REBOOTING BRECHT: REIMAGINING EPIC THEATRE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY Andrea Rice A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2019 Committee: Edgar Landgraf, Advisor Kristie Foell Clayton Rosati ii ABSTRACT Edgar Landgraf, Advisor This thesis highlights the ways in which Bertolt Brecht’s concept of epic theatre pertains to video games, more particularly, visual novels. Digital drama and romance genres (aka “dating simulators”) are known for their “realism” for their ability to make the player feel as if they are interacting with real people. Yet, the deceptiveness is their apparent inability to replicate fully the kinds of social interactions a person can have. The plot structure oftentimes is also rather simplistic: the goal of these games is that the player gets the girl of their dreams, despite any hardships. The horror game Doki Doki Literature Club (2017) by game developer Dan Salvato challenges these genre shortcomings and aspire to make productive, I will argue, a Brechtian notion of epic theatre. Salvato had a love-hate relationship with visual novels. To him, visual novels were nothing more than “cute girls doing cute things” where any tragic backstory or character arc is just another objective the player must overcome to make the girl of their dreams fall in love with them. Like Brecht, Salvato wants to destroy the illusions created by visual novels and shock people into reflecting about such illusions. He created Doki Doki Literature Club, a horror game disguised as a dating simulator, which takes a critical look at issues such a mental health that visual novels often gloss over and treat as plot points in the story. iii I would like to dedicate this thesis to my friends and family, for supporting me throughout the writing process. My cat, Bermuda, who served as my creative muse through much of the process. My rats, Juno and Minerva. And of course, Monika. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Edgar Landgraf of the German department at Bowling Green State University for challenging me to constantly dig deeper and keeping me on the right track. I truly learned a lot from you, and it has been a wonderful year working with you. I would also like to thank Dr. Clayton Rosati of the Telecommunications department for not only being a crucial point of reference for this project, but also for being willing to meet with me on such short notice. You were a great help and it was always great to talk with you and discuss at length some of the theoretical things. I would also like to thank Dr. Kristie Foell of the German department at Bowling Green State University for also agreeing to be a reader for my thesis and being an excellent source of moral support in the writing process. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 Brecht Today ....................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1: THE GAMES WE PLAY: VISUAL NOVELS AND IMMERSION ........... 12 1.1 What is a Visual Novel?........... ........................................................................ 12 1.2 Zero to Hero ..................................................................................................... 24 1.3 Immersion ....................................................................................................... 32 CHAPTER 2: REBOOTING BRECHT: THE BRECHTIAN TECHNIQUES OF DOKI DOKI LITERATURE CLUB! ....................................................................................................... 39 2.1 Can Video Games Be Political? ........................................................................ 39 2.2 Doki Doki Literature Club! ............................................................................. 49 2.3 Scene on Repeat ............................................................................................... 53 2.4 Act Two ........................................................................................................... 56 CONCLUSION: MOVING FORWARD ........................................................................... 64 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 66 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 The three main characters of DHMIS ..................................................................... 7 2 A still from episode four, where oats can be seen in the background ...................... 8 3 A Picture of Hanako From Katawa Shoujo ............................................................. 17 4 The four girls of DDLC .......................................................................................... 19 5 Monika reacting to Natsuki’s joke by breaking the fourth wall ............................... 21 6 A still from the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” ............................ 31 7 The scene in which Clay comes to realize his role in Hannah’s death ..................... 46 8 The menu screen from Doki Doki Literature Club!.............................................. .... 49 9 The same scene in Act One where Sayori is introduced is replaced by a glitch in Act Two................................................................................................................ ............ 55 10 Both Yuri’s and Natsuki’s personalities change drastically in Act Two, which goes unnoticed by the protagonist ................................................................................... 57 11 Monika deleting the remaining two girls from the game ......................................... 60 12 Monika guessing my name (correctly) .................................................................... 61 1 INTRODUCTION The years following WWI were a tumultuous time for Germany between increasing hyperinflation and growing social tensions. Yet, it was also a time of decadence and art flourished with the emergence of new forms and mediums for art, which had been influenced by the development of film and photography. The theatre was no exception. Epic theatre was developed out of the desire to pull society out of its current state of despair and bring about social change. Initially developed by Erwin Piscator (1893-1966), who had been influenced by the Dadaist and German agitprop uses of art to affect social change, it was expanded upon by Bertolt Brecht (1893-1966), who would develop his own theoretical and practical aspects. At the time, the role of the theatre was primarily a place of entertainment that carried with it the potential for instruction. Dramatic theatre however — in the tradition of Aristotle — was too passive of an experience that focused more on pleasure and catharsis rather than presenting a conflict to the audience that could make them reflect on the state of their own society. Aristotelian drama was not equipped to handle this desire as sit wa too passive of an experience for the audience that did not require them to think critically about the social or political conditions of the play they watched. “Critical” in the context of epic theatre refers to the act of creating a working framework which gives the audience a point of reference they can use to identify social injustice within a society that is constantly reinventing its class struggles. Brecht refers to German drama (prior to Hitler) and how the themes of class conflict, war, etc. were presented in a manner that did not readily make their socio-historical underpinnings apparent to the audience. Instead, these themes were used for their aesthetics rather than for the statement that could be made and were only representational of society and social struggles but 2 could not be influenced by society itself.1 The audience was therefore only invited to identify or empathize with the protagonist’s struggle. According to Brecht, the dramatic theatre caused the spectator to say: “Yes, I have felt like that too – Just like me – It’s only natural – It’ll never change – The sufferings of this man appall me, because they are inescapable – That’s great art; it all seems the most obvious thing in the world – I weep when they weep, I laugh when they laugh”. By contrast, the epic theatre spectator would say of the performance: “I’d never have thought of it – That’s not the way – That’s extraordinary, hardly believable – It’s got to stop – The sufferings of this man appall me, because they are unnecessary – That’s great art: nothing obvious in it – I laugh when they weep, I weep when they laugh.”2 Brecht opposed the use of catharsis in theatre believing and instead wanted a theatre form that not only stood apart from dramatic theater, but also used the stage as a platform for instruction. He believed that, rather than art being the mirror that reflected society back to the viewer, art should be the tool used to mold society. During the Weimar years he developed two different modes of theatre: satirical and pedagogical. Brecht’s satirical productions, as seen in pieces such as The Threepenny Opera and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, were meant to be entertaining and appeal to a larger, bourgeois audience. The great irony of these plays is that, while the bourgeoisie found entertainment in these performances, they were still meant to expose the corruption and contradictions in a bourgeois, capitalist society. This was also why