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The Library will look into your claim and consider taking remedial action upon receipt of the written requests. Pao Yue-kong Library, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong http://www.lib.polyu.edu.hk WAR AND WILL: A MULTISEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF METAL GEAR SOLID 4 CARMAN NG Ph.D The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2017 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Department of English War and Will: A Multisemiotic Analysis of Metal Gear Solid 4 Carman Ng A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2016 For Iris and Benjamin, my parents and mentors, who have taught me the courage to seek knowledge and truths among warring selves and thoughts. Abstract Videogames have emerged as a pivotal medium and concept-creating metaphor of the digital present. Proposing two analytical frameworks for multisemiotic and gameplay analyses, this research re-conceptualizes videogames as interfaces that afford player enactment to critically and ethically engage with posthumanism and the military-entertainment complex in the nonhuman turn. Blending critique and empirical analyses, this study investigates the globally recognized, war- themed Japanese action-adventure stealth videogame series Metal Gear Solid (Kojima 1998 ongoing) as an exemplary case study of (a) how videogames reflect and inspire contemporary sociopolitical and cultural issues; (b) ways that videogames create meaning and (pre)mediate discourses and realities of war; (c) how they (re)shape player subjectivity and agency, problematizing representations and materiality of the posthuman; and (d) the medium specificity of videogames as result and catalyst of intermedial interactions, innovating interface designs and forms of transmedial storytelling, with particular connections with such media as film. Game scholarship tends to involve two interacting paradigms without examining their interacting dynamics. Micro-analyses of form and content remains a focus over macro-accounts of transmedial worlding, within a broad context of networked transnational production, consumption, and policies. Building an empirical foundation to examine such under-theorized dynamics, this study combines socio- semiotic multimodality, digital annotations, procedural rhetoric, unit operations, and film analysis to investigate how motifs of war and posthumanism procedurally and semiotically manifest in gameplay and cinematic cutscenes. This counters flawed notions of videogames as moving images and justly theorizes the medium as enactment-driven ensembles that posthumanize player subjectivities and allegorize logics of contemporary societies of control, characterized by distributed i modulation of information and subjectivities, while reflecting current trends of mixed-method qualitative inquiries in the digital humanities. I conduct close analyses of the narrative-concluding Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (MGS4, Kojima 2008), in contrast with its postmodern prequel MGS2: Sons of Liberty (2001), the Cold War-based MGS3: Snake Eater (2004), and the latest MGSV: The Phantom Pain (2015) centered on war economy. Analyses elaborate how the series uses distinct anti-nuclear rhetoric, self-reflexivity, subversive gameplay, and heterodox portrayal of the United States as a militarized global power to critique videogames as a cultural niche that perpetuates and potentially resists the military-entertainment complex. Specifically, I critique the series from perspectives on cloning and biopolitics, networks among human and nonhuman agents, and war economy; exposing how the postmodern military featured reflects movements of contemporary politics and warfare dynamics from Cold War through the war economy present/future. My work tackles posthumanism as bodily metamorphoses, allegories of control, and changing philosophical-ethical projects, tied to clusters of u/dystopian discourses and forms of player enactment. I urge for semiotic and procedural literacies to further a deeper ontological and epistemological understanding of videogames as a medium capable of tackling issues of aesthetic, sociocultural, and ideological importance. In contribution, my research contends that critical play as design crucially rethinks and resists prevalent discourses of capitalism and war. Such orientation draws strength from ambivalence as critical strategy to dehabituate wargaming and relevant media experiences, reveal our complicity, and nurture ethical questioning to advance progressive politics. ii Acknowledgements Pursuing doctoral research is a journey of solo brain-bashing and insightful discussions that twisted time-space and altered worldviews, for me. For over three years, I have had valuable opportunities to learn from many inspiring minds and set foot in the kaleidoscopic cultures of Germany and the United States through three scholarships: Erasmus Mundus MULTI Mobility Scholarship (October 2013 – March 2014); DAAD Short-Term Research Grant (May – October 2015); and the Fulbright-RGC Hong Kong Research Scholar Award (October 2015 – June 2016). Supported by the Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme (2012 – 2014), I briefly researched comics with Prof. John Bateman and Dr. Janina Wildfeuer at Universität Bremen; and my advisor in Hong Kong. For these I am grateful. First, I thank my dissertation review committee. Prof. Christian Matthiessen has year after year stayed true to creating transdisciplinary knowledge with a humble generosity. To assume the role of Committee Chair when dissertation defense arrangement was well under way requires intellect, diligence, and willingness to engage with ambiguity, Prof. Aditi Bhatia embodies all these qualities gracefully in person and her work. Advising me since 2010 (MA), Dr. Francisco Veloso has witnessed and brought guidance, insight, and friendship to my passage from a rookie to a tweener affirmed in her abilities to think, question, and act accountably. His unwavering support for any scholarships and opportunities, however intimidating, is heart- warming. My work also sharpened from Prof. Foong Ha Yap’s review. Her tender, keen observance has made a lasting influence since my first dabble in Critical Discourse Analysis. I thank Prof. Isabel Capeloa Gil and Prof. Anthony Fung for their critical readership and provocative questions, which brought clarity and motivation for further research. iii My time at the University of Chicago and Freie Universität Berlin proved life changing. The research stays re-directed my project toward justly engaging videogames as critical interfaces. Prof. Patrick Jagoda, my advisor, carried forward an intellectual rigor as sharp as hot knives and gentle openness to all things. I hope to emanate the many admirable qualities in him when the time comes that I advise the younger ones. Patrick made my experience in Chicago a reality. I am eternally grateful to have learned from Prof. W. J. T. Mitchell, a founding father of fields whose genuineness, compassion, and courage percolate into each encounter, ranging from philosophical ponderings of madness and media aesthetics to an honest conversation on vulnerability. Twice I went to Berlin and learned with Prof. Elena Giannoulis and Prof. Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit. They introduced me to the vibrant field of Japanese Studies, motivated me to think critically, and expanded my perception of research possibilities across literary and linguistic sciences. Elena, as my chief advisor the second time, devoted even more care to my thoughts and well-being. I think of our discussions over (or about) Germknödel and gummy bears fondly. An assemblage of friends and academics has supported me in my journey as a budding scholar and person: Dr. Christina DeCoursey, Derrick Jason Stone, Brad Powers, Daniel Jade Levia, Zahira Amin, Aisling McDonnell, Mark O’Leary, Daniel Recktenwald, Toh Weimin, Rohit Chandragiri, Anupam Bhandari, Aayush Yadav, and Roland Lutz. Specifically, I wish to thank Christina. From our first theater production, our efforts into editing a volume from the first international conference on language arts in Hong Kong, and our many discussions on meaning and life, I learned from her a fierce curiosity, discipline, and persistence that drive every endeavor I take on. Her belief in me stays strong. Dr. Olli Tapio Leino has broadened my mind disproportionately to a short semester, where I indulged in philosophical ponderings over computer iv games and new media art. His critical awareness, humility, and humor proves deeply inspiring. I am fortunate to have Derrick and Brad as my confidants, who listen, advise, and share with me