Date of Submission

Spring 2016

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Literature

Project Advisor 1

Adhaar Noor Desai

Abstract/Artist's Statement

This senior project applies the tools of traditional literary analysis to video games. Through this frame, it seek to foster a type of video game literacy amongst its readers. Each chapter corresponds to what it’s author sees as a foundational aspect of literature. The first chapter, ‘Perspective’, puts Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness into contact with The Last of Us (2013), and explores how each work uses medium specific mechanisms to alienate their protagonists. The second chapter, ‘Setting’, surveys the relationship between Thief (1999) and Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. The final chapter, ‘Characterization’, investigates the unique potential offered by the video game Firewatch (2016) as an example of this interactive medium’s ability to collaboratively build verisimilar characters. It concludes by making an argument for two separate, but connected, fields of video game study.

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Open Access

Creative Commons License

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