PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University of Tlemcen Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of English Narrative Videogames: The Literary Genre of the Digital Age A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English as a Partial Fulfilment of the Master Degree in Anglo Saxon Literature and Civilization Presented by Supervised by Ms. MEDJAHED Soumia Ikram Dr. MOURO Wassila Mr. MESSAOUDI Marwan Academic Year 2017-2018 PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University of Tlemcen Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of English Narrative Videogames: The Literary Genre of the Digital Age A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English as a Partial Fulfilment of the Master Degree in Anglo Saxon Literature and Civilization Presented by Supervised by Ms. MEDJAHED Soumia Ikram Dr. MOURO Wassila Mr. MESSAOUDI Marwan Academic Year 2017-2018 Dedications To my mother; my sunlight no matter how dark it gets. Soumia To my loved ones. Marwan I | P a g e Acknowledgments Our profound gratitude goes first and foremost to our supervisor Dr. Mouro Wassila, for setting an example of devotion, engagement and kindness. We can safely say that without her faith in us, her precious guidance and constant support and encouragement, this work would not have been completed. Our earnest thanks go to the board of examiners, Dr. Frid Daoudi and Mr. Rahmoun Omar, for devoting their time and patience to examine this work. But beyond that, we are indebted to you for always keeping an open mind and instilling in us a scientific curiosity and critical thinking, we are lucky to have been your students. Thank you ever so much. Our heartfelt thanks go to Ms. Mengouchi Meriem for always opening her door to us whenever we ran into any confusion. Thank you for your contagious passion. We would also like to thank Dr. Berbar Souad for her professionalism and invaluable aid in this research and beyond it. We feel lucky to have had you as a teacher. Special thanks to our teacher Dr. Semmoud Abdellatif for pushing us up this path. Thank you sir for always believing in us and opening our eyes and hearts to this field. Last but not least, we would like to extend our gratitude to anyone who has lent us a helping hand during our academic journey. II | P a g e Abstract This dissertation deals with the stigma-ridden medium that is the videogame and how it relates to the highly-regarded art of literature. While there is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of videogames as major cultural artefacts of our time, they continue to be studied essentially for their behavioral effects or in terms of their ludic aspects and little else. Recently, there has been renewed interest in videogames in the academia prompted by the rapid evolution of the medium especially in its story telling function, increasingly at the core of its design purposes. However, proper examination of its narrative and literary aspects is still lacking relevant substance. Thus, this interdisciplinary research compares the narrative elements of videogames to those of another established art, literature, with the narrative fiction prototype, the novel genre in particular. The central thesis being that the story-driven or narrative videogame can be considered as part of literature for its potential as an interactive, audiovisual as well as literary storytelling medium that effectively tells book-worthy stories. The work is divided into two chapters, the first covers the major theoretical dimensions necessary for the analysis that will be carried on in the second chapter which is as a practical application of literary and narrative theory on videogame narratives, precisely that of the arguably postmodern story of Dear Esther to reach the conclusion that videogames and literature, though seemingly unrelated, are closely linked in both narrative and literariness. III | P a g e Contents DEDICATIONS .............................................................................................. I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................. II ABSTRACT ................................................................................................. III CONTENTS ................................................................................................. IV LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................... VI ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS................................................... VII GENERAL INTRODUCTION ................................................................... I CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE AND THE DIGITAL AGE .............. 2 1.1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 8 1.2. LITERATURE ......................................................................................... 8 1.2.1. Literariness .......................................................................................... 10 1.2.2. Narrative Fiction .................................................................................. 11 1.3. THE NOVEL ......................................................................................... 12 1.3.1. Aspects of the Novel ........................................................................... 13 1.3.1.1. The Story .......................................................................................... 13 1.3.1.2. People ............................................................................................... 14 1.3.1.3. The Plot ............................................................................................. 15 1.3.1.4. Setting ............................................................................................... 16 1.3.1.5. Fantasy .............................................................................................. 17 1.4. THE POSTMODERN NOVEL ............................................................. 17 1.4.1. Postmodernism .................................................................................... 17 1.4.2. Postmodern Story ................................................................................ 18 1.4.3. Postmodern Characterisation .............................................................. 18 1.4.4. Postmodern Plots ................................................................................. 19 1.4.5. Metafiction .......................................................................................... 20 1.4.6. Intertextuality ...................................................................................... 21 1.4.7. Magic Realism ..................................................................................... 22 1.5. LITERATURE AND TECHNOLOGY ................................................ 23 1.5.1. Digital Literature ................................................................................. 24 1.6. VIDEOGAMES ..................................................................................... 26 1.6.1. A Brief Historical Timeline of Videogames ....................................... 30 1.6.2. The Genre Dilemma ............................................................................ 32 1.6.3. Narrative in Videogames ..................................................................... 34 1.7. GAME STUDIES AND THE STUDY OF VIDEOGAMES ............... 36 1.7.1. Textual Approach to Videogame Study .............................................. 39 1.7.2 Narrative Theory and Videogames ...................................................... 41 1.8. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 43 IV | P a g e CHAPTER TWO: A NOVEL ANALYSIS OF NARRATIVE VIDEOGAMES .................................................................................................... 46 2.1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 47 2.2. DEAR ESTHER, THE VIDEOGAME ................................................. 47 2.2.1. Dear Esther’s Controversy .................................................................. 48 2.2.2. Story ..................................................................................................... 51 2.2.3. Characters ............................................................................................ 54 2.2.3.1. Narrator ............................................................................................. 55 2.3.3.2. Esther ................................................................................................ 56 2.2.3.3. Paul ................................................................................................... 58 2.2.3.4. Donnelly ........................................................................................... 58 2.2.3.5. Jakobson ........................................................................................... 60 2.2.3.6. The Hermit ........................................................................................ 62 2.2.3.7. The Island as a Character ................................................................. 63 2.3. LITERARY ASPECTS OF DEAR ESTHER ....................................... 65 2.3.1. Settings ................................................................................................ 65 2.3.1.1. Time .................................................................................................