A presentation composed by Nicholas A. Rose and Nicolaus Miller regarding the topic of video games and literacy.
Presented at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, October 2013 for the course English 331: Film and Media in the Secondary Classroom.
2.
Intertextuality
“a model where literary structure does not simply exist but is
generated in relation to another structure. What allows a dynamic
dimension to structuralism is his conception of the ‘literary word’ as an
intersection of textual surfaces rather than a point (a fixed meaning), as
a dialogue among several writings: that of the writer, the addressee
(or the character) and the contemporary or earlier cultural context”
(Kristeva 35-36, alluding to Bakhtin)
In other words, “text” is any site within our culture where we exercise
relational processes and practices of interpretation (Elias)
3.
Professor of literacy studies at Arizona State
University
What Video Games Have To Teach Us About
Learning and Literacy (2003) and follow-ups
Combines situated learning principles with…
<GASP>… video games?
4.
Learning is not an individual act but a social
one as well (7).
Situated cognition – Learning “embedded in
(situated within) a material, social, and
cultural world” (9)
New Literacy Studies
Connectionism – recognizing patterns
5.
Some learning has little contextualized
meaning (ex. upper level math courses)
Embodied experience (activity vs. passivity)
Active learning (back to intertextuality)
Identity*
6.
Projective identity- an intersection of the virtual and realworld identities of a player; “seeing the virtual character as
one’s own project in the making, a creature [imbued] with a
certain trajectory through time defined by… aspirations for
what [the player wants] that character to be and become
(within the limitations of [his/her] capacities…and within the
resources the game designer has given me” (50)
7. Question of approaching this kind of materialHOW?
Using situated meanings and the design grammar
of the game to understand and produce appropriate
meanings and actions (33)
The player is an “active problem solver” encouraged
to recognize his/her mistakes not as drawbacks but
as “opportunities for reflection and learning” (36)
8.
Based on Steven Heath’s theory of narrative
space in film (1981)
Player as director (game = movie): “The
presentation of cinematic space is a process of
selective framings and editing that produce ‘gaps’
or jumps in the continuity of the flow of images”
(referring to Heath’s theory of narrative space)- the
player controlling the camera allows for a similar
kind of control
9.
Games emphasize the act of doing, what Espen Aarseth calls
“ergodic” action, a type of “nontrivial effort [that] is required
to allow the reader to traverse the text” (Krzywinska 207).
Games adhere to a binary structure, a rhythm of activity and
inactivity that “ties into and consolidates formally a theme
often found in horror in which supernatural forces act on,
and regularly threaten, the sphere of human agency” (207)
11.
Strategy (SimCity, The Sims –sociology,
economics)
Fighting (Mortal Kombat, BlazBlue – backstories,
characterization)
FPS (First-person shooters) Half-Life; Aliens:
Colonial Marines- adaptation, tie-ins
TPS (Third-person shooters) Gears of War, Dead
Space- full cinematic experiences
Platformers (Banjo-Kazooie, Beyond Good and
Evil)- from side-scrollers to fully realized 3D
bringing symbolism, some archetypes
12. Games and Film:
Games AS Film
Video games have
become nearly (if
not entirely)
synonymous with
film in their
production,
mechanics, and
consumption in
our culture.
13.
Gears of War 2 (Epic, 2008) Scene: Maria's
Death
The Walking Dead: Lee's Fate
Twisted Metal: Black - Darkside- Prologue
Twisted Metal: Black- Middle
Twisted Metal: Black – Ending
Mass Effect 2: Mordin's Loyalty Mission
14.
Elias, Amy. “Critical Theory and Cultural Studies.” English Studies: An Introduction
to the Discipline(s). Ed. Bruce McComiskey. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2006. 223-275. Print.
Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and
Literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Print.
Hobbs, Renee. Digital and Media Literacy: Connecting Culture and Classroom.
California: Corwin, 2011. Print.
Kristeva, Julie. “Word, Dialogue, and Novel.” Trans. Seán Hand and León S.
Roudiez. The Kristeva Reader. Ed. Toril Moi. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986. 34-61.
Print.
Krzywinska, Tanya. “Hands-On Horror.” ScreenPlay:
Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. New York:
Wallflower Press, 2002. 206-224. Print.
15.
Tong, Wee Liang and Marcus Cheng Chye Tan. “Vision and Virtuality: The
Construction of Narrative Space in Film and Computer Games.” ScreenPlay:
Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. New
York: Wallflower Press, 2002. 98-109.