Dr.

Pawel Frelik Maria Curie-Skodowska University, Lublin, Poland / University of California, Riverside, 2011-12 Fulbright Senior Fellow

Transitions and Dissolving Boundaries in the Fantastic

2012 GFF conference September 13-16, 2012

Paper proposal:

Abandon Narrative All Ye Who Enter Here Towards the Theory of Science-Fiction Videogames

Videogames have firmly established themselves as stand-alone originals, adaptations from other media, and constitutive elements of storytelling franchises within science fictions version of convergence culture. Their ubiquity is not, unfortunately, accompanied by the recognition of the mediums specificity. While the struggles between ludologists and narratologists seem to belong to the past, most science fiction critics writing about games cannot jettison strong narrative sympathies, perhaps indicative of the general skew of the field, in which complex plotting, ideological concerns, and psychological depth have been elevated as premiere virtues at the expense of the muchderided spectacle. This desire to convince themselves and others of the narrative excellence of the medium informs the accolades of plotting in such games as Deus Ex or Half-Life, whose narratives, I daresay, would make most B-class directors blush from embarrassment. My presentation is grounded in the belief that this narrative fixation is, at least at present, of little interest and of little value in the study of science fiction videogames. This does not mean, however, that science fiction, both as a genre and an interpretative mode, has no use for videogames quite the opposite. While recognizing the importance of the modicum of narrative, I would like to offer alternative ways of looking at science fiction videogames, each of which is more fruitful than narrative approaches. These include the treatment of sf videogames as a species of aesthetic visuality (which, in the first place, rests on the recognition of the non-narrative tradition in sf); the theory of the spectacle, which links to the so-called new cinema of attractions; and the mediums capacity for the simulation of alterity, a quality central to the project of science fiction at large. Consequently, I would like to argue that the narrative focus in the study of science fiction not only is but should be lost in the translation of the genre from literature, film, and television to videogames.

NOTE: If my paper is accepted, I will need a multimedia projector and a screen (I will be bringing my own notebook).

Contact: Dr. Pawel Frelik Department of American Literature and Culture Maria Curie-Skodowska University Pl. Marii Curie-Skodowskiej 4 20-031 Lublin, Poland Email: pawel.frelik@umcs.edu.pl / pawel.frelik@ucr.edu
WWW: http://umcs.lublin.pl/pracownicy.php?id=2414&jezyk=2

Biographical information: Pawe Frelik teaches in the Department of American Literature and Culture at Maria Curie-Skodowska University, Lublin, Poland. His teaching and research interests include science fiction and its visualities, postmodern literature and theory, unpopular culture, and trans-media storytelling. He co-edited three books, including Playing the Universe: Games and Gaming in Science Fiction (2007), and is now working on a book about sf visualities beyond film and television. He is also the editor of the European Journal of American Studies, an editorial consultant for Science Fiction Studies and Extrapolation, and a member of the editorial board of Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds.