Trauma in Autobiographical Videogames: The Case of Father and I (2012)

Although trauma and memory have been a focus of cultural studies for more than twenty years now, few scholarly works focus on medium-specific representations of trauma and even fewer comment on the tendency of trauma representations to be autobiographical in the 21st Century. The present paper is pa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Loredana Bercuci
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Bucharest 2018-04-01
Series:Intersections
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.intersections-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Loredana-Bercuci-article.pdf
Description
Summary:Although trauma and memory have been a focus of cultural studies for more than twenty years now, few scholarly works focus on medium-specific representations of trauma and even fewer comment on the tendency of trauma representations to be autobiographical in the 21st Century. The present paper is part of a larger project that seeks to tackle precisely these issues. Here, I look at the representation of trauma in a relatively recent autobiographical video game, namely Vince Caballero’s Father and I (2012). I argue that the use of trauma as a trope adds a further narrative demand to video games, making it even more difficult to negotiate the specificities of the medium. At the same time, however, it functions as a stock story that enhances the narrative dimensions of the game under discussion.
ISSN:2068-3472
2068-3472