2023
Mukherjee, Souvik
Postcolonial Videogame Paratexts: Replaying the Minor and the Subaltern from the Fringes Book Section
In: Ensslin, Astrid; Round, Julia; Thomas, Bronwen (Ed.): The Routledge Companion to Literary Media, Routledge, 2023, ISBN: 9781003119739.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Colonial narratives, Minor, Paratext, Postcolonial, Video games
@incollection{Mukherjee2023c,
title = {Postcolonial Videogame Paratexts: Replaying the Minor and the Subaltern from the Fringes},
author = {Souvik Mukherjee },
editor = {Astrid Ensslin and Julia Round and Bronwen Thomas},
url = {https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003119739-40/postcolonial-videogame-paratexts-souvik-mukherjee
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003119739},
doi = {10.4324/9781003119739},
isbn = {9781003119739},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-08-30},
urldate = {2023-08-30},
booktitle = {The Routledge Companion to Literary Media},
publisher = {Routledge},
abstract = {After Mia Consalvo’s original use of ’paratext’, other scholars have explored the concept in terms of how paratextual material can be intrinsic to the (w)reading of the videogame-texts. Rene Glas, in looking at the ‘making-of material’, comments on how they are a ‘part of players’ gaming capital’. Jan Svelch, in his quantitative overview, wishes to ‘minimize the temptation to […] imply their perceived ancillary or subordinate position’. Whether the identification as paratext renders an object subordinate is debatable; however, paratextuality often allows an entry point to analysing ephemeral narratives (such as those in videogames) that are often rendered ‘minor’ when compared with traditional narrative media.
The very notion of the minor, however, should be viewed from multiple perspectives following Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s analysis of Kafka’s work as ‘minor literature’, meaning literature that transforms the notions of the standard. In studying the paratextual videogame narratives as minor literature, however, less attention has been paid to those narratives within the videogame medium that can potentially be presented from subordinate or subaltern viewpoints. In reading such paratexts, colonial narratives that persist in videogames and postcolonial positions are useful in unpacking the fissures wherein the voices of the colonised or those rendered voiceless by the majoritarian narratives of the games can be heard.},
keywords = {Colonial narratives, Minor, Paratext, Postcolonial, Video games},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
After Mia Consalvo’s original use of ’paratext’, other scholars have explored the concept in terms of how paratextual material can be intrinsic to the (w)reading of the videogame-texts. Rene Glas, in looking at the ‘making-of material’, comments on how they are a ‘part of players’ gaming capital’. Jan Svelch, in his quantitative overview, wishes to ‘minimize the temptation to […] imply their perceived ancillary or subordinate position’. Whether the identification as paratext renders an object subordinate is debatable; however, paratextuality often allows an entry point to analysing ephemeral narratives (such as those in videogames) that are often rendered ‘minor’ when compared with traditional narrative media.
The very notion of the minor, however, should be viewed from multiple perspectives following Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s analysis of Kafka’s work as ‘minor literature’, meaning literature that transforms the notions of the standard. In studying the paratextual videogame narratives as minor literature, however, less attention has been paid to those narratives within the videogame medium that can potentially be presented from subordinate or subaltern viewpoints. In reading such paratexts, colonial narratives that persist in videogames and postcolonial positions are useful in unpacking the fissures wherein the voices of the colonised or those rendered voiceless by the majoritarian narratives of the games can be heard.
The very notion of the minor, however, should be viewed from multiple perspectives following Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s analysis of Kafka’s work as ‘minor literature’, meaning literature that transforms the notions of the standard. In studying the paratextual videogame narratives as minor literature, however, less attention has been paid to those narratives within the videogame medium that can potentially be presented from subordinate or subaltern viewpoints. In reading such paratexts, colonial narratives that persist in videogames and postcolonial positions are useful in unpacking the fissures wherein the voices of the colonised or those rendered voiceless by the majoritarian narratives of the games can be heard.