogost
Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction, Nick Montfort
Gamer Theory, McKenzie Wark
Bioshock
Half-Life/Half-Life 2
Portal
Zork
The Legend of Zelda