CHRONOTOPE IN WESTERN ROLE-PLAYING VIDEO GAMES: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE GENERATION OF NARRATIVE MEANING THROUGH ITS DIALOGICAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HEROIC EPIC AND FANTASY A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Eduardo Barbosa Lima Department of Social Sciences, Media and Communication Brunel University London December 2016 Chronotope in Western Role-Playing Video Games: An investigation of the generation of narrative meaning through its dialogical relationship with the Heroic Epic and Fantasy Eduardo Barbosa Lima (1234263) Abstract The development of the video game industry and the increasing popularity of the medium as a form of entertainment have led to significant developments in the discipline of game studies and a growing awareness of the cultural significance of video games as cultural artefacts. While much work has been done to understand the narrative aspect of games, there are still theoretical gaps on the understanding of how video games generate their narrative experience and how this experience is shaped by the player and the game as artefact. This interdisciplinary study investigates how meaning is created in Western Role Playing Games (WRPGs) video games by analysing the narrative strategies they employ in relation to those commonly used in Heroic Epic and Fantasy narratives. It adopts the Bakhtinian concepts of chronotope and dialogue as the main theoretical tools to examine the creation and integration of narratives in WRPGs with a special focus on the time-space perspective. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Dragon Age Origins were chosen as representatives of the WRPG video game genre while Beowulf and the tale of Sigurd, as it appears in the Poetic Edda and the Volsung Saga, were chosen as representatives of the Heroic Epic poetic tradition. References are also made to Fantasy novels, especially the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. Textual analysis along with some techniques employed by researchers working with visual methodologies and compositional interpretation were used to analyse relevant aspects of the texts and games. The findings suggest that intertextual and genre materials considerably shape the narrative of WRPGs and exercise a profound dialogical effect on the ludonarrative harmony of the games investigated through their interaction with the game world and gameplay systems. This relationship is most visible in the chronotopic (time-space) aspect of the chosen games. The findings also suggest that Epic material dialogically orients the WRPG players‘ experience and adjusts their expectations and understanding of the fictional world. This study as well as the refining of chronotopic analytical tools to encompass chronotopic awareness, transportation, and flow may be of use in further chronotopic investigations of different games, literary genres, and/or other media artefacts. 2 Chronotope in Western Role-Playing Video Games: An investigation of the generation of narrative meaning through its dialogical relationship with the Heroic Epic and Fantasy Eduardo Barbosa Lima (1234263) Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 5 List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. 6 Acknowledgement ..................................................................................................................... 7 Author‘s Declaration .................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 1 - Overview............................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Research focus and research question................................................................................ 11 1.3 The scope of this study ...................................................................................................... 13 1.4 Clarification of terms ......................................................................................................... 14 1.4.1 Core concepts .............................................................................................................. 14 1.4.2 Literature related terms ............................................................................................... 15 1.4.3 Game Studies related terms ........................................................................................ 17 1.5 Structure of the thesis......................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 2 - Literature Review .............................................................................................. 22 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 22 2.2 General concepts and theories ........................................................................................... 23 2.2.1 Stories, narratives, generation of meaning, and archetype ......................................... 23 2.2.2 Mimetic and fantastic imagination .............................................................................. 27 2.2.3 Suspension of disbelief and secondary belief ............................................................. 29 2.3 Concepts and theoretical approaches in Literary Studies .................................................. 31 2.3.1 Structuralism ............................................................................................................... 33 2.3.2 Post-structuralism and deconstruction ........................................................................ 35 2.4 Bakhtinian concepts and analytical approach .................................................................... 38 2.4.1 Dialogue ...................................................................................................................... 39 2.4.2 Distancing ................................................................................................................... 46 2.4.3 Chronotope .................................................................................................................. 47 Narrative chronotope .................................................................................................. 48 Genre and chronotope ................................................................................................. 50 Chronotopic awareness, transportation, and flow ...................................................... 53 2.5 Concepts and theoretical approaches in Game Studies...................................................... 55 2.5.1 Time and space in videogames ................................................................................... 57 2.5.2 Immersion, presence, and engagement ....................................................................... 61 2.5.3 Bakhtinian informed game research ........................................................................... 64 2.6 Forms of storytelling .......................................................................................................... 65 2.6.1 The Heroic Epic .......................................................................................................... 66 2.6.2 Chivalric Romance ...................................................................................................... 70 2.6.3 The Fantasy Novel ...................................................................................................... 72 2.6.4 Games, video games, and WRPGs ............................................................................. 76 2.7 Research methodology ....................................................................................................... 82 2.7.1 Research methods ....................................................................................................... 83 2.7.2 Analytical stages ......................................................................................................... 85 3 Chronotope in Western Role-Playing Video Games: An investigation of the generation of narrative meaning through its dialogical relationship with the Heroic Epic and Fantasy Eduardo Barbosa Lima (1234263) Chapter 3 - Chronotope: Time in Narrative ....................................................................... 89 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 89 3.2 Time in narrative ................................................................................................................ 89 3.3 Time in the Heroic Epic ..................................................................................................... 95 3.4 Time in Fantasy................................................................................................................ 106 3.5 Time in WRPGs ............................................................................................................... 111 3.5.1 Time in Skyrim .........................................................................................................