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.
2021
Mukherjee, Souvik
The Cartography of Virtual Empires: Videogame Maps, Paratexts and Colonialism Book Section
In: Beil, Benjamin; Freyermuth, Gundolf S.; Schmidt, Hanns Christian (Ed.): Paratextualizing Games: Investigations on the Paraphernalia and Peripheries of Play, pp. 75-96, transcript Verlag, 2021, ISBN: 9783839454213.
Links | Tags: Cartography, Colonialism, Paratext, Video game maps, Video games
@incollection{Mukherjee2021c,
title = {The Cartography of Virtual Empires: Videogame Maps, Paratexts and Colonialism},
author = {Souvik Mukherjee},
editor = {Benjamin Beil and Gundolf S. Freyermuth and Hanns Christian Schmidt},
url = {https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839454213-004/html},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839454213-004},
isbn = {9783839454213},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-11-27},
urldate = {2021-11-27},
booktitle = {Paratextualizing Games: Investigations on the Paraphernalia and Peripheries of Play},
pages = {75-96},
publisher = {transcript Verlag},
keywords = {Cartography, Colonialism, Paratext, Video game maps, Video games},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
2020
Švelch, Jan
Paratextuality in Game Studies: A Theoretical Review and Citation Analysis Journal Article
In: Game Studies, vol. 20, iss. 2, 2020, ISSN: 1604-7982.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Citation analysis, Cultural epiphenomena, Intertextuality, Literary theory, Paratext, Paratextuality, Transtextuality
@article{Švelch2020b,
title = {Paratextuality in Game Studies: A Theoretical Review and Citation Analysis},
author = {Jan Švelch},
url = {http://gamestudies.org/2002/articles/jan_svelch},
issn = {1604-7982},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-06-01},
journal = {Game Studies},
volume = {20},
issue = {2},
abstract = {Paratext is a frequently used concept in game studies, mentioned approximately 300 times in the 2010s alone. However, it is not Gérard Genette’s original definition from 1982, but rather the expanded version proposed by Mia Consalvo in 2007 that is used in 70 percent of the 235 analyzed academic texts written in English and published between 1997 and 2019. This article provides a critical theoretical review of current paratextual scholarship and uses citation analysis to quantify the existence and impact of three different approaches to paratext: original, expanded, and reduced. In particular, the expanded framework, which is, according to the analysis, usually attributed to Consalvo, tends to be too all-encompassing by stripping away the original limitation on authorship of paratextual elements and instead resembles the screen studies term cultural epiphenomena. In the article, I highlight the differences between the three frameworks and track the frequency of their use in game studies scholarship. Additionally, I propose a methodological intervention by suggesting to avoid the reductive term “paratext” in the sense of a category of texts, which implies a rigid textual hierarchy. Instead I recommend treating paratextuality as a link between a text and the surrounding socio-historical reality, emphasizing that paratextuality is often accompanied by other (trans)textual qualities.
},
keywords = {Citation analysis, Cultural epiphenomena, Intertextuality, Literary theory, Paratext, Paratextuality, Transtextuality},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Paratext is a frequently used concept in game studies, mentioned approximately 300 times in the 2010s alone. However, it is not Gérard Genette’s original definition from 1982, but rather the expanded version proposed by Mia Consalvo in 2007 that is used in 70 percent of the 235 analyzed academic texts written in English and published between 1997 and 2019. This article provides a critical theoretical review of current paratextual scholarship and uses citation analysis to quantify the existence and impact of three different approaches to paratext: original, expanded, and reduced. In particular, the expanded framework, which is, according to the analysis, usually attributed to Consalvo, tends to be too all-encompassing by stripping away the original limitation on authorship of paratextual elements and instead resembles the screen studies term cultural epiphenomena. In the article, I highlight the differences between the three frameworks and track the frequency of their use in game studies scholarship. Additionally, I propose a methodological intervention by suggesting to avoid the reductive term “paratext” in the sense of a category of texts, which implies a rigid textual hierarchy. Instead I recommend treating paratextuality as a link between a text and the surrounding socio-historical reality, emphasizing that paratextuality is often accompanied by other (trans)textual qualities.